Following hot on the heels of our celebrated Waystone exit, one of our largest and most successful ever investments, we have taken a moment to review 2021 and all we achieved.
We successfully completed the fund raises of MML Partnership Capital Fund VII, breaking hard cap to close at €670m, and MML Ireland Fund II, breaking its target to close at €145m, continuing to grow our AUM to €2bn.
Our investment team were busier than ever. We made seven new platform investments, supported 22 acquisitions for the portfolio, and exited four investments, including our milestone exit of Waystone which delivered an 11x / 164% IRR and returned 100% of committed capital in MML Partnership Fund VI in a single transaction. The deal is a blueprint for MML’s partnership philosophy, where we supported rapid transformational growth, and played an integral role in the creation of a billion-dollar “Unicorn” company.
Alongside our financial successes and fundraises during 2021, we celebrated a string of well-earned promotions (including Amar Shanghavi to Investment Director, Will Stewart to Investment Manager and Harri Smith to Investment Manager, from the investment team), and welcomed 12 new joiners; nine into the investment team, Karan Darroch as Finance Director, and two support staff.
We have also completed a full re-brand and launched our new logo and website. We established our ESG Working Group to lead and develop our sustainability initiatives and became recognised as a CarbonNeutral® company.
Having achieved so many milestones in 2021, we wanted to thank all those involved, including our investors, our portfolio management teams, our advisors, and everyone at MML. We look forward to continuing this momentum into 2022!