Tag Archives: Information technology

Argos Wityu invests in SB Italia

argos wityu

Founder Massimo Missaglia reinvests alongside Argos Wityu and remains as CEO, Pietro Scott Jovane becomes Chairman of SB Italia, and Paolo Scaroni joins the Board of Directors.

SB Italia is launching an ambitious development plan aimed at strong organic growth, in line with the company’s performance, complemented by a focused acquisition plan.

Argos Wityu, an independent pan-European private equity group, has taken a majority stake in SB Italia, a digital innovation company specialized in IT solutions and services for the management, integration, and digitisation of business processes.

To maintain strategic and business continuity, Massimo Missaglia, SB Italia’s founder, and his team will reinvest in the company. Mr Missaglia will also remain at the helm of the company as its Chief Executive Officer.

To accelerate SB Italia’s expansion, Pietro Scott Jovane, former CEO of Microsoft Italy and RCS MediaGroup, will join the Board of Directors as Chairman, and Paolo Scaroni, former CEO of ENEL and ENI and currently Chairman of AC Milan, will also join the Board of Directors.

Argos Wityu’s investment lends strong support to Mr Missaglia’s development plans and adds impetus and significant resources to help the company fully realise its remarkable potential.

SB Italia’s five-year strategic growth plan is based on the following pillars:

  • Geographical expansion in Italy and abroad,
  • Strong development of proprietary solutions,
  • Focus on certain industries and verticals (e.g., HR, Procurement).

In addition to these pillars, specific initiatives are being developed to support Italy’s digitization plans, supported by the Italian Next Generation EU funds. Growth through acquisition is also planned.

SB Italia is one of the leaders in the Italian IT landscape, helping to create new business models, optimising day-to-day management of operations, and rationalising its customers’ IT spending, while accompanying those customers in their digital transformation.

The company’s range of services includes cutting-edge solutions, such as AgileSign (digital signature platform), DocsWeb (Document, Process & Workflow Management platform), SRM (Sustainability Relationship Management aimed at innovating corporate green practices) and CollaborAction (CRM). The Company also offers Analytics and Predictive Analysis solutions as well as projects related to ERP and system management services, laying the foundations of an efficient and secure IT system.

SB Italia, founded in 2004, has since experienced rapid growth. The company forecasts a 2022 turnover of over €38 million, with an increase of 30% in the first half, compared with 2021. For some years now, the company has ranked among IDC’s top 100 software and service operators in Italy.

Andrea Pavesi, Partner at Argos Wityu, said: “We are very pleased to announce our investment in SB Italia, in partnership with the current management team. We believe that the IT sector is among the most important ones to focus on now, with outstanding prospects, as identified by the Italian Next Generation EU funds. We have developed clear and ambitious growth plans, fully in line with Massimo Missaglia and his team, and we think we can be a value-added partner for this project. Furthermore, in line with our usual approach, we feel we have the responsibility to provide not only financial resources but also skills, vision, and leadership. To accomplish this, we are looking forward to benefiting from the extensive experience of Pietro Scott Jovane, the new Chairman, and Paolo Scaroni, as a new member of the Board of Directors.”

Massimo Missaglia, CEO of SB Italia, added: “This objective of this transaction is to provide the impetus for a new phase of growth and enhancement at SB Italia. Argos Wityu’s investment will enable us to achieve the expansion goals we are aiming for. We have always supported companies in their digitisation; thanks to this new structure, we will be able to offer increasingly innovative, bespoke and valuable solutions for our customers in Italy and abroad. I am sure that this path is the right one and all of our customers recognise this daily. For this reason, my team and I have decided to reinvest in the company as part of the transaction.”

Pietro Scott Jovane, new President of SB Italia, commented: “I am honoured to be part of the successful SB Italia team and to be able to contribute in my role to the ambitious strategic plan for the coming years. SB Italia has been able to digitise key processes at some of the largest Italian companies in recent years, and I am confident that these skills and credibility, paired with the decisive support of Argos Wityu, can now be accelerated on a large scale and support even more customers in their digital transformation.”

Argos Wityu team: Jean-Pierre Di Benedetto, Andrea Pavesi, Veronica Digoncelli, Gabriele Scalco, Luca Settanni and Alberto Hallac.

Argos Wityu

Coralie Cornet
Director of Communications
ccc@argos.fund
+33 1 53 67 20 63

SB Italia Press Office

Meridian Communications
Silvia Ceriotti
silvia.ceriotti@meridiancommunications.it

 

About Argos Wityu / www.argos.wityu.fund
Argos Wityu is an independent European investment fund that supports companies in the transfer of business ownership. It has assisted more than 80 entrepreneurs, focusing its investment strategy on complex transactions with emphasis on transformation, growth, and close collaboration with management teams. Argos Wityu seeks to acquire majority interests and invest between €10m and €100m with each transaction. With more than €1bn under management and 30 years of experience, Argos Wityu operates from offices in Brussels, Frankfurt, Geneva, Luxembourg, Milan and Paris.

About SB Italia / www.sbitalia.com
SB Italia designs, builds, and manages IT solutions to lead companies in Digital Transformation projects. In 2021, the Company recorded over 34 million euros turnover, developed with 250 passionate people who identify, propose, and implement innovative digital solutions for their customers.
SB Italia is a value-added system integrator characterized by having in-house the main skills necessary for the design and delivery of projects. The Company also has a development team working on application solutions that have become a benchmark in the market, in ECM, Document Management, Workflow Management, BI & Analytics, ERP, and information systems.
Partner of the main technology vendors, the Company has in-depth knowledge in relation to the most innovative technologies as well as strong skills and great experience on processes, thanks to projects carried out in different sectors with companies of various sizes.

Categories: News

Tags:

August Equity announces significant investment in OneTouch, including acquisition of tri.x

August Equity

August Equity has announced its investment into OneTouch. Led by founder and CEO Dermot Clancy, OneTouch is an end-to-end care management software platform that supports the management of all care delivery needs, from client and carer scheduling, HR management, incident tracking, care planning and family communications for care providers across Ireland and the UK.

August’s investment provides funding for the business to support its ambitious growth plans, including investment into sales and marketing, further product development and funding for strategic acquisitions that bring highly complementary software and service offerings to the group to benefit OneTouch’s customer base of care providers, including homecare agencies, care homes, local authorities and specialist care providers. Dr Sati Sian joins the board as Chairman, bringing a depth of experience across the technology and healthtech space.

As part of the investment, OneTouch has acquired Signis Limited, which trades under the tri.x brand and has been carved out from BGF-backed Antser Holdings. Tri.x is the market leader in the provision of effective online adult and children’s social care procedures solutions, supporting all Local Authorities and a number of independent care providers across England, and provides a highly complementary content-based offering to OneTouch’s software platform.

OneTouch and tri.x together offer care organisations a wealth of content, functionality and digital tools to support carers to deliver the highest quality care to clients, communicate easily with clients and families and ensure that carers have the maximum visibility and flexibility over their work schedules.

Christian Dubé and Katie Beckingham, August Equity, commented, “We are delighted to have invested in OneTouch and tri.x, bringing together two unique and valuable businesses in the care sector, at a time when digitisation and technology is at the forefront of care delivery. At August, we have a long history of investing in social care businesses and understand the challenges faced by the sector and the benefit that a truly end-to-end care management platform and compliance platform can bring to care providers. We look forward to working with Dermot, Sati and the team to continue the strong growth of the business to date.”

Dermot Clancy, CEO of OneTouch, said, “We are really excited for the next stage of OneTouch’s growth with August’s backing and experience scaling businesses and delivering acquisitions. Bringing tri.x into the OneTouch group provides our customers with a fantastic resource of policies, procedures and best-practice handbooks, which is a great addition to the software offering and functionality that we have built to support them in delivering the highest quality and most efficient care to their clients.”

Dr Sati Sian, Chairman of OneTouch, added, “Given the already proven unique assets that OneTouch and tri.x bring to the care sector, combined with August’s successful history of supporting businesses in the sector, I am really looking forward to working with Dermot and his excellent management team in driving OneTouch to its next stage of growth.”

August Equity was advised by CMS (legal), KPMG (financial and tax), CIL (commercial), Lockton (insurance), and Xaeus Blue (technology).

Categories: News

Tags:

TIMETOACT GROUP expands application performance monitoring and business service assurance with acquisition of OpenAdvice

Equistone

TIMETOACT GROUP, a leading provider of IT services for medium-sized businesses, large corporations and public institutions in Germany, Austria and Switzerland, has acquired OpenAdvice IT Services GmbH, a proven specialist in application performance monitoring and business service assurance. The acquisition supports TIMETOACT GROUP’s ongoing expansion of its portfolio of high-quality consultancy services and specialist-managed services offerings. The existing partnership between the two companies via the IBM partner program is now being consolidated and expanded under the umbrella of TIMETOACT GROUP. Jeanette and Markus Fürst will continue to lead the OpenAdvice business and will become shareholders in TIMETOACT GROUP, while Christian Port will retire from the business. Both parties agreed not to disclose the details of the transaction.

TIMETOACT GROUP, headquartered in Cologne, currently comprises ten specialised IT companies with 16 locations across Germany, Austria and Switzerland: ARS, catworkx, CLOUDPILOTS, edcom, IPG, novaCapta, PKS, synaigy, TIMETOACT and X-INTEGRATE. With around 900 employees and a comprehensive portfolio of software and consulting services, the digitisation expert primarily concentrates on medium-sized and large companies from industry, finance and the services sector, as well as public institutions.

OpenAdvice is a consultant and service provider for the successful development of customer-specific solutions in the IT service operations area and specialises in application performance monitoring and business service assurance. Established in 2000, it today supports customers throughout Germany and Europe from its headquarters in Heusenstamm near Frankfurt.

As a full-service provider, OpenAdvice provides consulting and integration, software sales, support & maintenance, training and individual software development. Training courses and workshops round off the company’s in-house service portfolio, covering monitoring, reporting, and training courses on the IBM Netcool Suite and the Grafana ecosystem.

The previous shareholder of OpenAdvice, Markus Fürst, and sales manager, Jeanette Fürst, will continue to lead OpenAdvice as a business unit within TIMETOACT GROUP. The agreement was quickly reached during the bilateral decision-making process, during which significant synergy and growth potential were identified, particularly with TIMETOACT’s Business Applications division. For TIMETOACT GROUP, the transaction marks its third acquisition since funds advised by Equistone Partners Europe acquired a majority stake in the company in June 2021 and represents another important step in the group’s growth.

“Joining TIMETOACT GROUP will make us part of a major brand, allowing us to leverage multiple synergies moving forward. The services jointly used across the group will support our growth as a business, particularly when it comes to recruitment. For our customers, the diversified positioning of the TIMETOACT GROUP also offers many advantages and a significantly expanded service offering”, notes Markus Fürst, Founder and Director of OpenAdvice.

“I am particularly delighted to be able to utilise synergies with the wider TIMETOACT GROUP and to also make the group’s portfolio available for OpenAdvice customers. I also see joint growth prospects with our existing partners, IBM and GrafanaLabs, in our main application performance monitoring business,”  adds Jeanette Fürst, sales manager of OpenAdvice.

“The acquisition of OpenAdvice is an important step in the expansion of our managed services portfolio. OpenAdvice’s customers will also benefit from the fact that the TIMETOACT GROUP – one of the largest IBM platinum business partners in the DACH region – will give them access to the entire IBM product offering, coupled with our top-class services. Moreover, the Fürst husband and wife team have allowed us to bring two highly motivated managers on board. We are thrilled to be able to develop the TIMETOACT GROUP together”, says Frank Fuchs, Co-Director of the TIMETOACT GROUP.

Felix Binsack, Co-Director of the TIMETOACT GROUP, adds: “We are delighted to add Jeanette and Markus Fürst, two successful and extremely likeable entrepreneurs, to the group of shareholders of the TIMETOACT GROUP.”

Frank Fuchs, Christian Koch and Felix Luxen are responsible for the transaction on the part of the TIMETOACT GROUP. TIMETOACT GROUP was advised during this transaction by BDLV (Financial & Tax), de Angelis Rechtsanwälte (Legal) and P+P Pöllath & Partners (Legal). The OpenAdvice shareholders were advised during the transaction by v. KEUSSLER Rechtsanwälte (Legal) and Steuerberatung Ostle (Financial & Tax).

PR Contacts

GERMANY / SWITZERLAND / NETHERLANDS

Munich, Zurich, Amsterdam

  • IWK Communication Partner
  • Ira Wülfing / Florian Bergmann
  • Tel: +49 (0)89 2000 30 30
  • E-Mail IWK

Categories: News

Tags:

CVC Credit provides debt facilities to support Partners Group’s acquisition of Version 1

CVC Capital Partners

CVC Credit is pleased to announce that it has committed senior debt facilities to support the acquisition of Version 1, a leading digital transformation services provider in the UK and Ireland, by Partners Group, a leading global private markets firm, acting on behalf of its clients.

Headquartered in Dublin, Version 1 works with private and public sector clients on complex digital transformation programmes and is a leader with a competitive edge coming from their technical expertise, data-drive commercial model and superior customer service capabilities. Version 1 has approximately 450 clients, including blue-chip companies and central government departments, and 2,100 employees across offices in Ireland, the UK, India, and Spain.

Quotes

I am delighted that we were able to secure our position as a partner for this opportunity, our third investment into Partners Group-backed companies.

Andrew Davies Partner and Co-Head of Private Credit

Moris Nachmias, Director at CVC Credit, commented: “Version 1 is a high quality business with a proven track record of above market organic growth, fuelled by its strong technical expertise and high quality management team. We are very pleased to be backing Partners Group’s vision for the future of this business, which we were able to swiftly verify through our prior institutional experience in the sector.”

Andrew Davies, Partner and Co-Head of Private Credit at CVC Credit added: “I am delighted that we were able to secure our position as a partner for this opportunity, our third investment into Partners Group-backed companies. Our aim is always to partner with top-quality sponsors, businesses and management teams, and this is certainly the case with Version 1.”

Categories: News

Tags:

Xeneta Raises $80 Million led by Apax Digital

Apax

Investment to Fuel Expansion of Xeneta’s Breakthrough Container Shipping & Air Cargo Market Analytics Platform

Xeneta, the leading ocean and air freight rate benchmarking and market analytics platform, today announced an $80 million investment at a $265 million valuation led by funds advised by Apax Digital, the growth equity arm of Apax, a leading global private equity advisory firm, with participation from NY-based Lugard Road Capital. With this investment, Xeneta will accelerate investments in platform development and continue scaling its global commercial teams. This will support expansion into new markets as companies seek to develop resilient supply chains to counter global trade volatility.

A global pandemic, geo-political uncertainty, and climate-related events have led to an unpredictable market where supply and demand continue to shift, leaving supply chain, logistics, and transportation professionals scrambling for visibility. As organizations undergo efforts to navigate instabilities in the market, access to readily available and actionable freight rate data has emerged as a strategic priority. In this new context, ocean shipping and air cargo transportation costs have been elevated to company board-level discussions. Additionally, in an increasingly data-driven world, procurement, finance, and other corporate functions cannot operate effectively without data that is fit for purpose.

Xeneta stands in stark contrast to other shipping rate and index solutions by providing organizations with the world’s largest, neutral and most accurate data source of real-time, on-demand ocean container and air freight rate market intelligence, whether for long-term contracts or spot trades. The Xeneta platform delivers the one-two punch that modern companies look for in digitizing their overall freight procurement or selling operations by providing access to an unrivaled amount of rate data (with 10 million rates added a month), as well as incorporating advanced analytics and visualization. The all-in-one platform delivers further value by providing data and insights on capacity, reliability, blank sailings, detention and demurrage, dynamic load factor, emissions data, and more.

Xeneta’s novel crowdsourced approach levels the playing field for ocean and air freight buyers and sellers offering benchmarking, tendering, budgeting, planning, and reporting capabilities. Amidst global supply chain and logistics challenges, Xeneta’s intelligence ensures that companies’ cargoes get to where it needs to be, when it needs to be there, all at the right price.

“While global trade tries to get back on its feet after a couple of years of uncertainty, it’s clear that the overall logistics industry requires a re-think of how freight is bought and sold. This new funding will help us accelerate development of our platform and add even more datasets to enrich our expert industry analyses to further drive transparency in the market,” said Xeneta CEO and Co-founder Patrik Berglund. “We are proud to have a renowned global fund like Apax Digital and its expert operational team to work alongside us as we enter our next stage of growth.”

Mark Beith, Partner at Apax Digital, who joins the company’s Board of Directors, said: “Buyers and sellers of freight have been flying blind in a complex and opaque market. Xeneta’s world-leading dataset and cutting-edge platform provide unique access to granular real-time information and insight, enabling data-driven freight sales and purchases. This delivers compelling value for their blue-chip customer base – not just in sales or procurement, but also in budgeting and reporting, and increasingly in ESG monitoring. We’re thrilled to partner with Patrik and the Xeneta team and help deliver their vision.”

Xeneta’s customer portfolio includes amongst others: Electrolux, Unilever, Nestle, Zebra Technologies, Thyssenkrupp, Volvo, General Mills, Procter & Gamble, and John Deere.

About Xeneta

Xeneta is the leading ocean and air freight rate benchmarking and market analytics platform transforming the shipping and logistics industry. Xeneta’s powerful reporting and analytics platform provides liner-shipping and air cargo stakeholders the data they need to understand current and historical market behavior, reporting live on market average and low/high movements for both short- and long-term contracts. Xeneta’s data comprises more than 300 million contracted container and air freight rates and covers more than 160,000 global trade routes. Xeneta is a privately held company with headquarters in Oslo, Norway, with regional offices in New Jersey, USA, Hamburg, Germany, and Copenhagen, Denmark. To learn more, please visit www.xeneta.com.

About Apax and Apax Digital

The Apax Digital Funds specialize in growth equity and growth buyout investments in high-growth enterprise software, consumer internet, and technology-enabled services companies worldwide. The Apax Digital team leverages Apax’s deep tech investing expertise, global platform, and specialized operating experts, to enable technology companies and their management teams to accelerate the achievement of their full potential. For further information, please visit www.apaxdigital.com.

Apax Partners LLP (“Apax”) is a leading global private equity advisory firm. For 50 years, Apax has worked to inspire growth and ideas that transform businesses. The firm has raised and advised funds with aggregate commitments of more than $60 billion. The Apax Funds invest in companies across four global sectors of Tech, Services, Healthcare, and Internet/Consumer. These funds provide long-term equity financing to build and strengthen world-class companies. For more information see: www.apax.com.

Categories: News

Tags:

Coexya, a company supported by Argos Wityu, is to acquire Siris Advisory and Cloudspirit, IT consulting firms specializing in digital

argos wityu

This acquisition will enable Coexya to strengthen its specialist position in customer relations and more specifically in CRM, digital marketing and Enterprise Service Management – ESM – activities.

Coexya, an independent digital leader in consulting, integration and software development, is to acquire Siris Advisory and Cloudspirit, IT consulting firms specializing in digital transformation and experts in CRM, marketing automation and ESM activities around the ServiceNow solution. The transaction will be a strategic merger of the two companies, enabling them to pursue their development. Supported by Argos Wityu since 2020, Coexya is an investment held by the Argos VII fund.

Created in 2017 in Paris, Siris Advisory supports companies in optimising their customer relations and the quality of service experienced. To this end, Siris teams operate on all functional and technical fields (acquisition, loyalty, follow-up, QOS, DATA).
Created in 2019 in Paris by the two founders of Siris, Cloudspirit provides specialized expertise in Service Portal, ITOM, SecOps and CSM modules from ServiceNow. The consolidated activities of the two companies represent a turnover of €7.5m as of 30 June 2022 up 25% from 2021.

The associated founders as well as all the managers and consultants are joining the Coexya Group project to continue the development of these two companies and their expertise in synergy with the other know-how of the Coexya Group.

Since acquisition by Argos in 2020, the group’s objective is an external growth strategy aimed at developing its product division and its international presence. For Coexya, this merger allows the group to strengthen its expertise in customer relations, which today represents 18% of the group’s turnover.

This merger will also allow Siris and Cloudspirit to target larger scope projects and to consolidate their specialist positioning.

Philippe Le Calvé, CEO of Coexya, “We are determined to continue to develop our mutual skills while respecting the common values that we all share, such as commitment and respect The opportunity to continue the development of these two companies with their historical leaders is also an important element in the choice of this merger.”

Boris Bentaalla, director of Siris Advisory and Cloudspirit “We are particularly delighted with this merger. Joining Coexya will allow us to move forward in an accelerated way while keeping our DNA. The commercial synergies are significant, and the strength of the group will support our positions in our sectors of activity”.

Karel Kroupa, Argos Wityu Managing Partner, added, “The merger between Coexya, Siris Advisory and Cloudspirit is right in line with the group’s business development strategy, as employed by Philippe Le Calvé and his team. The group will now be able to use the expertise of the two companies to offer complementary services to its customers.”

Argos Wityu team: Karel Kroupa and Afif Chebaro

Argos Wityu

Coralie Cornet
Head of Communications
ccc@argos.fund
+33 (0)6 14 38 33 37

Coexya

Communications Department
communication@coexya.eu

About Argos Wityu
argos.wityu.fund
Argos Wityu is an independent European investment fund that supports companies undertaking ownership and strategic transitions. It has assisted more than 90 businesses, focusing on accelerating the transformation and growth of mid-sized businesses in close collaboration with management teams. Argos Wityu seeks to acquire majority interests and invest between €10m and €100m with each transaction. With more than €1.4bn under management and over 30 years of experience, Argos Wityu operates from offices in Brussels, Frankfurt, Geneva, Luxembourg, Milan and Paris.

About Coexya
coexya.eu
Coexya has more than 20 years of experience in consulting, integration and software development and is specialised in digital transformation. In 2020, Coexya changed shareholders and with the support of its executives, operational managers and the European investment fund Argos Wityu, became independent of the Sword Group. Coexya’s mission is to support organisations by developing solutions that address the new ways employees and customers use data. Coexya is active in six areas of expertise: customer experience, digital content, health, legal, location intelligence and smart data.
The group serves more than 370 clients and generated turnover of nearly €70m in 2021. Coexya has more than 700 employees based in Lille, Brest, Lyon, Paris and Rennes.

Categories: News

Tags:

Equistone-backed Acuity Knowledge Partners acquires Cians Analytics, consolidating a leading position in the global financial services outsourcing market

Equistone

Acuity Knowledge Partners (“Acuity”), a leading provider of high-value research, analytics and business intelligence to the financial services sector, today announced the acquisition of Cians Analytics (“Cians”), a provider of high-quality, cost-effective research and analytical support for financial institutions. This acquisition will allow Acuity to offer enhanced support in the field of knowledge process outsourcing (KPO) and help streamline the operations of financial firms globally. The financial terms of the transaction were undisclosed.

  • Acuity Knowledge Partners has completed a 100% acquisition of Cians Analytics, strengthening its position as a global market leader in providing outsourced expertise across research analytics and data to all financial services firms, as well as expanding its product offering
  • Cians Analytics has grown significantly over recent years through existing relationships and new client wins; the transaction will further expand Acuity’s client base of top-tier financial services firms, including but not limited to investment banks, private equity funds and hedge funds
  • “Given our history, shared cultures and service offerings, the opportunity to combine to ultimately provide high-quality services to a larger client base was compelling,” says Robert King, CEO of Acuity Knowledge Partners
  • “The combination of firms will provide both our customers and our employees with the opportunity to grow and benefit from shared expertise and an expanded service offering,” says Anmol Bhandari, Co-Founder and Co-CEO of Cians Analytics

Cians Analytics enables investment banks, private equity funds and corporations to do more with their time while significantly reducing operating costs. Its diverse pool of talent, including financial researchers, developers and data scientists, allows the in-house teams of Cians’ clients to better focus on strategic initiatives and increased output. Challenging economic conditions, the migration of finance talent into the technology sector and disruptions in the financial services space have significantly increased demand for these services. Cians’ product offering also includes LeverData, a proprietary data ingestion, validation and management platform which helps customers eliminate the data reliability issues that often plague financial services firms, saving them money, resources and valuable time.

The acquisition represents the first bolt-on transaction made by Acuity since its buyout by Equistone, a leading European mid-market private equity investor, in 2019. Following the acquisition, all Cians employees will join the Acuity workforce, taking its global headcount to over 5500 employees.

“Cians Analytics has proven, throughout the years, that they have a dedication to quality work and best-in-class service to all of their clients,” said Acuity Knowledge Partners CEO, Robert King. “Given our shared cultures and service offerings, the opportunity to combine our teams and provide high-quality services to a larger client base was a compelling one. Post-transaction Acuity will support over 500 banking and financial services firms worldwide. This deal also supports the significant growth we have seen, and continue to target, in key markets such as the U.S.”

“The combination of both firms not only increases the capabilities we can offer to our combined client set, but also allows our employees and customers to have a truly global engagement team and experience,” said Cians Analytics Co-Founder and Co-CEO, Anmol Bhandari. “We often saw each other in engagements and in the marketplace. It ultimately made sense to combine to truly consolidate offerings and clients and to give the customers and employees the best that both firms can offer.”

“This is a win-win situation for our most important stakeholders, our clients and our employees,” said Cians Analytics Co-Founder and Co-CEO, Aman Chowdhury. “Both firms have a history of delivering high-quality services to a discerning and sophisticated client set spread across the globe. While both firms work with similar types of clients, our services and focus areas are often complementary. This sets the combined firm up as the pre-eminent firm in our industry.”

Speaking about the transaction, Tim Swales, Partner at Equistone, said: “Robert and his team have done an excellent job of driving strong organic growth over the past three years. In Cians we recognised an opportunity to supplement that, by supporting the bolt-on acquisition of a company with a similarly strong and highly complementary service offering and client base. By strengthening the product suite available to clients, we believe this transaction has the potential to further accelerate Acuity’s growth over the coming years.”

Cians was advised on the transaction by Grant Thornton, Mayer Brown and Phoenix Legal, while Acuity was advised by BDA Partners (William Blair), Latham & Watkins, AZB Partners and Baker Hostetler.

Categories: News

Tags:

Balance Point Announces its Investment in Apollo Intelligence, LLC

Balance Point Capital
Westport, CT, September 8, 2022 – Balance Point Capital Advisors, LLC (“Balance Point”), in conjunction with its affiliated fund, Balance Point Capital Partners V, L.P., is pleased to announce an investment in Apollo Intelligence, LLC (“Apollo”, or “the Company”).  Balance Point provided debt capital as part of a flexible financing solution as part of Frazier Healthcare Partners’ (“Frazier”) acquisition of the Company.
Founded in 2019, and headquartered in Watertown, MA, Apollo is a market leader in life science research and insights.  Apollo’s unique integration of healthcare stakeholder access, powerful tech-enabled analytic tools, and domain expertise enables global healthcare organizations to efficiently develop, refine, and deliver life-changing innovations.  Through the Company’s proprietary, global, healthcare professional (HCP) panels, agile research platform, and expert services, Apollo delivers valuable insights that help life science companies make timely, informed decisions.
“We are thrilled to support an established industry leader such as Apollo, and we are excited to partner for the first time with Frazier Healthcare Partners,” said Balance Point Managing Partner Seth Alvord.
“Apollo holds a clear leadership position in today’s life sciences research landscape, and we believe that Frazier adds significant experience and resources to help Apollo grow,” added Nathan Elliott, Senior Managing Director at Balance Point Capital.
Daniel S. Fitzgerald, CEO and president of Apollo, said, “We are happy to have Balance Point as part of our team.  They are constructive, know our industry well, and support our mission to accelerate health innovation to improve life, as well as our strategy for growth.”
About Balance Point
Balance Point is an alternative investment manager focused on the lower middle market. With approximately $1.7 billion in assets under management, Balance Point invests debt and equity capital in select lower middle market companies across a variety of investment vehicles. Balance Point takes a long-term, partnership approach to investing and is committed to building lasting relationships with its partners, management teams and intermediaries.  Balance Point is a registered investment advisor. Further information is available at www.balancepointcapital.com.
About Apollo Intelligence
Apollo Intelligence’s mission is to accelerate health innovation to improve life. In 2019, Apollo launched with the acquisition of InCrowd, the pioneer of real-time, automated insights for the life science industry. To complement InCrowd and strengthen its global reach, in 2020, Apollo acquired Survey Healthcare Global, a global market leader of first-party healthcare data collection and custom survey solutions. Apollo provides access to 2 million healthcare stakeholders worldwide—including physicians, patients, caregivers, and allied healthcare professionals. Apollo’s 250+ employees support top global pharmaceutical brands, market research agencies, and consultancies across 13 different countries in the Americas, Europe, and Asia. For more information about Apollo, please visit our website at www.apollointelligence.net.

Categories: News

Tags:

Oakley invests in global legal information platform vLex

Oakley

Oakley Capital (“Oakley”), the pan-European private equity investor, is pleased to announce that Oakley Capital Origin Fund is partnering with the founders of vLex, a cloud-based legal information subscription platform.

 

Founded by brothers Lluis and Angel Faus and headquartered in London, Miami and Barcelona, vLex provides over two million users with access to an online library of global legal and regulatory information including case law, legislation, journals and dockets from over 100 countries. vLex’s scalable and smart data ingestion process, coupled with AI-powered search engine functionality makes research and analysis faster and easier, increasing productivity for users. The Company’s diverse customer base includes law firms, universities and law schools, government agencies and corporates across Europe, Africa, Asia, Oceania, the Caribbean, and the Americas.

Icons8 Add To Cloud

Cloud-based, online subscription platform offering easy access to global legal & regulatory information

Icons8 Crowd

Clients include law firms, universities, corporations and government agencies

Icons8 Increase

Digitisation and increasing legal and regulatory complexity driving growth in $21bln global LegalTech market

Quote Peter Dubens

Categories: News

Tags:

Interstellar completes significant refinancing with Barings

Quadrum Capital

Further support in long-term growth strategy

Woerden, 26th of August 2022 – Interstellar Group (Interstellar) has completed a significant refinancing with international investmentcompany Barings. With the new partner on board, Interstellar will be further supported in its long-term growth strategy. Corporate finance consultant Nielen Schuman advised Interstellar on the refinancing.__

image

Interstellar

Interstellar was launched in January 2021 with the help of private equity investor Quadrum Capital. It is a collection of successful Managed Service Providers and specialists in the field of Cloud, Cybersecurity and Collaboration. Interstellar has more than 650 employees and a combined turnover of EUR 150 million. Since its launch eighteen months ago, Interstellar has made nine acquisitions and has become one of the fastest-growing IT providers in the Netherlands, with an average annual growth in turnover of 100%.

Several acquisition projects are currently underway, some of which are expected to be announced in the fourth quarter. “Interstellar has developed strongly in the past year and a half, driven by strong organic growth and targeted acquisitions. Also for the coming period we have a very ambitious plan to further expand the portfolio and the area of activity. I am therefore very pleased that we are partnering with Barings to provide the financing for this,” says Interstellar CEO Maarten van Montfoort. “We are proud that a world-class player supports our growth strategy and expresses confidence in our mission to become the most relevant IT service provider in the Netherlands.”

“It is great that we have been able to do such a significant transaction at this time with a leading financial partner like Barings,” said Investment Director Gert van Drie of Quadrum Capital. “We at Quadrum Capital are also committed to Interstellar’s growth ambitions and look forward to the developments in this next phase with great confidence.”

“Interstellar is a wonderful organisation with which we have gone through a very professional process. There was a lot of enthusiasm from the market for this refinancing. We believe that the financing provided by Barings is the best fit for Interstellar’s growth ambitions,” says partner debt advisory Rafael Gomez Nunez of Nielen Schuman.

Categories: News

Tags: