Netherlands-based insurer Aegon has spun off its Transamerica Ventures corporate venturing portfolio in a secondaries deal with Montana Capital Partners (MCP), a Switzerland-based private equity firm.
Founded in 2013 with Georg Schwegler’s hire, Transamerica’s corporate venture portfolio consists of nearly 20 financial and insurance technology companies mainly active in the US. The deal is structured as a spin out of the previous management team of Transamerica Ventures who will continue to manage the underlying assets and the partnerships with Aegon/Transamerica in a new VC firm, Highscale Ventures.
MCP invested through its MCP Opportunity Secondary Program IV in a fund entity called HighScale Ventures Fund I.
Christian Diller, co-founder and managing partner of MCP, said: “It has been a great pleasure to provide this solution to Aegon, and we look forward to successfully working together with the highly experienced team at HighScale Ventures.”
Tibor Leeuwenburgh, global head of corporate development at Aegon, added: “The successful signing of the Transamerica Ventures transaction is an important milestone in Aegon’s strategy to actively manage its portfolio of businesses.”
Schwegler, CEO of Transamerica Ventures and now a partner of HighScale Ventures alongside Andrew Pitz, said: “We look forward to continuing to support our three portfolio companies, who are predominantly in New York and the San Francisco Bay-area.”
Deloitte advised on the deal.
