General Atlantic

History

2022: Investing in Chinese online clothing retailer Shein

In early April 2022, Chinese online clothing retailer Shein raised $1 billion and was valued at $100 billion. This makes the company more expensive than H&M and Zara combined. The startup's investors included General Atlantic funds, as well as Tiger Global Management and Sequoia Capital China. Read more here

2021: Investing in a British online service for recording in beauty salons and SPA Fresha

In mid-June 2021, the British online service for recording on health and cosmetic procedures Fresha raised $100 million. The series C investment round was led by the General Atlantic fund, existing investors in the Russian fund Target Global, FJ Labs, Partech, as well as Huda Kattan, Michael Zeisser from FMZ Ventures and Jonathan Green from Lugard Road Capital invested in the service. More details here.

2020: Investing in Duolingo Language Learning Service

In December 2020, it became known about the investments of the Arctic Ventures fund, the created ex-partner of the Swiss investment company Blackfort Capital AG Anton Alikova, in Duolingo. The volume of attachments is not specified. More details here.

2012: Kaspersky Lab bought back all its shares previously acquired by the General Atlantic Fund

Kaspersky Lab bought back all shares previously acquired by the General Atlantic direct investment fund, as well as shares owned by some minority shareholders who also expressed a desire to participate in recapitalization.

2011

Redemption of part of Kaspersky Lab package from Natalia Kaspersky

In January 2011, it became known that the American direct investment fund General Atlantic acquired a large stake in Kaspersky Lab. This is the first time in the history of an antivirus developer that a professional institutional investor entered the company^[1].

The parties do not disclose the amount of the share acquired by the Americans in Kaspersky Lab or the amount paid, but report that upon completion of the transaction, General Atlantic will become the second largest shareholder of Lab. The representative of fund - the managing director and the head of the European division John Bernstein will be a part of the board of directors of Kaspersky.

The largest shareholder of the company will remain Evgeny Kaspersky, who has a controlling stake.

Kaspersky Lab Executive Director Yevgeny Buyakin told CNews that the agreement on the sale of shares was signed, but "closing the transaction still requires confirmation of shareholders, as well as certain legal formalities." This is expected to happen within 2-3 weeks.

Part of the shares transferred to the General Atlantic Fund previously belonged to one of the company's previous shareholders, another part, which Yevgeny Buyakin called "symbolic," was additionally issued. According to CNews, the main seller of the shares was Natalya Kasperskaya, co-founder and chairman of the Lab's board of directors. Shares of Yevgeny Kaspersky did not participate in the deal.

Natalya Kasperskaya told CNews that the share of the new investor in the Lab will be "less" than 20%. According to her, she has retained a significant part of the company's shares, and she has no plans to leave the chair of the chairman of the board of directors, "unless the shareholders make another decision."

The initiator of the transaction was General Atlantic: its executive director John Bernstein says that the fund has long been looking for a manufacturer of protective solutions for investment and "about a year ago turned to Kaspersky Lab with a proposal for cooperation."

According to Yevgeny Buyakin, when selling shares, it was not about attracting investment funds to the company: "The goal of the partnership is to use the strategic expertise of the fund, which the Laboratory will need in implementing ambitious plans in the corporate segment of the global information security market."

At the request of CNews, Kaspersky's capitalization was estimated by Finam Chairman Vladislav Kochetkov, who believes that the entire company is now worth $1.5 billion with estimated revenue in 2010 of $540 million.

Sergey Belousov, founder of the Runa Capital fund and executive director of Parallels, also believes that "most likely, Kaspersky Lab's revenue is more than $500 million." He found it difficult to assess the capitalization of the company, since Kaspersky is "growing very well, and its profitability is unknown." According to Belousov, the Laboratory is more "sharpened" not on profitability, but on growth, which greatly affects its cost.

Based on different capitalization estimates and the share of securities sold, the upper limit of the proceeds from the sale of shares can vary widely from $200 to $300 million.

A characteristic investment strategy of General Atlantic is to enter and exit fast-growing companies after an IPO. However, according to Yevgeny Buyakin, the upcoming public placement of Kaspersky Lab securities in the near future does not follow from this fund strategy. "At present, the company does not plan a public offering of shares, but considers the IPO as one of the possible ways to develop in the future," he explained.

$16 billion asset management: strategy and investment overview

The fund specializes in investments in emerging markets, and as of January 2011 managed an amount of about $15-17 billion. The volume of one transaction typical of the fund, as a rule, ranges from $50 to $500 million. A characteristic investment strategy of General Atlantic is to enter and exit fast-growing companies after an IPO.

The Fund brings together more than 75 investment professionals in Greenwich, New York, Palo Alto, London, Dusseldorf, Hong Kong, Beijing, Mumbai and São Paulo.

GA's annual investment is about $2 billion with an average size (in 2010) of more than $200 million. GA is an investment partner of more than a hundred companies operating in global markets in the field of services and technology. GA's current and past investments include the world's leading technology companies.

China:

• Lenovo
• Alibaba Group
• SouFun

UNITED STATES:

• E-Trade,
• Priceline
• Network Solutions

India:

• Genpact

Latin America:

• Mercado Libre

Europe:

• Markit
• Privalia

2005: Lenovo Investment for IBM Computer Business Purchase

In 2005, the fund, together with Texas Pacific Group and Newbridge Capital, invested $350 million in the Chinese PC manufacturer Lenovo. Part of this money went to buy a computer business from IBM.

1980: Foundation of the Fund

The foundation was founded in 1980.

Notes