Industri Kapital, the North European buy-out firm, has made the first close on its fund at just over €500m ($590m) with commitments from fund of funds groups HarbourVest and Pantheon and a number of Scandinavian banks.

Nordic investors including Nordea, Skandia and Orkla have also made commitments. These and other investors have been expecting the first close at any moment during the last five weeks. The firm has been raising the fund, which has an overall target of €2.5bn, for more than a year.