Steve Monnington, CEO of Mayfield Merger Strategies, reports on another interesting month in mergers and acquisitions with a new private equity entrant and the first investments for Manta Media
Bowmark enters the sector.
Bowmark Capital has joined the growing number of PE firms investing in the events sector acquiring a majority shareholding in InfraXmedia, a leading B2B media, events and intelligence company serving the global digital infrastructure industry, from Opus Origin. Market intelligence from industry sources valued the transaction at approximately £275 million.
The back story – in early 2019, Stephen Brooks sold MackBrooks to Reed Exhibitions for a price of approximately £200 million. Nearly 4 years later, in late 2022, Brooks set up Markets Dynamic Media (MDM) along with Simon Kimble and deployed a small amount of this capital, acquiring 80% of Data Center Dynamics (DCD) from Resolve Capital Partners and the management. The deal is believed to have valued DCD at some £20m. Focused on the data centre sector. DCD started out life in 1988 as a publishing business, before moving into training and conferences. As a result of COVID, greater emphasis was placed on digital content.
MDM subsequently changed its name to InfraXmedia and in late 2024 acquired a majority stake in DataCenter Nation (DCN) from Italian entrepreneurs Aldo Mazzocco and Davide Ortisi. In the short time since launching in 2021, DCN had established market leading events in Milan, Warsaw, Zurich, Dubai, and Riyadh. The InfraX portfolio also includes Yotta and SDxCentral. While DCD and DCN focus on physical datacenter facilities, Yotta covers energy and AI infrastructure, while SDxCentral, acquired in 2025 is a B2B digital media, news, and market intelligence platform covering enterprise IT, networking, cloud infrastructure, and software-defined technologies.
Bowmark has a long track record of investing in information services businesses and has also had its eye on the exhibition sector for some time. They join Apollo Funds, Hellman & Friedman, Providence and Seachlight as recent investors in the sector with investment from these transactions totalling almost $6bn.
New Wellness group for Informa
Informa has acquired the Global Wellness Summit along with its non-profit research arm the Global Wellness Institute from founder, Susie Ellis. The business will become part of a newly-created Global Wellness Group within Informa’s Medical Division. The Summit changes host destinations every year to highlight different global wellness hubs and economies and in 2026 (its 20th anniversary) will be held in Phuket, Thailand.
Munich Messe expands its business in India
Messe Muenchen India has acquired the India International Cargo Show from Upstream Business Solutions to add to its existing Indian logistics portfolio – transport logistic India, air cargo India and project cargo India. The show was launched in 2022 and the next edition will be in December 2026 at the Jio World Convention Centre in Mumbai. Messe Muenchen has a wider logistics portfolio including the flagship biennial German show “transport logistic”, Their network of logistic events around the world also includes events in China, India, Kenya, Saudi Arabia, Türkiye and the U.S.
Manta Media starts its journey
Regular readers of this column will know about my passion for promoting founder-led businesses. These are the bedrock of the exhibition sector and the entrepreneurs behind them are the beating heart, always taking risks to create innovative events. The founder 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. For transparency, Mayfield is one of the 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. The two investments announced last week cover the first two criteria and are the first of six investments to be concluded over the next few weeks.
The first is Party Action People (PAP), the Singapore headquartered events business founded in 2021 and led by Zach John. PAP runs 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 options for founders to get funding for their projects are increasing but funding is only a part and the main differentiation that Manta is seeking to achieve is best summed up by PAP’s founder Zach John. “Manta is helping us unlock ‘the next level’. We are already profitable and operating globally, but our experience lies in our industry more than the business of events. We chose Manta because they get their hands dirty and know where to support. Within weeks, before we even completed the investment process, they’d upgraded our finance function, rebuilt our marketing engine, and connected us to world-class hires we would not have known how to attract.
These are people who’ve built and exited events businesses, but they still show up every week like it’s their own company. It feels less like a traditional VC investment and more like welcoming new business partners on board.”
Transactions announced since the last column.
| Buyer/Investor | Business | Sector | Country |
| Bowmark | InfraX | Tech | UK |
| Informa | Global Wellness Summit | Health | USA |
| Messe Muenchen India | India International Cargo Show | Logistics | India |
| Manta Media Capital | Party Action People | Finance | Singapore |
| Manta Media Capital | Digital Pathology + AI | Medical | UK |
Note: Part of this column was first published in Flashes & Flames: Global Media Business Weekly