Tag Archives: Information technology

AnaCap signs agreement to acquire majority stake in Yard Reaas, a leading investment services provider and property management platform

Anacap

AnaCap, a market-leading private equity investor specialised in partnering with founders and entrepreneurial management teams, across services, technology and software within the European financial ecosystem, today announces that it has signed an agreement for the acquisition of a majority stake in Yard Reaas, a leading independent platform providing investment, property management and valuation services for institutional investors and banks.

Headquartered in Milan and with offices in Rome, Paris and London, Yard Reaas has more than 30 years of experience, providing end-to-end investment services and property management solutions to a diversified customer base composed of local and international institutional investors and banks. Over the past three years it has monitored investments worth €1.5 billion, performed assets valuations in excess of €30 billion as well as managing a real estate portfolio worth over €13 billion on behalf of first-class institutions.

Yard Reaas is led by CEO Emanuele Bellani, alongside a highly entrepreneurial founding management team formed by Paolo Datti and Paolo Perrella, which will continue to drive growth for the platform under AnaCap ownership in Italy and internationally.

The company is well positioned as a leading platform for investors and financial institutions with a successful inorganic strategy track record of six acquisitions (including the recently announced Tecnit@lia acquisition in January 2024). Yard Reaas is particularly attractive to businesses looking for a prospective partner which can provide high-quality services for both prime and distressed assets across all asset classes, as well as those with an ESG focus.

This transaction will enable the Yard Reaas leadership team to significantly accelerate its international expansion strategy in Southern Europe as it seeks to execute a strong pipeline of acquisitions, in pursuit of becoming a leading consolidation platform in its sector across Italy, Spain and France respectively.

AnaCap’s extensive track record in technology investment will help accelerate Yard Reaas ambitious plan to become the leading tech-enabled service provider for its market. This will include the advanced use of technology, data, and analytics to offer a vast range of innovative solutions to clients such as Automated Valuation Models (“AVM”) and automated ESG ratings that align with the recent European ‘Green Homes’ directive, as well as optimising its internal processes.

Buyside advice was provided by Vitale & Co and Allen & Overy. Closing of the transaction is subject to customary closing conditions.

Alberto Sainaghi, Managing Director at AnaCap, commented:

“We are thrilled to partner with Emanuele and the Yard Reaas leadership team as we seek to build upon their impressive achievements in recent years and their excellent market reputation. Moving forward, AnaCap’s vision is for Yard Reaas to become the leading tech-enabled provider in Southern Europe for the sector, serving customers across multiple geographies and asset classes.”

Nassim Cherchali, Co-Managing Partner at AnaCap, added:

“AnaCap continue to find attractive opportunities in core European markets through a deep understanding of local markets, sector specialism and lower mid-market focus. AnaCap’s acquisition of Yard Reaas is another example of how we partner with founders and ambitious management teams to support and accelerate their growth ambitions. We look forward to working closely with all the team at Yard Reaas and are excited for them to join the AnaCap platform.”

Emanuele Bellani, CEO at Yard Reaas, concluded:

“It became clear to us very quickly that AnaCap would be a perfect partner as we target significant growth in scale and offering of services. Their vast experience in executing build-up strategies, their deep understanding of tech-enabled business growth and their DNA in supporting highly entrepreneurial management teams will help us immeasurably in achieving our ambitious goal: consolidating our leadership in Italy, as well as expanding our geographical presence in other countries via strategic acquisitions using technology as the key differentiating aspect in the market.”

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Veesual raises a $7.5 million Seed round

AXA

AI-Powered Virtual Try-On Technology Platform For The Fashion Industry Veesual Raises $7.5 Million, Announces US Expansion With New EILEEN FISHER Partnership

Investment for market leader of image generation technology for fashion brands and retailers in Europe will now support US customers looking to overcome inclusivity challenges

New York, NY—April 17, 2024—Veesual, a Paris-based virtual try-on platform for the fashion industry that revolutionizes the way online shoppers experience digital retail, today announced the closing of a $7.5 million dollar Seed round led by AVP (AXA Venture Partners) and Techstars. The investment will accelerate delivery of the company’s plans to expand into the US market by opening its first US-based office, recruiting senior US talent, enhancing its current product offering for US apparel companies and more. A cornerstone of Veesual’s US expansion is a new partnership with leading women’s fashion brand EILEEN FISHER. Under the terms of the collaboration, Veesual’s augmented shopping experiences powered by next-generation virtual try-on technology have been integrated into the EILEEN FISHER online shopping experience.

Founded in 2020, Veesual is on a mission to transform the online shopping experience for all customers, independent of style, fit and fashion preferences. Through its Augmented Shopping solutions Mix&Match, Switch Model and Look Inspiration, Veesual’s proprietary 2D-based Image Generation Engine (IGT) was designed specifically for fashion brands to deliver high-quality imagery at scale, and to be able to adapt several pieces of clothing on any model, with natural renderings and precise fitting. Veesual works with leading brands and retailers in Europe including premium (Claudie Pierlot), kids fashion (Sergent Major and DPAM), and popular fashion (La Redoute and Gemo).

While brands are working to reflect diversity for e-commerce shoppers by featuring models of different ethnicities, ages and body types, it can be extremely costly to shoot individual products on various models. Veesual’s Switch Model experience allows customers to choose a model they identify with while simultaneously accelerating online sales and reducing returns for brands.

“We are thrilled to be the first US brand to partner with Veesual on this innovative new virtual try-on tool,” notes Blair Silverman, Vice President of E-commerce at EILEEN FISHER. “EILEEN FISHER is committed to inclusivity, designing clothes that cater to every body shape. Navigating online shopping poses challenges, particularly in predicting how garments fit diverse body types. Our collaboration with Veesual addresses these challenges head-on and we are proud to be launching a tool that is sure to be a new standard for e-commerce.”

While 3D-based try-on technology can be expensive and time-consuming, 2D image solutions offer a scalable and cost-effective solution for brands that engage shoppers. According to recent data published by Insider Intelligence, by 2026 e-commerce is expected to total over $8.1 trillion and 24% of retail purchases are expected to take place online. Veesual enables brands to create a more seamless and inclusive shopping experience for customers and in turn, yield higher sales and a lower return rate, allowing them to capture a larger percentage of online sales.

“We are proud to invest in Veesual, in order to accelerate its commercial roll-out and pursue its technological developments, as well as its international expansion,” said François Robinet, Managing Partner of AVP. “We believe in Maxime and his team’s vision. They have demonstrated a strong ability to execute and understand market challenges by offering fashion brands solutions to optimize their customer experience. With a presence on both sides of the Atlantic, AVP’s teams will be able to support Veesual in the next stages of its development.”

To support aggressive growth in the US, Veesual is working to recruit more senior talent and will open its first US office in New York in 2025. In addition to e-commerce, Veesual aims to create value for brands by displaying generated images on their acquisition and retargeting channels.

“The global fashion ecosystem is undergoing a seismic shift right now. The industry is increasingly focused on sustainable production, a better, more relevant buying experience and upcycling as a new standard. At Veesual, we’re meeting those changes by drastically improving how shoppers buy online which creates a more inclusive retail experience while also improving fit and reducing waste,” said Veesual Co-Founder and CEO, Maxime Patte. “This fundraise is critical for our plans as we scale in the United States with brands who are pioneering the augmented shopping experience. We anticipate significant growth in 2024 and beyond.”

About AVP

AVP is a global venture capital firm specializing in high-growth, technology-enabled companies, managing more than $2 billion in assets across four investment strategies: Venture, Growth, Late Growth, and Fund of Funds. Since its establishment in 2016, AVP has invested in more than 60 technology companies in Venture and Growth stages in the US and Europe. With offices in New York, London, and Paris, AVP supports companies in expanding internationally and provides portfolio companies with tailored business development opportunities to further accelerate their growth. AVP operates under AXA IM- Alts, the alternative investment business unit of AXA IM.

For more information, visit axavp.com
Contact: Sébastien Loubry, Partner Business development (sebastien@axavp.com)

About Veesual

Founded in 2020, Veesual was developed when co-founders Maxime Patte and Damien Meurisse recognized the limited means of fashion brands to visually engage diverse customers online. The platform offers solutions that leverage the power of images to create inclusive experiences that engage all customers. Globally, brands including Claudie Pierlot, Sergeant Major and La Redoute use Veesual. To date, these partnerships have outperformed expectations, with a 75% average increase in conversation rate and a more than 20% increase in average order value for shoppers who engaged with one of Veesual’s solutions. Veesual, a Techstars portfolio company, was part of Station F’s Founders program and has raised $7.5M to date. For more information, please visit https://www.veesual.ai/.

About EILEEN FISHER, Inc.

EILEEN FISHER has been making a system of simple, timeless clothes for nearly 40 years. A socially conscious company, EILEEN FISHER designs its clothing to be part of a responsible lifecycle, starting with sustainable materials, then taking back its clothes to be resold (Renew) or remade into something entirely new (Waste No More). The company became a B Corp in 2016, which means it voluntarily meets high criteria for social and environmental performance, accountability and transparency. The company’s clothes are sold online at eileenfisher.com, in more than 50 EILEEN FISHER stores in North America and over 500 department and specialty stores globally. Good-as-new pieces are resold at eileenfisherrenew.com, in two EILEEN FISHER Renew stores, and select EILEEN FISHER retail stores nationwide.

Media Contact

Courtney Page
Rally Point PR courtney.page@rallypoint.pr

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Boyum IT Solutions acquires NETRONIC and enriches its cloud manufacturing offering.

Volpi Capital

Aarhus, Denmark April 4th, 2024

Boyum IT Solutions (“Boyum”) is a global supply chain software vendor based in Denmark, with more than 12,000 customers in more than 100 countries. Netronic, based in Germany, is a software vendor with complementary functionality in production scheduling for SME manufacturers, globally. Similar to Boyum, Netronic offers its solutions to both Microsoft Dynamics and SAP customers, distributing their add-ons via hundreds of partners across the world.

With this acquisition, Boyum expands its cloud manufacturing offering to enable an end-to-end product value chain, creating a more holistic portfolio of ERP add-ons for its customers and partners across the SAP and Microsoft ecosystems.

The product and organizational synergies match the overall objective of helping more manufacturers produce and launch better products, with Boyum and NETRONIC both being flexible and passionate about rapidly adapting to the needs of their customers and partners.

Mikael Boyum, founder and CEO of Boyum IT, is excited about the opportunities that Netronic manufacturing will allow the company to pursue: “I’m very happy about the doors that this powerful scheduling tool opens for manufacturing SMEs in general, as well as for our current customers and partners. This will significantly enhance what our Cloud Apps and Beas currently offer and is another move in the right direction towards our goal of being the long-term product value chain partner – from the innovation stage, in which a product is idealized and designed, to its launch.”

Elmar Karlowitsch, COO, and Martin Karlowitsch, CEO of NETRONIC, are enthusiastic about the opportunities ahead: “We successfully established NETRONIC as a brand for powerful scheduling for small and mid-sized manufacturers. By joining forces with the Boyum team, we now can offer a full suite of manufacturing apps to our Dynamics 365 Business Central customers. So far in our business careers, we never saw a better fitting example of the ‘1 + 1 = 3’ formula.”

Boyum is owned by Volpi Capital – a B2B tech specialist investing across Northern Europe. Volpi Capital is experienced in international expansion and buy-and-build, driving sustainable and profitable growth.

Marc Andreoli and Fernando Piekenbrock,investors at Volpi Capital, are looking forward to continued growth for the combined group going forward: “After successfully integrating Perfion last year, we anticipate further revenue synergies from the merger between Boyum and NETRONIC. The acquisition will strengthen our positioning as a global ERP-agnostic provider of product value chain solutions and deepen our penetration of the highly growing Microsoft Dynamics market.”

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SheerID Launches Income Verification Solution Enabling Telcos to Serve Families No Longer Covered by Affordable Connectivity Program

Brighton Park Capital

Solution makes it easy for Telcos to digitally verify over 42 million individuals who qualify for government assistance programs for reduced price plans and promotions

PORTLAND, Ore.–(BUSINESS WIRE)–SheerID, the global leader in identity verification for commerce, today announced the availability of its instant verification solution for low-income households for telecom carriers. Already in use by brands such as Walmart – in support of the company’s Walmart+ Assist program – SheerID’s verification solution provides an easy way for companies to verify households who qualify for government assistance programs. With the federal government ending funding of the Affordable Connectivity Program (ACP) this month, SheerID’s verification solution provides a means for carriers to continue reduced rate pricing and promotions to families who need extra financial support. In addition, it allows Telcos to pursue continued federal funding through programs such as the broadband equity and deployment (BEAD) program.

“We are honored to help telcos that need new alternatives to the ACP to continue to provide their much needed products and services to families in need throughout the United States.”

Post this

Since the creation of ACP, carriers could count on the government to verify which of their customers are on government assistance and thus eligible for special discounts on their products and services. Now that ACP is being discontinued, telcos can no longer seamlessly verify and serve millions of customers who qualify for reduced rate programs. The end of ACP also represents the loss of government subsidies for rural broadband deployment. Providing low-cost plans to verified low-income customers is an efficient and effective way to ensure digital equity.

How SheerID verifies customers who qualify for government assistance

SheerID uses authoritative data sources to verify if someone meets the income eligibility guidelines for SNAP. In addition, SheerID can verify if someone is enrolled in a government assistance program like WIC, Medicaid, SSI, TANF, TTANF, NSLP and LIHEAP through document review. Once SheerID verifies the individual through its seamless white-label verification experience on the Telco’s website, the carrier can offer needed reduced-rate plans and other promotions such as discounts on refurbished phones to customers.

Supporting additional communities with exclusive promotions

Given the vital importance of Internet-access in today’s world, providing an exclusive offer to households that qualify for government assistance helps generate goodwill and supports the mission of a company’s brand. This phenomenon is also true when a brand provides personalized discounts to other communities, such as teachers, students, and healthcare workers. From surveys conducted by SheerID, more than 60% of all consumer communities said a personalized offer would make them promote that brand to friends and family. T-Mobile has generated goodwill by offering special promotions to military and first responders, while AT&T offers promotions to a number of communities including military, first responders, teachers, and healthcare workers. SheerID’s verification solution protects all of these offers by verifying that consumers who try to redeem these offers are indeed part of the community.

“This is an important initiative to help people around the country – regardless of their economic situation, gain access to the Internet and achieve digital equity,” stated Jake Weatherly, CEO of SheerID. “We are honored to help telcos that need new alternatives to the ACP to continue to provide their much needed products and services to families in need throughout the United States.”

More information about SheerID’s Telco solutions can be found here.

About SheerID

SheerID is the global leader in identity verification for commerce. With SheerID, brands identify and acquire customers from highly valued consumer communities — such as the military, students, teachers, and first responders — with personalized offers through loyalty programs, digital wallets, and more, that are gated by instant verification from the largest set of authoritative data worldwide. SheerID verifies more than 2.5 billion people via 200,000 authoritative data sources to increase sales while mitigating fraud, provides global insights from hundreds of the world’s leading brands, and never shares or sells customer data. As a result, the world’s biggest brands — including Amazon, Home Depot, Spotify, and T-Mobile — rely on SheerID as their identity verification partner. Founded in 2011, SheerID is backed by Fortson VC, Brighton Park Capital, Centana Growth Partners, Voyager Capital, and CVC Growth Partners.

SheerID is ISO Certified and is a member of the MACH Alliance, the group of independent technology companies dedicated to advocating for open, best-of-breed technology ecosystems. In 2023, SheerID ranked among the highest-scoring businesses on Inc. Magazine’s Annual List of Best Workplaces. For more information, please visit SheerID or follow us on Twitter, LinkedIn, Facebook, and TikTok.

Contacts

Michael Lindenberger
LindyPR
michael@lindypr.net
+1.415.531.1449

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CD&R to Acquire Presidio from BC Partners

BC Partners Logo

New York, April 2, 2024/PR Newswire – Clayton Dubilier & Rice (“CD&R” or the “Firm”) and BC Partners today announced that they have entered into a definitive agreement under which funds affiliated with CD&R will acquire a majority ownership position in Presidio, a leading technology services and solutions provider, from BC Partners. As part of the transaction, funds affiliated with BC Partners will retain minority ownership interest in Presidio. Terms of the transaction were not disclosed.

With more than 6,660 customers, relationships with leading technology providers such as Amazon, Palo Alto Networks, Microsoft, Google, Cisco and Dell and more than 3,500 team members, Presidio is a leading provider of IT and digital solutions. It offers customers a full suite of solutions from data and analytics, cloud services, cybersecurity solutions and infrastructure to keep pace with evolving digital transformation, rising security needs, and new workplace demands.

“CD&R is an experienced technology investor with a longstanding track record of applying an operational mindset to build businesses with enduring value, and our leadership team and I are excited to welcome CD&R as Presidio’s new investment partner,” said Bob Cagnazzi, CEO of Presidio. “We remain committed to growing by continuing to deliver high-quality technology solutions and services to help our customers deliver impactful outcomes through the strategic use of technology. The technology depth of our Presidio team, along with the operating expertise of CD&R and continued support of BC Partners, will help us execute on our ongoing business evolution to deliver world-class solutions to customers, drive deeper relationships with our technology ecosystem partners, and create opportunities for our employees worldwide.”

Mr. Cagnazzi continued, “I would like to thank BC Partners for their true partnership, as we expanded our offerings as a leading technology services and solutions provider. We are well positioned for the future and look forward to working closely with our investors as we advance our business strategy.”

BC Partners acquired Presidio in 2019, successfully delisting the Company from the Nasdaq in a $2.1 billion take private transaction. Under BC Partners’ ownership, Presidio initiated and completed a transformative growth plan, developing a leading cloud services business and expanding internationally. In turn, the Company realized strong growth across key financial metrics.

“It has been a pleasure to partner with Bob Cagnazzi and the entire Presidio team, who have done an incredible job of transforming the business and positioning it as a true global market leader,” said Fahim Ahmed, Partner at BC Partners. “Over the last four years, Presidio has expanded its portfolio in critical offerings such as cloud services and compelling new geographies. This investment further exemplifies BC Partners’ proven approach of working closely with our portfolio partners to help them accelerate their growth trajectories and reach their potential, for the benefit of all stakeholders. Presidio is well positioned for continued success, and we look forward to their next chapter of growth.”

Upon completion of the transaction, CD&R Operating Partner Bill Berutti will serve as Chair of Presidio’s Board of Directors.

“Presidio is at an important and exciting inflection point, and we are thrilled to have the opportunity to partner with Bob and his colleagues and the BC Partners team to help the company seize the numerous growth opportunities in front of it,” said Bill Berutti, Operating Partner at CD&R and former CEO of Plex Systems. “We have followed Presidio closely for some time and continue to be impressed by its growth and the management team’s strategic vision and execution abilities. We are excited to support the business and build on the already strong relationships they have with their customers.”

“We look forward to bringing our technology and distribution experience to further deepen Presidio’s technology ecosystem relationships and expand the company’s software, cloud and managed services offerings to make Presidio an even more valuable and trusted partner to its customers,” said Harsh Agarwal, Partner at CD&R.

The transaction is expected to close in the second quarter of 2024, subject to customary closing conditions.

J.P. Morgan Securities LLC, Citi, Wells Fargo, RBC Capital Markets LLC, BNP Paribas Securities Corp., UBS Investment Bank and Deutsche Bank Securities Inc. provided financing and served as financial advisors to CD&R. Debevoise & Plimpton LLP served as legal advisor to CD&R. Guggenheim Securities, LLC and LionTree Advisors served as financial advisors to BC Partners and Kirkland & Ellis LLP acted as legal advisor.

About Presidio At Presidio, speed and quality meet technology and innovation. With a decades-long history of building traditional IT foundations and deep expertise in automation, security, networking, digital transformation, and cloud computing, Presidio is a trusted ally for organizations across industries. Presidio fills in gaps, removes hurdles, optimizes costs, and reduces risk. Presidio’s renowned technical team develops custom applications, provides managed services, enables actionable data insights and builds forward-thinking solutions that drive extraordinary outcomes for customers globally. For more information, visit www.presidio.com.

About Clayton, Dubilier & Rice Founded in 1978, CD&R is a leading private investment firm with a strategy of generating strong investment returns by building more robust and sustainable businesses through the combination of skilled investment experience and deep operating capabilities. In partnership with the management teams of its portfolio companies, CD&R takes a long-term view of value creation and emphasizes positive stewardship and impact. The firm invests in businesses that span a broad range of industries, including industrial, healthcare, consumer, technology and financial services end markets. CD&R is privately owned by its partners and has offices in New York and London. For more information, please visit www.crd-inc.com and follow the firm’s activities through LinkedIn and @CDRBuilds on X/Twitter.

About BC Partners BC Partners is a leading investment firm with over €40 billion in assets under management across private equity, private debt, and real estate strategies. Established in 1986, BC Partners has played an active role for over three decades in developing the European buy-out market. Today BC Partners integrated transatlantic investment teams work from offices in Europe and North America and are aligned across our four core sectors: TMT, Healthcare, Services & Industrials, and Consumer. Since its foundation, BC Partners has completed over 127 private equity investments in companies with a total enterprise value of over €160 billion and is currently investing its eleventh private equity buyout fund. For further information, visit www.bcpartners.com.

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EQT Private Equity to Acquire Avetta from WCAS

eqt
  • Avetta’s platform is the world’s largest supply chain risk management network with over 500 hiring clients and 130,000 suppliers across more than 130 countries
  • Avetta’s solution improves the resilience of supply chains worldwide by helping hiring clients and suppliers manage their supply chain risk effectively and improve safety, security, sustainability, worker competency, and performance across major industries
  • EQT commits to supporting Avetta in its ongoing growth and innovation journey

EQT Private Equity announced today that the EQT X fund (“EQT”) has agreed to acquire Avetta (the “Company”) from Welsh, Carson, Anderson & Stowe (“WCAS”). Avetta is a global leader in supply chain risk management software.

For more than two decades, Avetta’s innovative SaaS platform has enabled clients to manage supply chain risks across health, safety, and sustainability, among other risk vectors. With 12 offices around the globe and more than 750 employees, Avetta’s global network spans over 130 countries, empowering over 500 hiring clients and 130,000 contractors to reduce accidents, improve compliance rates, and achieve higher levels of operational, sustainability, and ethical excellence.

Global supply chains face increasing complexity from globalization and digitization, as well as heightened safety, compliance and sustainability requirements. As an established, cloud-based SCRM platform backed by decades of innovation and with global scale, Avetta is well-positioned to help clients manage this complexity, creating higher resilience in global supply chains.

By leveraging its global footprint, purpose-driven approach, and digital and sustainability expertise, EQT will support Avetta’s ongoing growth journey. Through the development of new products and technologies, adoption of AI / automation, and global expansion, Avetta will further enhance its value proposition to both hiring clients and suppliers. Together, EQT and Avetta are committed to investing in innovation to address the critical challenges facing global supply chains today.

Arvindh Kumar, Partner and Co-Head of Technology within EQT’s Private Equity Advisory Team, said, “Avetta’s leadership position, world-class SaaS platform, and commitment to ESG represent a highly thematic investment opportunity for EQT. As one of the most active technology investors worldwide, EQT has deep software expertise and a broad network of advisors in the space. We look forward to partnering with Avetta and the management team on its next phase of growth and are excited to address some of the most pressing challenges in the supply chain sector.”

“Our partnership with EQT propels Avetta into a new era of innovation and growth, reinforcing our dedication to fostering safer, more sustainable workplaces across our global clients and suppliers,” remarked Arshad Matin, CEO of Avetta. “This transition is not just a significant milestone for Avetta but for the supply chain risk management (SCRM) industry at large. With the support of EQT, we are poised to enhance our product suite and operational reach further, as demonstrated by ‘Ask Ava,’ our pioneering generative AI risk assistant. As we embrace this exciting phase of expansion, we extend our deepest gratitude to WCAS for their unwavering support and partnership over the past six years.”

Christopher Hooper, General Partner at WCAS, stated, “WCAS is proud to have helped guide Avetta’s strategic evolution and achievement of substantial growth, both organically and through strategic acquisitions. Avetta is an excellent example of how WCAS supports accelerating value creation and driving technology businesses to the next level. With our co-investors TCV and Norwest Ventures Partners (NVP), we’re proud to have helped transform Avetta into a leading network for managing third-party supplier risk across a broad array of risk types including safety, business risk, ESG and workforce management.”

“Critical to this transformation has been the assembly of a world-class management team, led by Arshad Matin. Their leadership has been pivotal in Avetta’s enterprise scaling and innovation,” said Mr. Hooper. “We are confident in Avetta’s continued success under EQT’s ownership, assured that the foundation we’ve built will continue to thrive and set new benchmarks.”

With this transaction, EQT X is expected to be 35-40 percent invested (including closed and/or signed investments, announced public offers, if applicable, and less any expected syndication) based on the actual fund size and subject to customary regulatory approvals.

The transaction is subject to customary conditions and approvals and slated for completion in the coming months, pending customary closing conditions and regulatory approvals. Financial terms of the transaction were not disclosed.

Advisors

Goldman Sachs & Co. LLC served as exclusive financial advisor and Kirkland & Ellis served as legal counsel to Avetta. Citi served as exclusive financial advisor and Ropes & Gray served as legal counsel to EQT.

Contacts:

 

For EQT:

 

press@eqtpartners.com

 

For WCAS:

 

Fran Higgins
212 893-9504
fhiggins@wcas.com

 

Greg Lau
212 893-9586
glau@wcas.com

 

For Avetta:

 

Jenn Zimmer

avetta@hoffman.com

About EQT

EQT is a purpose-driven global investment organization with EUR 232 billion in total assets under management (EUR 130 billion in fee-generating assets under management), within two business segments – Private Capital and Real Assets. EQT owns portfolio companies and assets in Europe, Asia-Pacific and the Americas and supports them in achieving sustainable growth, operational excellence and market leadership.

More info: www.eqtgroup.com 

Follow EQT on LinkedIn, X, YouTube and Instagram

About WCAS

WCAS is a leading U.S. private equity firm focused on two target industries: technology and healthcare. Since its founding in 1979, the Firm’s strategy has been to partner with outstanding management teams and build value for its investors through a combination of operational improvements, growth initiatives and strategic acquisitions. WCAS has raised and managed funds totaling over $33 billion of committed capital. For more information, please visit www.wcas.com.

About Avetta

The Avetta SaaS platform helps clients manage supply chain risk and their suppliers to become more qualified for jobs. For the hiring clients in our network, we offer the world’s largest supply chain risk management network to manage supplier safety, sustainability, worker competency and performance. We perform contractor prequalification and worker competency management across major industries, all over the globe, including construction, energy, facilities, high tech, manufacturing, mining and telecom. More info: www.avetta.com

About Norwest

Norwest Venture Partners is a global venture and growth equity investment firm managing more than $12.5 billion in capital. Since its inception, Norwest has invested in more than 700 companies and currently partners with more than 230 companies in its venture and growth equity portfolio. The firm invests in early- to late-stage businesses across key sectors with a focus on enterprise, consumer and healthcare. The Norwest team offers a deep network of connections, extensive operating experience, and a wide range of impactful services to help CEOs and founders scale their businesses. Norwest has offices in Menlo Park and San Francisco, Calif.; Mumbai and Tel Aviv. For more information, please visit www.nvp.com.

About TCV

TCV is a leading growth equity investment firm focused on investing in global, category-defining, technology companies. Leveraging its deep industry expertise and strategic resources, TCV’s mission is to provide long-term capital and support to high-quality management teams across their growth journey. Since its founding in 1995, TCV has invested over $18 billion in more than 350 technology companies worldwide and has supported over 150 IPOs and strategic acquisitions, making it one of the most active technology investors. TCV has a global presence in Menlo Park, New York, London and Melbourne. For more information on TCV and its investments, visit www.tcv.com.

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ServiceTitan Supercharges Commercial Capabilities with Acquisition of Convex

Thomabravo

LOS ANGELES—ServiceTitan, a leading software platform built to power the trades, announced today that it has entered into a definitive agreement to acquire Convex, a leading sales and marketing platform purpose-built for the commercial services industry. For years, ServiceTitan and Convex have independently invested significant amounts of capital in building best-in-class software for commercial contractors, with a deep focus on driving ROI and positive business outcomes for their customers. This new partnership will help deliver an industry-leading end-to-end solution that enables commercial businesses to grow profitably – from initial outreach to new prospects, through work order execution, invoicing, job costing, and everything in between.

“ServiceTitan is on a mission to build technology that significantly improves the lives of every single contractor,” said Ara Mahdessian, CEO and co-founder of ServiceTitan. “We are laser focused on delivering high ROI, purpose-built software for the commercial services industry. Commercial businesses deserve a platform that works as hard as they do – a platform that can help them operate and enable profitable growth for decades to come. I’m thrilled to welcome Convex to the ServiceTitan family as we collectively join forces to continue executing on this ambitious vision.”

Founded in 2017, Convex was built to modernize the commercial services industry with data-driven solutions that increase revenue for contractors by improving their go-to-market strategies and execution.

Convex’s purpose-built platform allows commercial businesses to:

  • Plan their growth strategies with one of the most comprehensive views of the market available, including property, contact, business, and permit data
  • Target high-value opportunities to identify new business and expand existing relationships
  • Engage customers at the right time, with the right messaging to win their business
  • Manage revenue teams to drive both consistent and predictable growth

“Our mission at Convex is to provide commercial services businesses with the tools and technology they need to win in their market,” said Charlie Warren, CEO and co-founder of Convex. “ServiceTitan and Convex have both been battle tested, empowering contractors to succeed even amidst a challenging labor market. Together, our companies can deliver an unparalleled end-to-end customer experience in the commercial market. I look forward to partnering with Ara and Vahe as we embark on this new chapter to collectively enable commercial businesses to grow profitably.”

Last year, ServiceTitan released a definitive market report on the Commercial Service Industry, providing insights into challenges and opportunities facing the market, as well as strategies businesses are employing by leveraging digital tools to stay competitive. The report surveyed more than 1,000 commercial contractors and found that 70% did not see an increase in revenue and 39% experienced a decrease in their revenue. However, in 2023, Convex helped its customers drive nearly $1.5 billion in incremental growth, and an estimated $3 billion in revenue. Convex customers also experienced a 9x median ROI in year one on average, with the software paying itself back in days, not months [1]. With this partnership, the impact that ServiceTitan and Convex can jointly enable for commercial services business increases significantly.

Together, ServiceTitan and Convex are excited to invest in making the Convex platform even better, creating greater value and ROI for commercial contractors. To ensure a seamless transition and integration of the Convex platform, Charlie Warren will continue serving as Convex CEO, and co-founder Blake Meulmester, will continue leading Convex’s product driving forward the joint mission of bringing revenue generation capabilities to all commercial services businesses across the industry.

ServiceTitan’s acquisition of Convex is subject to the satisfaction or waiver of certain closing conditions contained in the definitive agreement.

About ServiceTitan

ServiceTitan is a cloud-based software platform built to power trades businesses. The company’s end-to-end solution gives contractors the tools they need to run and grow their business, manage their back office, and provide a stellar customer experience. By bringing an integrated SaaS platform to an industry historically underserved by technology, ServiceTitan is equipping tradespeople with the technology they need to keep the world running. ServiceTitan is backed by world-class investors including Battery Ventures, Bessemer Venture Partners, Coatue, CPP Investments, Dragoneer Investment Group, Durable Capital Partners LP, Generation Investment Management, ICONIQ Growth, Index Ventures, Sequoia Capital, Thoma Bravo, TPG, and T. Rowe Price.

About Convex

Convex is a leading sales and marketing platform for the commercial services industry. Founded in 2017, Convex helps service businesses target and engage their customers through unique offerings in Property Intelligence, Sales Intelligence, Sales Engagement, CRM, and Buyer Intent. Unlike horizontal solutions, the Company leverages AI-powered insights and purpose built workflows that drive high ROI and scale efficient teams. Convex is headquartered in San Francisco.

Read the release on the ServiceTitan website here.

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CD&R to Acquire Presidio from BC Partners

Clayton Dubilier Rice

Positions the Company to Expand Its Digital Solutions and Managed Cloud Services Offerings to Accelerate Growth

BC Partners to Retain Minority Ownership Position

Presidio
Tuesday, April 2, 2024
New York

Clayton Dubilier & Rice (“CD&R” or the “Firm”) and BC Partners today announced that they have entered into a definitive agreement under which funds affiliated with CD&R will acquire a majority ownership position in Presidio, a leading technology services and solutions provider, from BC Partners. As part of the transaction, funds affiliated with BC Partners will retain minority ownership interest in Presidio. Terms of the transaction were not disclosed.

With more than 6,660 customers, relationships with leading technology providers such as Amazon, Palo Alto Networks, Microsoft, Google, Cisco and Dell and more than 3,500 team members, Presidio is a leading provider of IT and digital solutions. It offers customers a full suite of solutions from data and analytics, cloud services, cybersecurity solutions and infrastructure to keep pace with evolving digital transformation, rising security needs, and new workplace demands.

“CD&R is an experienced technology investor with a longstanding track record of applying an operational mindset to build businesses with enduring value, and our leadership team and I are excited to welcome CD&R as Presidio’s new investment partner,” said Bob Cagnazzi, CEO of Presidio. “We remain committed to growing by continuing to deliver high-quality technology solutions and services to help our customers deliver impactful outcomes through the strategic use of technology. The technology depth of our Presidio team, along with the operating expertise of CD&R and continued support of BC Partners, will help us execute on our ongoing business evolution to deliver world-class solutions to customers, drive deeper relationships with our technology ecosystem partners, and create opportunities for our employees worldwide.”

Mr. Cagnazzi continued, “I would like to thank BC Partners for their true partnership, as we expanded our offerings as a leading technology services and solutions provider. We are well positioned for the future and look forward to working closely with our investors as we advance our business strategy.”

BC Partners acquired Presidio in 2019, successfully delisting the Company from the Nasdaq in a $2.1 billion take private transaction. Under BC Partners’ ownership, Presidio initiated and completed a transformative growth plan, developing a leading cloud services business and expanding internationally. In turn, the Company realized strong growth across key financial metrics.

“It has been a pleasure to partner with Bob Cagnazzi and the entire Presidio team, who have done an incredible job of transforming the business and positioning it as a true global market leader,” said Fahim Ahmed, Partner at BC Partners. “Over the last four years, Presidio has expanded its portfolio in critical offerings such as cloud services and compelling new geographies. This investment further exemplifies BC Partners’ proven approach of working closely with our portfolio partners to help them accelerate their growth trajectories and reach their potential, for the benefit of all stakeholders. Presidio is well positioned for continued success, and we look forward to their next chapter of growth.”

Upon completion of the transaction, CD&R Operating Partner Bill Berutti will serve as Chair of Presidio’s Board of Directors.

“Presidio is at an important and exciting inflection point, and we are thrilled to have the opportunity to partner with Bob and his colleagues and the BC Partners team to help the company seize the numerous growth opportunities in front of it,” said Bill Berutti, Operating Partner at CD&R and former CEO of Plex Systems. “We have followed Presidio closely for some time and continue to be impressed by its growth and the management team’s strategic vision and execution abilities. We are excited to support the business and build on the already strong relationships they have with their customers.”

“We look forward to bringing our technology and distribution experience to further deepen Presidio’s technology ecosystem relationships and expand the company’s software, cloud and managed services offerings to make Presidio an even more valuable and trusted partner to its customers,” said Harsh Agarwal, Partner at CD&R.

The transaction is expected to close in the second quarter of 2024, subject to customary closing conditions.

J.P. Morgan Securities LLC, Citi, Wells Fargo, RBC Capital Markets LLC, BNP Paribas Securities Corp., UBS Investment Bank and Deutsche Bank Securities Inc. provided financing and served as financial advisors to CD&R. Debevoise & Plimpton LLP served as legal advisor to CD&R. Guggenheim Securities, LLC and LionTree Advisors served as financial advisors to BC Partners and Kirkland & Ellis LLP acted as legal advisor.

About Presidio
At Presidio, speed and quality meet technology and innovation. With a decades-long history of building traditional IT foundations and deep expertise in automation, security, networking, digital transformation, and cloud computing, Presidio is a trusted ally for organizations across industries. Presidio fills in gaps, removes hurdles, optimizes costs, and reduces risk. Presidio’s renowned technical team develops custom applications, provides managed services, enables actionable data insights and builds forward-thinking solutions that drive extraordinary outcomes for customers globally. For more information, visit www.presidio.com.

About Clayton, Dubilier & Rice
Founded in 1978, CD&R is a leading private investment firm with a strategy of generating strong investment returns by building more robust and sustainable businesses through the combination of skilled investment experience and deep operating capabilities. In partnership with the management teams of its portfolio companies, CD&R takes a long-term view of value creation and emphasizes positive stewardship and impact. The firm invests in businesses that span a broad range of industries, including industrial, healthcare, consumer, technology and financial services end markets. CD&R is privately owned by its partners and has offices in New York and London. For more information, please visit www.cdr-inc.com and follow the firm’s activities through LinkedIn and @CDRBuilds on X/Twitter.

About BC Partners
BC Partners is a leading investment firm with over €40 billion in assets under management across private equity, private debt, and real estate strategies. Established in 1986, BC Partners has played an active role for over three decades in developing the European buy-out market. Today BC Partners integrated transatlantic investment teams work from offices in Europe and North America and are aligned across our four core sectors: TMT, Healthcare, Services & Industrials, and Consumer. Since its foundation, BC Partners has completed over 127 private equity investments in companies with a total enterprise value of over €160 billion and is currently investing its eleventh private equity buyout fund.

For further information, visit www.bcpartners.com

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Metaview’s tool records interview notes so that hiring managers don’t have to

Fly Ventures Logo
Kyle Wiggers@kyle_l_wiggers / 

Illustration of a group of applicants waiting outside a door for a job interview.

Image Credits: lemono / Getty Images

Siadhal Magos and Shahriar Tajbakhsh were working at Uber and Palantir, respectively, when they both came to the realization that hiring — particularly the process of interviewing — was becoming unwieldy for many corporate HR departments.

“It was clear to us that the most important part of the hiring process is the interviews, but also the most opaque and unreliable part,” Magos told TechCrunch. “On top of this, there’s a bunch of toil associated with taking notes and writing up feedback that many interviewers and hiring managers do everything they can to avoid.”

Magos and Tajbakhsh thought that the hiring process was ripe for disruption, but they wanted to avoid abstracting away too much of the human element. So they launched Metaview, an AI-powered note-taking app for recruiters and hiring managers that records, analyzes and summarizes job interviews.

“Metaview is an AI note-taker built specifically for the hiring process,” Magos said. “It helps recruiters and hiring managers focus more on getting to know candidates and less on extracting data from the conversations. As a consequence, recruiters and hiring managers save a ton of time writing up notes and are more present during interviews because they’re not having to multitask.”

Metaview integrates with apps, phone systems, videoconferencing platforms and tools like Calendly and GoodTime to automatically capture the content of interviews. Magos says the platform “accounts for the nuances of recruiting conversations” and “enriches itself with data from other sources,” such as applicant tracking systems, to highlight the most relevant moments.

“Zoom, Microsoft Teams and Google Meet all have transcription built in, which is a possible alternative to Metaview,” Magos said. “But the information that Metaview’s AI pulls out from interviews is far more relevant to the recruiting use case than generic alternatives, and we also assist users with the next steps in their recruiting workflows in and around these conversations.”

Metaview

Image Credits: Metaview

Certainly, there’s plenty wrong with traditional job interviewing, and a note-taking and conversation-analyzing app like Metaview could help, at least in theory. As a piece in Psychology Today notes, the human brain is rife with biases that hinder our judgement and decision making, for example a tendency to rely too heavily on the first piece of information offered and to interpret information in a way that confirms our preexisting beliefs.

The question is, does Metaview work — and, more importantly, work equally well for all users?

Even the best AI-powered speech dictation systems suffer from their own biases. A Stanford study showed that error rates for Black speakers on speech-to-text services from Amazon, Apple, Google, IBM and Microsoft are nearly double those for white speakers. Another, more recent study published in the journal Computer Speech and Language found statistically significant differences in the way two leading speech recognition models treated speakers of different genders, ages and accents.

There’s also hallucination to consider. AI makes mistakes summarizing, including in meeting summaries. In a recent story, The Wall Street Journal cited an instance where, for one early adopter using Microsoft’s AI Copilot tool for summarizing meetings, Copilot invented attendees and implied calls were about subjects that were never discussed.

When asked what steps Metaview has taken, if any, to mitigate bias and other algorithmic issues, Magos claimed that Metaview’s training data is diverse enough to yield models that “surpass human performance” on recruitment workflows and perform well on popular benchmarks for bias.

I’m skeptical and a bit wary, too, of Metaview’s approach to how it handles speech data. Magos says that Metaview stores conversation data for two years by default unless users request that the data be deleted. That seems like an exceptionally long time.

But none of this appears to have affected Metaview’s ability to get funding or customers.

Metaview this month raised $7 million from investors including Plural, Coelius Capital and Vertex Ventures, bringing the London-based startup’s total raised to $14 million. Metaview’s client count stands at 500 companies, Magos says, including Brex, Quora, Pleo and Improbable — and it’s grown 2,000% year-over-year.

“The money will be used to grow the product and engineering team primarily, and give more fuel to our sales and marketing efforts,” Magos said. “We will triple the product and engineering team, further fine-tune our conversation synthesis engine so our AI is automatically extracting exactly the right information our customers need and develop systems to proactively detect issues like inconsistencies in the interview process and candidates that appear to be losing interest.”

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Leading Tennr’s $3.25M Seed Round: An Investment in Founders

Foundation Capital
Ideas / News / Leading Tennr’s $3.25M Seed Round: An Investment in Founders

02.28.2024 | By: Joanne Chen

When we led Tennr’s $3.25M seed investment in May 2023, the company was still iterating on product and didn’t have any revenue. Eight months later, Tennr surpassed $1M ARR. The rapid growth trajectory is a testament to the team, the company’s focus, and the urgency of the problem they’re solving.

Tennr is an automation platform for healthcare and financial services operations. It’s building in a space that I’ve studied for nearly a decade—RPA (robotic process automation). In the early 2000s, RPA promised to replace mundane and repetitive tasks with software bots. The industry had isolated cases of success, but overall adoption plateaued, falling short of becoming the enterprise-wide solution McKinsey prophesied in 2017 and 2019. It’s estimated that 30-50% of RPA projects fail, and even if they succeed, scale is difficult: only 3% of organizations scale the digital workforce with RPA.

Up until recently, the vast majority of RPA solutions used rules. They were brittle, costly to implement, and lacked AI. Even the ones that used AI only dealt with structured data (like spreadsheets). Recent advances in LLMs have led to a huge change in the industry. Today, LLMs can analyze unstructured data like complex documents, code, and emails, opening up the possibilities of what can be automated—and we believe 10x the market opportunity as a whole.

Investors recognize this, which has led to some recent frenzy. But I have personally been (and Foundation Capital as a firm!) investing in these RPA companies for years: I invested in business procurement automation tool Tonkean in 2019, and my partner Ashu Garg, invested in Ikigai in 2021, an AI platform for structured data. We also have another investment in stealth. These companies are able to focus on one or two processes and do them really well—and at a time where the technology is advancing, and more and more processes are ripe for automation, focus is how winners will emerge.

Before investing in Tennr, we spent eight months helping the team sharpen that focus.

They were obsessed with automating work people hated doing, but each time we met with Co-Founder and CEO Trey Holterman, he had a different approach that wasn’t quite working. We turned him down multiple times, but it was clear he and the team were maturing quickly. They iterated to understand what created value for customers; in one meeting, Trey told us he’d learned customers were so interested in Tennr’s approach that the company could charge $500 for customized product demos. In a short time, the team went from struggling with GTM to turning a demo into a revenue stream.

In another meeting, we brainstormed product positioning, realizing that not all customers were getting the same value by automating workflows. Healthcare and financial services did, so that’s where they focused. It’s an industry with massive document-processing needs—billing, claims, referrals, explanations of benefits, PDFs, hand-written notes—which takes a lot of time because the information is messy and input is done manually. Breaking down the automation steps was a process Trey and Co-Founder and CPO Diego Baugh recognized; as former professional rowers, it was like they were breaking down a training regimen.

Foundation Capital invests in amazing founders. Trey, Diego, and Tyler Johnson (CTO) were that and more. They brought innovation and dedication. We supported with expertise and networks: helping establish Tennr’s seed positioning, building its team, introducing them to customers, and finding advisors and investors. An early-stage company’s success is built on its founding team—and we’re there to support them.

 

Looking more broadly, there’s a sea change on the horizon in the RPA space and of applying AI to verticals. The combination of new technology and rote processes are leading to the emergence of new possibilities. If you’re an ambitious founder thinking about what’s next, I’d love to learn more about what you’re doing: jchen@foundationcap.com. It’s never too early.

Published on 01.31.2023
Written by Foundation Capital

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