HarbourVest reveals deployment strategy for $4.75bn flagship; Bain, Platinum Equity, Monogram lead recent beverage deals

Good morning, PE Hubsters! Rafael Canton here with you for the US edition of the Wire.

We’ll kick off the Wire with a look at HarbourVest Partners. In July, the firm announced the final close of its seventh flagship co-investment fund at approximately $4.75 billion. PE Hub reporter John R Fischer caught up with HarbourVest’s Joel Hwang and Jackie Peradotto, to learn more about the types of deals the firm is looking to pursue and its view on AI.

Then, we’ll talk about PE’s recent attraction to the beverage sector. On Tuesday, Monogram Capital Partners closed a single-asset continuation fund for Mountaintop Beverage. We’ll look at some other recent beverage brands and manufacturing deals from Bain Capital and Platinum Equity.

Rewiring old industries

In July, HarbourVest Partners announced the final close of its seventh flagship co-investment fund at approximately $4.75 billion, surpassing its $4 billion target, as Private Equity International reported previously. To find out how the Boston private markets firm is investing Fund VII, PE Hub reporter John R Fischer spoke with Joel Hwang, managing director of direct investments, and Jackie Peradotto, managing director of the co-investment team.

HCF VII aims to provide investors with access to a diversified global portfolio of direct co-investments across buyout and growth equity strategies alongside other GPs. In addition to the firm’s core buyout strategy, HCF VII includes a dedicated fund of more than $500 million “to invest in growth equity and expansion stage opportunities that capitalize on transformative trends in AI, healthcare innovation and other high-growth industries and disruptive technologies,” according to the fund closing announcement.

“Out of the buyout sleeve, we may look at primary buyout investments where a company is being acquired from another sponsor,” Hwang told John. “It could be a carve-out, a take-private or an acquisition from an existing ownership group. It could be in the small, mid- or large parts of the market. More broadly, the buyout sleeve offers exposure to high-quality private equity sponsors across different segments of the market in a diversified manner.”

“On the growth sleeve, I think those may fall into the camp of primary financings, direct secondary rounds or other transaction types that our investors will get access to,” he added.

One of the focuses from HarbourVest is AI.

“We think AI within the realm of healthcare and other areas will transform existing industries, rewire old industries and really expand the surface area of new investments that we and other investors can make,” Hwang said.

For AI, HarbourVest is exploring several trends, including workflow automation and agentic experiences. The firm made two recent growth equity deals from HCF VII. In June, HarbourVest, alongside General Catalyst, led a $225 million Series C round in Beacon, a holding company focused on leveraging AI to improve operations in businesses.

Peradotto pointed out that high-growth industries are continuously adopting cloud- and AI-native platforms to manage larger datasets and automate complex administrative and back office workflows. As a result, many of these platforms possess strong margins and sticky revenue streams that may position them for an eventual sale to a strategic and in some cases, an initial public offering.

She added that concerns about AI replacing software may also drive investments in sectors like healthcare. “PE firms that may have otherwise invested in more traditional technology businesses may shift some of their allocation into healthcare because of the resiliency within healthcare, where some of the services are not so easily replaced by agentic AI. As a result, some of the assets are trading for very premium multiples.”

Drink up

Let’s take a look at beverages, a sector where private equity has been busy transacting as of late.

Just yesterday, Monogram Capital Partners closed a single-asset continuation fund for Mountaintop Beverage, a Morgantown, West Virginia-based maker of beverages. Apollo S3 was the lead investor. Partners Capital, TIFF, and H7 Capital also participated in the transaction.

Mountaintop produces aseptic and extended shelf-life beverages for better-for-you beverage brands.

The vehicle will allow Mountaintop to fund its expansion program, including a 250,000-square-foot capacity addition that will bring the company’s Morgantown, West Virginia, campus to nearly 600,000 square feet. The fresh capital will also fund future acquisitions. Monogram first invested in Mountaintop in August 2021.

“Mountaintop represents precisely the kind of business we seek to back – a technically complex, capacity constrained supply chain partner providing essential services to some of the fastest-growing brands in the consumer space,” Jared Stein, co-founder and partner at Monogram, said in a statement.

August has been a busy time for beverage deals.

Earlier in August, Bain Capital entered into an agreement to acquire Gong cha from TA Associates. Headquartered in London, Gong cha is a tea brand. It serves tea beverages, including milk tea, ​fruit tea and ​other cold drinks.

Founded in 2006, Gong cha operates nearly 2,200 stores in 33 international markets, serving more than 150 million beverages annually to customers worldwide. The transaction is expected to close in the fourth quarter of 2026, subject to customary closing conditions.

In another August deal, Axum Capital Partners announced that it has agreed to acquire a controlling interest in Barcode. The deal is in partnership with NBA All-Star Victor Wembanyama. Headquartered in Los Angeles, Barcode is a plant-based performance drink. The deal is expected to close during the third quarter of 2026.

In July, Platinum Equity and Nestlé agreed to create Peranel, a 50/50 joint venture housing Nestlé’s waters and premium beverages business, in a transaction assigning the business an enterprise value of $5.6 billion. The deal is subject to employee consultation processes and regulatory approvals and is expected to close in the first half of 2027.

Headquartered in Paris, Peranel spans more than 30 brands sold in 120 countries, including natural mineral water labels such as S.Pellegrino, Source Perrier and Acqua Panna, along with premium and functional hydration beverages and the global Nestlé Pure Life brand.

The interest in beverages stretches beyond consumer products. There’s also been significant interest in manufacturing.

In July, I was first to report that Peak Rock Capital was in the pre-stages of launching a sale process for 2015 portfolio company Berner Food & Beverage, according to three sources. Based in Dakota, Illinois, Berner is a private-label manufacturer of dips, spreads and beverages.

Also in July, Paine Schwartz Partners sold Lyons Magnus to Truelink Capital. Based in Fresno, California, Lyons Magnus is a manufacturer of ingredients, beverage, and healthcare nutrition products for the foodservice industry.

That’s it for me. If you have any questions, thoughts, or want to chat about deals in the tech, consumer or sports sectors, please email me at rafael.c@pei.group.

Tomorrow, Craig McGlashan will be with you for the Europe edition of the Wire, while Michael Schoeck will write the US edition. Be on the lookout for Michael’s weekly update of companies coming to market.

Cheers,

Rafael