Oakley plays in AI accuracy drive with Graphwise acquisition; CataCap backs data protection company

Morning all, Craig McGlashan here on Europe Wire duty from the London newsroom.

It may be the middle of August but new deals keep landing.

First up this morning, Oakley has agreed to acquire a majority stake in Graphwise, a knowledge graph and semantic data technology provider. It’s a technology that the company says improves large language models’ reasoning skills, particularly in regulated sectors.

We stick with data for the next deal. CataCap has acquired a majority stake in B4Restore, a Danish provider of data protection services.

Switching to energy, Midas Atlantic Partners, in partnership with the Najafi Companies, has agreed to acquire the European power and battery control business of Panasonic Industry.

To finish, we round up some deals related to the European social care sector, including Hg agreeing to buy a strategic growth investment in Nourish Care, a UK provider of software for the social and community care sector.

Reasoning

We keep hearing about how the advent of generational artificial intelligence has put software companies into three “buckets,” as Clearlake Capital co-founder José E. Feliciano told PE Hub editor-in-chief Mary Kathleen (MK) Flynn at PEI Group’s NEXUS conference earlier this year.

Broadly speaking, there will be companies vulnerable to AI disruption; those that will survive, albeit while having to adapt to the new tech while potentially under pressure from new entrants; and those dubbed “AI-native” – companies that “are going to utilize AI not only as an opex efficiency tool, but they’re going to utilize AI to really create new products to productize data that was otherwise not usable or at least not readily sellable,” as Feliciano put it to MK.

This morning, we have a deal that potentially falls into that third bucket.

Oakley Capital has agreed to acquire a majority stake in Graphwise, a knowledge graph and semantic data technology provider.

Graphwise’s software structures enterprise data into knowledge graphs and builds what is known as a “semantic layer,” which the company says makes AI systems more accurate, auditable and able to handle large, diverse data sets. The semantic layer gives large language models a reliable set of facts to reason over, addressing limitations around factual consistency, particularly in regulated sectors such as financial services, life sciences and the public sector.

Graphwise was formed in 2024 through the merger of Ontotext, founded in Sofia in 2000 by Atanas Kiryakov, and Semantic Web Company, founded in Vienna in 2004 by Andreas Blumauer and Martin Kaltenböck. The company has delivered annual recurring revenue growth of more than 30 percent and expects growth to accelerate as demand for AI infrastructure increases.

Oakley plans to work with Graphwise’s founders to develop the company’s commercial capabilities and go-to-market strategy, expand its footprint in key international markets, and pursue add-on acquisitions in what it describes as a highly fragmented market.

“AI is changing how every organization operates, but it also makes trusted, well-governed data more important than ever,” said Peter Dubens, founder and managing partner of Oakley Capital, in a statement. “Graphwise has built an exceptional platform to solve that challenge and has already demonstrated impressive growth.”

Data protection

Of course, it’s no good having “trusted, well-governed data” if that data is at risk of being lost.

CataCap has acquired a majority stake in B4Restore, a Danish provider of data protection services.

Founded in 2003, B4Restore delivers its services via subscription and consumption-based models from Danish data centers, serving hybrid and complex IT environments where security, compliance, governance and documented restoration capacity are critical. The company works with both enterprise customers and managed service providers.

The investment comes as organizations face growing pressure to prove they can recover data and resume operations after an incident, driven by rising cyber threats, expanding data volumes and regulations such as NIS2 and DORA.

Power out

Carve-outs are in fashion right now as corporations look to double down on their core business units – creating opportunities for private equity firms to snap up other divisions.

Midas Atlantic Partners, in partnership with the Najafi Companies, has agreed to acquire the European power and battery control business of Panasonic Industry, a subsidiary of Panasonic Holdings. The transaction covers operations in Germany and Slovakia and is expected to close on February 1, 2027.

The business supplies power and battery control components for industrial and automotive customers, including industrial power devices, wireless modules, battery disconnect units and high-voltage DC-DC converters. Headquartered in Germany with manufacturing in Slovakia, it generated revenues of approximately €413 million in the fiscal year ended March 2026 and serves a blue-chip customer base.

Social care push

Social care has risen to the top of the political agenda in the UK, after the new government said it was committed to reforming the sector.

We’ve seen a smattering of deals in Europe related to the sector this year. Here’s a round-up.

Hg yesterday agreed to buy a strategic growth investment in Nourish Care, a UK provider of software for the social and community care sector. Livingbridge, a backer since 2022, will hold on to a minority position once the deal is completed, while founder Nuno Almeida stays on as chief executive and continues to hold a significant stake in the business.

Founded in 2011 and headquartered in Bournemouth, Nourish’s products are designed to help care teams plan, record and coordinate care. This approach has helped it win the trust of many of the UK’s leading care providers, including residential and home care operators, according to the company.

Marlin Equity Partners’ portfolio company Radar Healthcare earlier this month acquired Cemplicity, a patient experience and patient-reported outcomes platform, in an add-on deal. Radar Healthcare provides risk, quality and compliance software for the healthcare and social care sectors.

The acquisition adds capabilities in patient-reported experience measures, patient-reported outcome measures, real-time patient feedback, shared decision-making insights, surgical site inspection surveillance, service recovery feedback and post-care outcomes to Radar Healthcare’s platform.

Verdane in January bought a majority stake in Smartbox Group, an assistive technology company based in the UK.

Smartbox provides augmentative and alternative communication technology, designed to support communication, connection and independence for people with speech and language disabilities. Its services are used by over 100,000 people globally.

That’s all from me today. Rafael Canton is in the US chair later today and I’ll be back with you again from Europe tomorrow.

Cheers,

Craig