Private Equity 24 Hours

Last updated: September 7, 2026, 6:07 AM ET

Deal Activity

Eurazeo is combining Flex IT with its portfolio company T1A Group, acquiring the circular IT services provider from Altor. Flex IT serves roughly 13,000 customers across more than 35 countries through distribution, rental, buyback and refurbishment services, giving the combined entity significant scale in the growing IT asset disposition market.

Fundraising

Claret Capital has raised €575m for its fourth debt fund, targeting what it calls "less sexy" startups that need flexible financing access. The vehicle underscores how venture debt is becoming an increasingly vital capital source for growth-stage companies unwilling to accept further equity dilution in a constrained funding environment.

Tech Talent & Startups

Thore Graepel, a founding Deep Mind researcher, has left the lab to launch an AI reasoning venture, according to exclusive reporting. His departure marks another high-profile exit from the Alphabet-owned unit as senior researchers pursue independent opportunities in the booming reasoning-model space.

Hugging Face's $12.9bn valuation moment is both inspiring and dispiriting for Europe, reflecting the region's ability to produce world-class AI talent yet its persistent struggle to retain and commercialize it domestically. The sale price highlights the widening transatlantic gap in tech capitalization.

Nordic & Stockholm Ecosystems

A new Nordics leaderboard ranks the region's fastest-growing startups by revenue, offering granular data on which companies are scaling most effectively. Meanwhile, a guide to Stockholm identifies 17 startup and investor hotspots across the Swedish capital, mapping the city's dense innovation clusters.

Sports Investment

Private equity firms are increasingly teaming up with athletes as ambassadors, with partnerships moving beyond pure branding into genuine strategic alignment. At the same time, institutional capital is turning to women's sports as the sector becomes big business, with investors racing to secure positions in high-growth leagues and franchises.

Beyond the padel hype, investors are seeking returns in adjacent infrastructure and services rather than core court facilities. The emerging sport's rapid growth has attracted private markets attention, but disciplined strategies look beyond the initial boom to capture sustainable value.