Raine Group Closes Private Equity Fund, Hires Partner

NEW YORK - The Raine Group, a  merchant bank focused on entertainment, digital media and sports, said Tuesday it has closed its flagship private equity fund and hired veteran media banker Glenn Schiffman as a partner.  

He most recently served as head of investment banking in the Americas for Nomura Holdings.

Raine, launched in 2009 by former UBS media and entertainment banker Jeff Sine and former Goldman Sachs banker Joe Ravitch in partnership with WME Entertainment, has approximately $475 million under management and has made three principal investments to-date. They are in multimedia firm Vice, browser-based games provider Jagex and celebrity–curated e-commerce platform OpenSky.
 
Raine advisory board members include former Viacom CEO Tom Freston and Peter Chernin, former president and COO of News Corp.

“This is a significant milestone for Raine and we are excited about the prospects for our investments to date and our ability to continue to bring together strong management teams with our limited partners to execute on the global opportunities we see in our focus areas,” said Sine.

“We have known Glenn for many years and he is one of the most thoughtful, respected and well-connected media bankers in the business," Ravitch said about Schiffman. "His leadership and client impact will be instrumental in helping our team as we both continue to build our advisory business and identify investment opportunities for our fund.”

Email: Georg.Szalai@thr.com

Twitter: @georgszalai