We’re doing something a little different with the Value Add newsletter this week, to commemorate 2025’s NY Tech Week. Welcome back!
PE portcos also saw some full and partial exits last week, as well as some exits-to-be:
KKR exited a minority stake in its investment in Pinnacle Towers, a Canadian telecom tower platform, to BCI. Financial terms were not disclosed.
Honeywell acquired Sundyne — a Colorado-based designer of pumps and gas compressors — from Warburg Pincus for $2.16 billion in cash, reflecting approximately 14.5x multiple on its 2024 EBITDA. Warburg Pincus bought Sundyne from BC Partners and Carlyle in 2020.
Madison Dearborn Partners purchased a significant minority stake in NextGen Healthcare from Thoma Bravo, who took NextGen private in 2023. The exact percentage of the stake sold, and financial terms of the deal, were not disclosed.
Bowmark Capital sold IWSR, a beverage alcohol data and insights provider the firm has owned since 2021, to WGSN, a trend forecasting firm backed by Apax Partners. Financial terms weren’t disclosed.
EnCap sold PowerTransitions, a provider of utility‑scale battery energy storage solutions, to Partners Group for over $450 million.
Meanwhile, portco M&A was in full swing:
KKR's Fortifi Food Processing Solutions acquired Area 52, an automated crustacean-processing equipment maker. Financial terms weren’t disclosed.
Another KKR portco, west coast sports club operator Bay Club, bought 425 Fitness, a Seattle-area fitness club chain, for an unknown sum.
Ahlsell, owned by CVC Capital Partners since its 2019 €1.8 billion ($2 billion) takeover, agreed to acquire the Nordic businesses of personal protection equipment maker Skydda. Financial terms for the deal were not disclosed, though a close is expected this quarter.
ePassi, backed by TA Associates and Warburg Pincus, acquired Zest, a UK-based SaaS provider for employee benefits management founded in 2004, for an unknown sum.
Capitol Imaging Services, a Clearview Capital portco since 2020, bought nine outpatient imaging centers operated by Outpatient Imaging LLC in Georgia, USA. Deal terms were not disclosed.
And there were some key people moves:
Kate Thomas joined CVC Capital as a partner and head of North American distribution. Previously, she served as a managing director at Sixth Street.
Permira hired Jason Wreath, formerly head of data and AI at Amazon Web Services, as a senior advisor for the firm’s healthcare team, a newly created role.
Seth Farbman, founding CMO of Spotify and former Gap exec, joined Advent International to guide marketing operations across its portfolio.
I noticed something new during this year’s NY Tech Week…
NY Tech Week has been led by venture capital firms, specifically a16z, since its inception in 2023. While those firms maintained their dominance in 2025, I also saw a shocking amount of non-venture alternative asset managers taking up leadership roles during the festivities, too.
Events like Global Alts NY, co-hosted by the Managed Funds Association and iConnections, drew crowds. Similarly, ALTSNY, organized by MarketsGroup in partnership with CFA Society NY and CAIA, convened asset managers focused on private markets, hedge funds, and structured finance.
The prominence of these non-VC-led events showcases a new financial narrative taking tech by storm: venture capital is no longer enough to see the build-out of artificial intelligence. As AI moves from experimental applications to critical infrastructure — powering sectors like healthcare, finance, logistics, and defense — it demands a more complex capital stack.
Training large models, building and operating data centers, and ensuring compliance in regulated industries all require long-term, often non-dilutive capital. Traditional VC can’t always provide that. Enter infrastructure and real estate capital to tackle hyper-scale data centers, buyout funds to fund enterprise implementation, and, of course, large banks to finance the ordeals.
The emergence of alts-led, late-stage, and infrastructure-focused investment opportunities offers much-needed diversification in the tech investment landscape. In Q1 2025, AI accounted for nearly 60 percent of venture investment, highlighting how crowded the early-stage market has become.
NY Tech Week 2025 made one thing clear: the future of AI won’t be funded by venture alone. Multiple facets of the capital stack are finding seats at the table The next chapter of innovation will be built on a layered capital stack — one that blends VC ambition with the scale, flexibility, and staying power of alternative finance.
See you next week!