This month’s transactions are a mixture of doubling down by Private Equity and investment in founder-led businesses.
Forging ahead
After the announcement in May (and completion in July) of the acquisition of Emerald and Questex by Apollo Funds and the merging of the two businesses under the name Forge, the first follow-on acquisition has been announced and it’s meaningful, setting the stage for significant further transactions. Becker’s Healthcare, a media and events platform with 2026 EBITDA in excess of $50mn serving US hospital, health system and healthcare executives has been acquired from Pamlico Capital.
This is more about synergies with the Questex portfolio than with Emerald as the acquisition will significantly expand its presence in healthcare and life sciences by combining Becker’s with Forge’s existing healthcare portfolio, Fierce Healthcare and Life Sciences. Elsewhere in Flashes & Flames this week, you can read a deepdive into both this acquisition and Forge’s aspirations, so I will leave it there.
New sector for Opus Origin
Following the divestment of InfraXMedia to Bowmark Capital last month, Opus Origin, set up by Stephen Brooks in 2019, has wasted no time in deploying capital, announcing a strategic partnership with US-based Life Science Intelligence (LSI). LSI was founded in 2006 by Scott Pantel and focuses on medtech market intelligence, media and events. The events side of the business comprises the portfolio of LSI Emerging Medtec Summits held annually in USA, Europe and Asia whilst the Compass AI platform provides reports, research and live deal tracking across private medtech companies. The Lens provides the digital media element of the business.
This is a new sector for Opus but the mix of events and data shows similarities to the InfraXMedia portfolio. LSI joins fellow investment WHD, organiser of the tech festival Cloudfest, under the Opus umbrella. Cloudfest, the event for the Cloud and Hosting sector was acquired in 2024 and is held in Germany and the US. Opus recently gained a new top executive in industry entrepreneur Greg Topalian who will head its North America business and who joins the LSI board as Chairman.
Manta’s first investments
Over the last few months, DealMakers has talked a lot about the importance of founders in the events M&A ecosystem. Companies such as EVG and Manta have been set up to support founders whose journey is not just financially risky but is often lonely too, and they deserve support from those who have already been through the journey.
Manta Media Capital was set up earlier this year by founders who have had successful exits themselves and is funded entirely by its own shareholders. Manta has three aims i) to back founders with ideas who need help building or scaling, ii) to act as an accelerator, working with existing businesses that need help growing and iii) to develop its own ideas and find founders to run them. In the last month, Manta has announced its first three investments – businesses in diverse sectors and at different stages of development and therefore with different needs – but covering the first two criteria .
The first is Party Action People (PAP), the Singapore-based events business founded in 2021 and led by Zach John. PAP operates modern finance events covering blockchain, tokenisation, agentic finance and digital vaults. Alongside the investment, PAP and Manta are launching PE4KS, a global event series serving the institutional finance industry.
The second deal is a stake in Global Engage’s Digital Pathology + AI European event, which will trade as DigiPath. The event has run successfully for 12 years as part of a broader portfolio of scientific and medical events. The carve out gives DigiPath its own company, team and infrastructure, along with the year round support and focus needed to build a significantly larger event.
The third is a strategic investment in On Sale Group, backing the only exhibition built for the experience economy. On Sale Group, founded by Dawn Farrow targets the marketing, ticketing, sales and communications professionals of the experience economy. It runs a free community network for the sector, the GIEM Experience Marketing Masterclass and organises On Sale Live: The Experience Economy Expo at the Business Design Centre.
Further investments will follow – a combination of backing founders on the early part of their journey and investing in assets to supercharge growth. Outside of Manta, it’s good to see founders who have successfully sold their first business coming back for more. Toby Walters and Sam Murray who left Smarter Shows to launch Cruise Ship Interior Design (which they subsequently sold to CloserStill Media) are backing ex DMG employee Charlie Gilmour who worked on DMG’s Hi Design portfolio of events. The new company, 91 Group, has launched Off Site Design, hosted buyer events for the luxury hospitality design sector with the first two launches planned for 2027 in Barcelona and Phuket.
In other news
Following its acquisition by Nineteen Group in 2025, The Payments Association has acquired its sister organization The Payments Association EU, based in Luxembourg, paving the way for a broader international growth strategy and the opportunity to extend the model further into additional markets over time.
Most M&A activity in the events sector involves the sale of a portfolio of events often with a digital media component. But, occasionally, we see transactions where the events and media element are the support act to a wider business. The Simplyhealth Group has acquired FMC, a dental media, events and practice services platform. FMC owns Dentistry OS – a dental software platform, supporting a mix of independent practices, mid-sized groups and large dental service organisations. The media arm of the business comprises educational content, conferences and events including The Future of Dentistry and the Association of Dental Groups Conference.
To Malaysia, where local organiser United Expo – founded by Connie Soh – has acquired the International Café and Beverage Show (ICBS) to add to its portfolio of MySihat Expo (Healthcare, Wellness and Sports) and The Luxe Life (Jewellery). ICBS is now in its sixth edition and Alun Jones, formerly country manager for UBM Malaysia, moves to United with the business.
Gamigion, the US-based mobile gaming media platform, has acquired HIT Games Conference (HGC), representing a strategic move into live events. The portfolio of conferences for the global gaming market take place in Turkey, Spain, Germany, India and UAE. HGC was founded in 2020 by Ukrainian games development entrepreneur Eugene Lavrinenko as a B2B events company dedicated to the development, promotion and growth of the games market.
