Darwin reaches second close

London-based Darwin Private Equity, which was launched in March by three former executives of CVC and Permira, has reached the second close on the Darwin Private Equity I fund at £122m. The fund has commitments from eight investors including: Pantheon Ventures, RIT Capital Partners and Goldman Sachs. On achieving a second close, Darwin has continued to build its team. Operations professional Alan Maynard of Travelodge fame has recently joined as a partner. Stephen Delaney also joins Darwin in October as an investment manager from the European Consumer & Retail Team at Citigroup.