Verdane strengthens team with new talent, and adds to its investment and IR teams’ capabilities

Verdane, the Northern European specialist growth equity investor, is pleased to announce it has promoted Daniel Ahlstrand to Partner and made three new hires across its investment and investor relations teams. This follows a period of strong growth for Verdane, including 11 new investments in the first half of 2021.

Daniel Ahlstrand joined Verdane in 2011 and today leads the investment firm’s team focused on digitally native vertical brands. Daniel has been involved in several of Verdane’s investments including HYMA Skog & Trädgård (realised to BHG in 2021), MATCHi, and Royal Design Group (realised to Egmont in 2020), and currently sits on the board of three of Verdane’s portfolio companies; Cool Company, PremiumXL and Spares Europe (a.k.a Teknikdelar.se).

Verdane has also made three new appointments to its investment and investor relations teams in Copenhagen and Stockholm, from the associate level upwards. Anders Vinther-Antonsen and Fredrika Svanholm will be joining Verdane’s investment team. Prior to Verdane, Anders worked at Silver Lake and Fredrika was an Analyst within Morgan Stanley’s Investment Banking division. Hanna Skärblom will be joining Verdane’s IR team from EY.

The recent promotion and expansion of the Verdane team reflect the firm’s continued growth and will further strengthen its capabilities as the preferred partner to ambitious technology-enabled growth businesses across Northern Europe.

Bjarne Kveim Lie, Co-Founder and Managing Partner at Verdane commented: “With a ten-year record of value creation excellence together with our digital consumer businesses, we are pleased to recognise Daniel’s significant contributions to the firm by welcoming him to Verdane’s partner group. As our digital consumer team continues to specialise across digital native brands, sustainable consumption, and digital services, Daniel will play a key role in helping scale some of best and brightest businesses in Northern Europe. We are also delighted to welcome our new joiners, and look forward to the diversity of experience and perspective they will bring to our investment and IR teams.”

This latest round of new joiners follows a busy first half of the year for Verdane, having made a total of 11 investments riding on the structural growth themes that the firm focuses on: the Digital Consumer, Software Everywhere and Sustainable Society. Most recently, Verdane announced its majority acquisition of a portfolio of three companies from UK mid-market private equity firm Langholm Capital. The portfolio included WoolOvers, a British lifestyle brand; Purity Soft Drinks, the U.K.-based company behind brands such as Juice Burst and Firefly; and Lumene, a Nordic natural skincare and beauty brand. Verdane has also recently bolstered its activities in Germany with four new investments: Meister (a provider of collaboration tools for the workplace), premiumXL (an online provider of Home & Living products), REMEMBER (a manufacturer of design and gift products) and Wunderflats (a platform for temporary furnished housing).

Previous key hires in 2021 include Erik Osmundsen, who joined Verdane’s partner group in 2021 from Norsk Gjenvinning, bringing decades of experience as a chief executive, investment professional, board member and sustainability expert to build on Verdane’s long-standing commitment to drive value by turning sustainability into competitive advantage and financial results.

Verdane continues to invest across the Northern Europe from Edda II, its EUR 540 million fund, and Verdane Capital X, its 6 billion SEK fund.