Happy Friday. Here’s what we’ve got today…

• A look at KKR’s fight to fix Europe’s largest-ever buyout

• Plus, sponsors compete for Family Dollar deal

Slow fiber:

Europe's largest-ever private equity deal has quickly gone sideways for KKR: FiberCop, the entity created in 2023 through the €22 billion carve-out of Telecom Italia's fixed network business, is starting to raise questions not long after it was purchased.

At a January 16 board meeting, FiberCop management shared updated financial projections showing a €449 million EBITDA shortfall in 2025 relative to the underwriting case agreed to by the company's shareholders, which, alongside KKR, includes F2i, the Italian Treasury, Abu Dhabi Investment Authority, and CPP Investments, with the latter two paying KKR a management fee.

The full revised forecast, which extends through 2028, contemplates a cumulative €2 billion EBITDA deficit vs. plan.

Citing multiple sources in attendance, the Financial Times reports investors in the room were "incensed" upon hearing the update. “I cannot believe that after only a few months from the underwriting of a solid due diligence, numbers are off by 20 percent,” Mamoun Jamai, ADIA's head of digital infrastructure, reportedly said.

FiberCop CEO Luigi Ferraris resigned shortly after the meeting, less than seven months in the role. Ferraris—a tenured executive who led Italy’s state railway and had been hand-picked for the job at FiberCop—had his resignation "unanimously" accepted by the board amid speculation he had started to realize the extent of his telecom knowledge gap.

Chairman Massimo Sarmi (who was appointed by the Italian Treasury) has taken over as interim chief executive. A search for a new CEO is underway, but any candidate will need the approval of both KKR and the Italian Treasury.

According to an internal February 17 memo seen by the Financial Times, his successor must now obtain written approval from KKR-designated executives for all significant operational decisions. One of these controlling executives, currently based in KKR's London office, will join FiberCop directly later this month.

The underlying source of the miss is varied, which might mean a tall hill to climb as KKR and Fiberco try to get back on track.

Original revenue projections now seem overly optimistic against the reality of sluggish customer migration from legacy connections to fiber. Increased competition from other providers has hurt, and FiberCop has increasingly found itself running up against natural roadblocks: rolling out fiber in a country with challenging geography hasn't been easy. In some rural or remote areas of Italy, logistical hurdles have slowed installation progress to a crawl.

Compounding the problem is greater than expected churn among existing customers, which management now projects will push growth of net active lines into negative territory.

Much of the remaining miss is attributable to a carve-out that has proven much more challenging than expected. The complexity of untangling from TIM’s legacy systems and standing up separate network operations has been a headache, and planned cost-cutting measures have taken longer to materialize than hoped for.

The situation has added urgency because mid-term cash dividends had been a key part of the group’s investment thesis. Those now appear to be in jeopardy, absent additional debt financing that would present its own challenges (namely a possible rating downgrade and opposition from Italian authorities).

Management has been told to prepare a revised plan for the board before the end of the month.

One of the short-term fixes is expected to be the postponement of a planned early retirement scheme for around 1,300 employees. This avoids upfront separation cost that would have hit 2025 but means the previously projected cost structure will take even longer to realize.

• The San Francisco 49ers are exploring the sale of a 10 percent stake at a $9 billion valuation, per Bloomberg.

• Apollo Global Management, Sycamore Partners, and Brigade Capital Management are competing to acquire Family Dollar, a discount retail chain, from Dollar Tree (Nasdaq: DLTR).

• KKR acquired a 57.9 percent stake in FUJI SOFT (TSE: 9749), a Japanese software company, for $4.4 billion.

• Carlyle, Thoma Bravo, and TA Associates are among final bidders for smartTrade Technologies, a French trading platform owned by Hg, with bids ranging from €550-600 million.

• KKR is exploring the sale of Goodpack, a Singaporean container and logistics services provider, which has attracted interest from Apollo Global Management, I Squared Capital, and Stonepeak Partners in a deal that could value the company at $1.5 billion.

• KKR (NYSE: KKR) offered £4 billion for a majority stake in Thames Water, the UK's largest water utility.

• Valvoline (NYSE: VVV) agreed to acquire Breeze Autocare, a 200-location automotive maintenance services provider, from Greenbriar Equity Group for $625 million.

• York Capital Management and company management acquired Soccer Post, a 60-store soccer specialty retail chain, from TZP Group.

• Kontoor Brands (NYSE: KTB) agreed to acquire Helly Hansen, a Norwegian workwear brand, from Canadian Tire Corp. for C$1.3 billion.

• HBM Healthcare Investments is exploring a sale of Swixx Biopharma, a Swiss pharmaceutical distributor, in a deal that could value the business at up to $1.7 billion, per Bloomberg.

• Searchlight Capital Partners and Hudson Structured Capital Management invested in Gracie Point Holdings, a New York-based provider of life insurance premium finance.

• Goldman Sachs Alternatives invested in Econic Partners, an economic consulting firm specializing in antitrust matters.

• Insight Partners led the merger of population health software providers Azara Healthcare and i2i Population Health, joining existing Azara investor Hughes & Company.

• Diligent, backed by Ares Management and Insight Partners, acquired UK-based Spark Compliance, a consultancy specializing in ethics and compliance program design.

• Ridgeline Roofing & Restoration, a portfolio company of Bertram Capital, acquired Pro Shield, a Mississippi-based roofing services provider.

• Unanet, backed by Onex and JMI Equity, acquired Arlington-based Contraqer, a provider of procurement software and market intelligence for government contractors.

• Fenceworks, a portfolio company of Gemspring Capital, acquired Kansas Fencing, a Topeka-based commercial fencing and gate company.

• Antarctica Capital-backed EarthDaily Analytics acquired SkyForest, a Canadian wildfire risk assessment and forestry analytics software provider.

• Rise Growth Partners, a Charlesbank Capital Partners portfolio company, acquired a minority stake in Grimes & Company, a Westborough, Massachusetts-based wealth manager with $5.7 billion in assets under management.

• Sedgwick, a Carlyle-backed company, agreed to acquire Bottomline's Legal Spend Management division, a provider of legal bill review software, from Thoma Bravo portfolio company Bottomline Technologies.

• Prada is considering a bid for Versace, a luxury fashion brand owned by Capri Holdings (NYSE: CPRI).

• Celsius (Nasdaq: CELH) agreed to acquire Alani Nu, a female-focused energy drink brand, for $1.8 billion.

• Bridgepoint Group (LSE: BPT) is exploring the sale of Evac, a Finnish clean technology firm specializing in water and waste treatment solutions, in a deal that could value the business at €500 million.

• Roper Technologies (NYSE: ROP) is exploring the sale of Neptune Technology Group, its meter reading unit, in a deal that could be worth $4 billion.

• Loar Group is in talks to acquire LMB Aerospace, a French manufacturer of electric fans and cooling solutions, from Tikehau Capital and Amundi Private Equity Funds.

• Groupe Bruxelles Lambert is in discussions with buyout firms to take Imerys (EPA: NK) private, building on its existing 55 percent stake in the €2.4 billion specialty materials company.

• Spirit Airlines (NYSE: SAVE) secured court approval for its bankruptcy exit plan, transferring control to bondholders Citadel Advisors, Pacific Investment Management, and Western Asset Management.

• Valsoft Corporation acquired Digital Currency Systems, a provider of cash checking point-of-sale systems for alternative financial services.

• CoStar Group (Nasdaq: CSGP) submitted a A$2.65 billion takeover proposal for Domain Holdings (ASX: DHG), an Australian property classifieds platform.

Tech, Vertical SaaS, & Misc. Enterprise

• Lambda, an AI cloud infrastructure and GPU services provider, raised $480 million in Series D funding co-led by Andra Capital and SGW, with participation from NVIDIA, ARK Invest, Fincadia Advisors, G Squared, In-Q-Tel, KHK & Partners, Pegatron, Supermicro, Wistron, Wiwynn, 1517, Crescent Cove, and USIT.

• Together AI, a cloud platform for deploying open-source AI models, raised $305 million in Series B funding co-led by General Catalyst and Prosperity7 Ventures, with participation from Salesforce Ventures, NVIDIA, Kleiner Perkins, March Capital, Emergence Capital, Lux Capital, SE Ventures, Greycroft, Coatue, Definition, and Cadenza Ventures.

• Codeium, an AI-powered code acceleration platform, raised $150 million in Series C funding led by General Catalyst, with participation from Kleiner Perkins and Greenoaks.

• Mercor, an AI-powered hiring platform, raised $100 million in Series B funding led by Felicis, with participation from General Catalyst, DST Global, Benchmark, and Menlo Ventures.

• Baseten, an AI model inference platform, raised $75 million in Series C funding co-led by IVP and Spark Capital, with participation from Greylock, Conviction, South Park Commons, and 01 Advisors.

• Sanas, a real-time AI accent translation platform, raised $65 million in Series B funding led by Quadrille Capital, with participation from Insight Partners, Quiet Capital, DN Capital, and Teleperformance.

• Lumotive, a programmable optical semiconductor company, raised $45 million in Series B funding co-led by Gates Frontier and MetaVC Partners, with participation from Swisscom Ventures, East Bridge, EDOM, Grazia, Hokuyo, TSVC, Quan Funds, USAA, and Himax.

• SmartSuite, a work management and process automation platform, raised $38 million in Series A funding led by Canapi Ventures, with participation from Sorenson Capital and High Alpha.

• Relish, a procurement software, raised $25 million in Series B funding led by Base10 Partners, with participation from Volition Capital.

• AheadComputing, a developer of high-performance RISC-V processors for AI and cloud computing, raised $21.5 million in seed funding led by Eclipse, with participation from Maverick Capital, Fundomo, and EPIQ Capital Group.

• Guidde, an AI-powered video documentation platform, raised $15 million in Series A extension funding led by Qualcomm Ventures, with participation from Norwest Venture Partners, Entrée Capital, Honeystone Ventures, Tiferes Ventures, and Inkberry Ventures.

• Gomboc AI, a deterministic AI platform for cloud security remediation, raised $13 million in seed funding led by Ballistic Ventures, with participation from Glilot Capital Partners and Hetz Ventures.

• Hyperlume, a developer of microLED-based optical interconnects for AI data centers, raised $12.5 million in seed funding co-led by BDC Deep Tech Venture Fund and ArcTern Ventures, with participation from MUUS Climate Partners, SOSV, Intel Capital, and LG Technology Ventures.

• SingleFile, a legal compliance automation platform, raised $9 million in Series A funding led by Foundry Group, with participation from Pioneer Square Labs, The LegalTech Fund, Wilson Sonsini, Cooley, DLA Piper, Fenwick, and Perkins Coie.

• Fluent Labs, a developer of blended execution networks for blockchain applications, raised $8 million in seed funding led by Polychain Capital, with participation from Primitive, dao5, Symbolic Capital, Builder Capital, Nomad Capital, and Public Works.

• Mavvrik, an IT infrastructure financial control platform, raised $6.2 million in seed funding co-led by S3 Ventures and Flyover Capital, with participation from Tuesday Capital, ClutchVC, Amplify.LA, and Knoll Ventures.

Fintech

• Unit Network, a decentralized platform for real-world asset tokenization, raised $18 million in new funding co-led by Blockchain Founders Fund and Outlier Ventures, with participation from White Star Capital, Draper Dragon Fund, and Metastable Capital.

• CredCore, an AI-powered debt capital markets platform, raised $16 million in Series A funding led by Avataar Ventures, with participation from Inspired Capital, Fitch Group, and BellTower Partners.

• ElectronX, a Chicago-based electricity derivatives exchange platform, raised $10 million in strategic funding led by Systemiq Capital, with participation from Equinor Ventures, Shell Ventures, and Innovation Endeavors.

Consumer & Media

• Dorsia, a members-only restaurant reservation platform, raised $50.4 million in Series A funding led by Index Ventures, with participation from Invus Group and RedSea Ventures.

• Rinse, a dry cleaning and laundry delivery service, raised $23 million in Series D funding led by LG Electronics.

• Metycle, a digital platform for international secondary metal trading, raised €14.1 million in Series A funding led by 2150, with participation from DFF Ventures, Market One Capital, Partech, and Project A.

Healthcare

• OpenEvidence, an AI-powered medical research platform for doctors, raised $75 million in Series A funding led by Sequoia Capital.

• EG 427, a biotech developing of pinpoint genetic medicines for chronic neurological diseases, raised €27 million in Series B funding from Andera Partners and Bpifrance.

• Spore.Bio, a Paris-based AI-powered microbiology testing startup, raised $23 million in Series A funding led by Singular, with participation from Point72 Ventures, 1st Kind Ventures, Station F, LocalGlobe, No Label Ventures, and Famille C.

• Millie, a tech-enabled maternity clinic, raised $12 million in Series A funding co-led by TMV and Foreground Capital, with participation from Pivotal Ventures, March of Dimes Innovation Fund, Ingeborg Investments, BBG Ventures, Joyance, LearnStart, Amboy Street Ventures, Mother Ventures, Coyote Ventures, and Chai Ventures.

• Proximity, a 340B drug discount revenue optimization platform, raised $3 million in seed funding led by LRVHealth, with participation from Commonweal Ventures.

Industrials, Greentech, & Other

• Karman+, a Denver-based startup developing autonomous spacecraft for space resource extraction, raised $20 million in seed funding co-led by Plural and Hummingbird, with participation from HCVC.

• Valar Atomics, a developer of small modular nuclear reactors for off-grid power and synthetic fuel production, raised $19 million in seed funding led by Riot Ventures, with participation from AlleyCorp, Initialized Capital, Day One Ventures, and Steel Atlas.

• Resynergi, a modular plastic recycling technology company developing microwave-assisted pyrolysis systems, raised $18 million in Series B extension funding led by Taranis, with participation from Lummus Technology and T1ST.

• GTCR raised $3.6 billion for its second Strategic Growth Fund.

• Invalda INVL Group raised €305 million for its second fund focused on buyouts in the Baltics and broader EU, exceeding its €250 million target.

• Hamilton Lane raised $615 million for its inaugural Venture Access Fund.

• Bonfire Ventures raised $245 million for its fourth fund.

• Wellington Management raised $194 million for its first CLO Partners Fund focused on US broadly syndicated CLO equity investments.

• Afore Capital raised $185 million for its fourth pre-seed fund.

• Cherryrock Capital, led by former TaskRabbit CEO Stacy Brown-Philpot, raised $172 million for its debut fund focused on Series A and B investments in underrepresented founders.

• Thomson Reuters launched a $150 million corporate venture fund to invest in early-stage companies across legal tech, tax and accounting, fintech, risk and compliance, and media.

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