Following a successful fundraising, Axcel has closed its seventh fund, Axcel VII, at an oversubscribed hard cap of EUR 1.3 billion, exceeding its target of EUR 1 billion. The latest fund reflects a 60% increase on its predecessor, Axcel VI, which closed at a hard cap of EUR 807 million in 2021.

Jesper Breitenstein, Head of Investor Relations at Axcel, says: “We’re very pleased with the strong interest in Axcel VII. We’d like to thank our existing investors for their continued support and also welcome our new investors to Axcel.”

Christian Schmidt-Jacobsen, Managing Partner at Axcel, considers the strong support for the latest fund an endorsement of Axcel’s track record of building market leaders within stable sectors.

“With Axcel VII, we’ve raised Axcel’s largest fund to date. There was strong demand for the fund despite the challenging fundraising market – a clear testament to Axcel’s proven value creation approach. We’re excited to leverage the unparalleled sourcing capabilities of our large Nordic investment team, continuing to build market-leading Nordic businesses, and creating profitable growth and lasting value for our investors and all our stakeholders,” says Christian Schmidt-Jacobsen.

Axcel VII’s investor base consists of leading investors from the Nordics, Europe and the Americas, and includes foundations, pension funds, insurance companies, funds of funds and family offices, as well as friends and family.

Focused Nordic mandate
Axcel VII has a focused Nordic mandate and invests in high-performing businesses within Axcel’s four focus sectors: Technology, Business services & Industrials, Healthcare and Consumer. The fund has already made its first four investments: XPartners, a sustainability-focused technical consulting group; Progrits, a software and information services company; tic elkas / Eegholm Group, providers of electrical panels, and most recently a Swedish professional services group.

In terms of investment activity, in addition to the new Axcel VII investments, Axcel continued to realise its investments in 2023, divesting both Delete Group and Mountain Top, and the Nordic private equity group has made more than 70 add-on acquisitions to its platform companies in the past 12 months.

PJT Park Hill acted as Axcel’s global fundraising adviser, while Clifford Chance LLP and Kromann Reumert acted as legal advisers.