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Online supermarket Pieter Pot raises € 2.7 million to make circular packaging for groceries the norm

Shift Invest

The Dutch startup Pieter Pot raises € 2.7 million to meet the great consumer demand for sustainable alternatives to single use packaging. The ‘packaging-free’ online supermarket now serves the whole of the Netherlands and in total some 30,000 consumers have signed up for the waiting list. Also, major brands are partnering with Pieter Pot. The capital injection will be used to scale operations and develop Pieter Pot’s own circular packaging.

Online supermarket Pieter Pot raises € 2.7 million to make circular packaging for groceries the norm

 

Martijn Bijmolt (28) and Jouri Schoemaker (30) have been working for just over one year on the online supermarket with a circular packaging system that makes the sustainable choice also the convenient choice. Often, the sustainable option still takes too much effort, energy and money. “Pieter Pot changes this. Online delivery means that no one has to carry around jars (‘pot’ in Dutch) and the product range can be much larger than in physical ‘packaging-free’ shops. In addition, we offer our products at prices that are comparable to ordinary supermarkets,” says Schoemaker. “With our playful brand and jars that don’t need to be hidden, we show that it’s much more fun to go shopping without all the packaging waste.”

The approach gets traction. Last year Jouri and Martijn operated from an attic room and they served their city, Rotterdam, on a cargo bike. After a crowdfunding campaign that raised half a million Euros at the end of 2019, Pieter Pot is serving all of the Netherlands. A year later, the ambition has increased which gets noticed. Three impact-oriented venture capital funds, SHIFT Invest (also the party behind Vandebron), Future Food Fund and InnovationQuarter, together invest € 2.7 million in Pieter Pot. Janneke Bik, Peter Arensman and Tijl Hoefnagels on behalf of the investors: “It is impressive what Pieter Pot has achieved in a relatively short period of time. With this investment, they will be able to scale up operations, serve the tens of thousands of people on the waiting list and develop their own circular packaging. Every person in the Netherlands uses an average of around 25kg of plastic per year. Pieter Pot’s solution can make an important contribution to the reduction of single-use packaging and make circular packaging for groceries the norm.”

120,000 single-use packaging reduced

Pieter Pot is having an impact in two ways: reducing of packaging waste and decreasing the CO2 footprint of consumers. In one and a half years, 121,318 single use containers have already been saved. The impact of this is enormous, even compared with recyclable packaging. Alternative packaging, which potentially can be recycled, have a higher CO2 footprint than the circular jars of Pieter Pot. “Even if packaging gets recycled, it still costs a lot of energy. You can compare it to a bottle or a can of beer: bottles are the more sustainable option after they have been reused around 10 times”, says Schoemaker.

Haribo, Heinz and Ecover partner with Pieter Pot

More and more A-brands want their products in Pieter Pot’s circular packaging. The first big brands that are now also available in the jars of Pieter Pot are Haribo, Heinz and Ecover. In the near future, their products will be sold in new jars, especially designed by Pieter Pot. These jars will be more user friendly and lighter, giving them an even lower CO2 footprint.

About Pieter Pot

Pieter Pot is the first online supermarket to deliver ‘packaging-free’ groceries by filling products in reusable jars and delivering them to consumers. The jars contain food and non-food products from both the Pieter Pot private label and well-known A brands, from rice to sweets, from olive oil to shampoo. Empty pots are taken back to be washed and refilled; a circular process which reduces the large number of (plastic) packaging.

About SHIFT Invest

SHIFT Invest is a Dutch venture capital fund that invests in innovations in food & agriculture, clean (bio-based) technologies, circularity and smart materials. Through its investments, SHIFT strives to create environmental impact alongside financial return. Together with the fund partners, SHIFT offers entrepreneurs a broad network and knowledge of the sector. SHIFT is managed by New Balance Impact Investors (NBI), an experienced team of investment professionals and entrepreneurs. NBI manages five venture capital funds, backed by strong and involved partners that share their mission of turning investments into impact

About FutureFoodFund

Future Food Fund is a € 12m seed capital fund, founded and funded by 30 entrepreneurs. Mainly with a background in food&agri and technology, these entrepreneurs wish to actively contribute to the success of the fund, not only with money, but also with experience and network. Future Food Fund is aimed at Dutch companies that want to impact the food&agri sector with innovative technology and / or disruptive business models.

About InnovationQuarter

InnovationQuarter is the regional economic development agency for Zuid-Holland. InnovationQuarter invests in innovative companies from Zuid-Holland with growth ambitions, assists international companies in establishing themselves in this unique delta region and organises (international) cooperation between innovative entrepreneurs, knowledge institutions and the government. Together with the business community, InnovationQuarter develops Zuid-Holland into one of the most innovative regions in Europe.

As a lifecycle financier InnovationQuarter provides companies with financing in different phases of growth. InnovationQuarter invests from three funds: IQCapital, UNIIQ and ENERGIIQ.

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Remote raises $35M to help orgs with global workforce payroll, benefits and more

Inkef Capital

 

Remote working has become the norm in many offices around the world this year, as organizations do what they can to help contain the rapid transmission of Covid-19 by reducing in-person interactions between workers. That’s also meant a renewed focus on how companies manage employees who have never worked in the office, and might even live outside the country. Today, one of the startups helping to manage those workers — appropriately, itself named Remote — is announcing a significant round of funding.

The startup has closed a round of $35 million, a Series A that is being led by Index Ventures, with participation also from Sequoia Capital and some pretty notable angel investors, including Aaron Levie, Zach Weinberg, and Kevin and Julia Hartz. It brings the total raised by Remote to $46 million to date after the company — founded in 2019 — raised $11 million in a seed round earlier this year.

Remote plans to use the funding to expand its business to 30 countries, from 17 at the moment, on the back of doubling its customer base every month since launching earlier this year.

The opportunity and challenge that Remote is tackling will be a familiar one to anyone who works in a company that has people spread across different countries.

You may have found the perfect person to fill a role, and if that person was in your city, he or she would be working in the office as a full-time employee. But because that person lives elsewhere, and it’s too complicated to sort out the employment terms, he or she instead gets paid essentially like a regular freelancer, with no benefits or other kinds of coverage you typically get in a full-time contract (which could include maternity leave, or redundancy terms, or shares in the company, and more). That poses tricky questions both for the employer and the employee: is the employer still legally bound to provide full-time benefits? Should the employee seek a job elsewhere to get a more complete package and more security?

Remote was built in essence to address all that and more. It acts as the middle man, working with the company and the employee in his/her home market to figure out how best to employ that person — whether as full-time or as a permanent contractor — and then handles payroll and more with a network of localised legal entities that it has built from the ground up to handle everything, from employer of record services, to payroll, benefits, taxes and visa and immigration services when they are needed, as well as a platform to cover payments when the employee in question is a contractor.

Its customers range in size from 10 employees to a few thousand, said Job van der Voort, the CEO, in an interview. “We are basically agnostic in that sense,” he added.

Remote was co-founded by two European transplants to San Francisco who have first-hand experience of the paradoxical pains and opportunities of being in an organization that uses remote workforces.

Van der Voort had been the VP of product for GitLab, which he scaled from 5 to 450 employees working remotely (and it’s now a customer of Remote’s). CTO Marcelo Lebre most recently had been VP of engineering for Unbabel — another startup focused on reducing international barriers, this time between how companies and global customers communicate.

Remote is part of a veritable wave of startups that have emerged with significant funding this year to bring more services to businesses to better manage international workforces. They include Deel ($30 million raised in September), Papaya Global ($40 million also in September), Lattice ($45 million in July), Factorial ($16 million in April) and Turing ($14 million in August with another round coming soon), among others.

There are also others like Gusto and Rippling who handle payroll domestically (taking on incumbents like ADP) but clearly will have their eye on international markets and global workforces to fuel their growth longer term. Some of these, like Deel, are direct competitors, while others are working in areas adjacent to it and could potentially become more competitive over time.

Van der Voort says that the unique thing with Remote (apart from having the most obviously well-branded name) is that it has taken care to build each part of its business from the ground up.

“There are many companies that message the same thing: payroll for remote teams,” he said. “But they tend to rely on third parties which we don’t.”

That is partly what stood out for investors, too. Hannah Seal at Index said that her firm has been investing in Remote since the pre-seed round, and that relationship has helped her and the firm with other deals in recent times.

“When we first invested in Remote they were in Portugal, and we never met them in person,” she said of the San Francisco startup. “It wasn’t because of the pandemic that we did the pitch over Zoom, but because of how they were set up. That meant we had to build that relationship remotely. It has its challenges but we are working through that and making it work and we are increasingly open to investing in the best founders, regardless of where they live.”

“The future of work will involve many remote employees. Remote is addressing a key area of friction in the global economy by opening up the availability of talent to all businesses and the range of opportunities to individuals,” said Ravi Gupta, a partner at Sequoia Capital, in a statement. “We are excited to support Remote in its drive to reshape the global talent market.”

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AEGIS Hedging Expands into Metals with Acquisition of Nexidus Commodities

Trilantic

Transaction marks first strategic acquisition fueled by growth financing from Trilantic North America

AEGIS Hedging Solutions (“AEGIS” or the “Company”), a leader in technology and expertise for commodity and rate hedging, announced today that it has acquired Nexidus Commodities (“Nexidus”), a commodity trading advisor and pioneer in metals hedging.

Founded in 2017, Nexidus provides research, strategy, execution, and administrative support to companies in the industrials and manufacturing sectors hedging their exposures to base and precious metals. Nexidus has capitalized on significant, growing demand from financial sponsors seeking visibility into and management of metals exposures across their portfolio companies, as commodity pricing and rate exposures have a significant impact on cash flow and related valuations.

“The acquisition of Nexidus is a significant step in extending our hedging technology and expertise beyond the energy sector,” said Bryan Sansbury, Chairman and CEO of AEGIS.
“With increasing global volatility, we are committed to serving companies across industries as they manage their commodity and rate risks.”
“We are excited to bring AEGIS’ scalable technology and approach to hedging metal price risk for new and existing clients,” said Adam Jackson, CEO of Nexidus. “AEGIS has shown a commitment to continually investing in its platform and client experience. We look forward to extending our reach with any company exposed to metals, energy, and rates-pricing.”

Trilantic North America Investment

AEGIS’ acquisition of Nexidus was made in partnership with Trilantic North America, a leading private equity firm, which recently invested in the Company to support the execution of its growth strategy and accelerate its expansion across the metals, refined products, interest rates, and FOREX sectors. The Company’s co-founders, Bryan Sansbury, Chris Croom, and Justin McCrann, who serve as CEO, President, and Chief Operating Officer, respectively, continue to lead the business and have retained significant equity stakes in the Company.

“We have known Bryan and the AEGIS team for several years and have watched them build the Company into the leading software-based hedge advisory services business within the North American energy market,” said Chris Manning, Managing Partner at Trilantic North America and Chairman of Trilantic Energy Partners North America. “The acquisition of Nexidus represents an exciting first step in the Company’s next phase of growth as we look to aggressively expand AEGIS’ presence in new end markets.”

“With the Company’s industry leading software platform and focus on value-added hedge advisory services, AEGIS is uniquely positioned to capitalize on an increasingly volatile market environment and expand into adjacent areas of risk management,” added Chris Murphy, Principal at Trilantic North America. “We’re thrilled to partner with the AEGIS team.”

“Trilantic North America has a strong record of partnering with founder-led businesses to build leading-edge companies within the North American energy, services, and consumer sectors,” said Chris Croom, President of AEGIS. “The team quickly understood our growth objectives and their investment will help us leverage our existing technology platform to accelerate AEGIS’ expansion.”

Baird Capital, which first invested in AEGIS in 2019, will retain a material ownership stake.

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With new CEO on board, Germany’s Vibalogics lays out $150M for Boston viral vector site

With the race for COVID-19 vaccines heating up and the cell and gene therapy market booming, contract manufacturers in the viral vector space are quickly bulking up to meet demand. Hoping to ride that wave, Germany’s Vibalogics is planting its flag in the U.S. with a new leader in place.

Months after appointing a new global CEO, German contract manufacturer Vibalogics will shell out $150 million to build out a 110,000-square-foot “virotherapy” facility near Boston set to come online in the second half of 2021, the company said Wednesday.

The new facility will be built out over three years and eventually house 2,000 liters of bioreactor capacity, dedicated to producing clinical and commercial-stage oncolytic viruses and viral vectors used in vaccines and cell and gene therapies, Vibalogics said in a release. The work may include manufacturing for Johnson & Johnson’s COVID-19 vaccine candidate under a deal the partners inked in May.

The site will initially employ 100 workers and scale up to 250 over four years, Vibalogics said.

With that toehold in the U.S., Vibalogics hopes to build its global viral offerings under the leadership of managing director Stefan Beyer and CEO Tom Hochuli, who came over from Lonza Houston in September.

During his two-year stint at Lonza’s 300,000-square-foot facility in that city, Hochuli supervised a workforce expansion of around 400 employees and had a chance to get intimate with the cell and gene therapy space. In the early days in his new role at Vibalogics, Hochuli was tasked with overseeing the search for the new U.S. site.

Vibalogics also operates a clinical-stage manufacturing facility in Cuxhaven, Germany, the company said.

Vibalogics was the target of a buyout by private equity firm Ampersand Capital in May 2019 that Beyer said allowed the CDMO to focus more on its life sciences offerings after years of wallowing in a diversified business that had tentacles in the poultry and meat industries.

“Ampersand jumped on board and has realized the great potential we have developed during the last four to five years,” Beyer said. “It was really great that we have been able to continue with our strategy by convincing (them) to look into biologics.”

Vibalogics hopes to capture a bustling cell and gene therapy market on top of its work in COVID-19 vaccines. Manufacturing of those therapies is notoriously expensive and time-consuming, and some drugmakers in the field have outsourced that work to contract manufacturers to help meet demand.

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TPG and TA Associates to Acquire Planview from Thoma Bravo for $1.6 Billion

TA associates

Investment from leading technology investors will accelerate company’s vision as a global leader in Agile and PPM for enterprises

Austin; San Francisco; Fort Worth, Texas; and Boston – TPG Capital, the private equity platform of global alternative asset firm TPG, and TA Associates, a leading global growth private equity firm, today announced that they have signed a definitive agreement to acquire Planview, a global leader in Portfolio Management and Work Management. TPG Capital and TA Associates will acquire the company for a purchase price of $1.6 billion. Planview’s existing majority shareholder, Thoma Bravo, will retain a minority interest in the company.

“We’ve spent more than three decades delivering innovation, driving the market forward, and reinventing ourselves. I truly believe that the best is yet to come for our customers and for Planview,” said Greg Gilmore, CEO of Planview. “We’re grateful for Thoma Bravo’s partnership over the last four years, and look forward to this next chapter as we accelerate our vision and continue to be a journey partner for our customers as they transform strategy to delivery.”

Planview has more than 30 years of experience partnering with organizations to help them connect strategy to delivery. The company provides a comprehensive platform that spans the spectrum of Portfolio Management and Work Management solutions that enable organizations to transform and accelerate on-strategy delivery at enterprise scale. Through the platform, organizations can build an innovation culture, realize agile at scale, make the project to product shift, and adapt to the changing world of work.

“The nature of work has been changing over the last several years as technology has enabled employees to be productive in ways that weren’t previously possible,” said Nehal Raj, Partner at TPG Capital. “This shift has only accelerated during the pandemic, and what is emerging is a new and enduring model of work that’s increasingly flexible, fragmented, and distributed. As more of our work lives transition to digital, organizations will require tools that provide executives visibility and connectivity across the entire enterprise. With Planview, we see an opportunity to partner with an innovative leader at the forefront of this new way of working. We look forward to supporting the company in its next chapter of growth.”

“We have followed Planview for over a decade and have been impressed by the company’s strong growth under Greg Gilmore’s leadership,” said Ashu Agrawal, a Managing Director at TA Associates. “We believe that Planview’s comprehensive portfolio and work management solutions provide continued market opportunities as they are uniquely positioned to help organizations effectively navigate and accelerate strategy to delivery. We look forward to partnering with the Planview management team during the company’s next growth phase, and are pleased to be investing alongside TPG and Thoma Bravo.”

“Planview is another example of Thoma Bravo working with existing management to implement our proprietary, operational approach to value creation while complementing the organic growth of the business with strategic and creative M&A,” said Holden Spaht, a Managing Partner at Thoma Bravo. “We’re proud of being a part of Planview’s transformation from an IT PPM provider to a broader Portfolio and Work platform with unique, dual leadership across Agile and traditional Project domains, and we believe Planview is well positioned to continue its growth amidst a changing world of work. We look forward to continuing to invest in a company with strong market leadership, a highly differentiated platform, and a clear ability to execute.”

UBS Investment Bank and Deutsche Bank Securities Inc. provided committed debt financing, and alongside Barclays and Jefferies LLC acted as financial advisors to TPG Capital and TA Associates. Ropes & Gray served as legal counsel to TPG Capital, and Goodwin Procter served as legal counsel to TA Associates. JP Morgan and DBO Partners acted as financial advisors to Planview and Thoma Bravo, and Kirkland & Ellis served as legal counsel.

About Planview
Planview has one focus: enabling the transformation journey as organizations rewire strategy to delivery in today’s fast-paced, highly disruptive markets. Our solutions uniquely help organizations navigate this journey and accelerate on-strategy delivery at enterprise scale. Planview’s full spectrum of Portfolio Management and Work Management solutions create organizational focus on the strategic outcomes that matter and empower teams to deliver their best work, no matter how they work. The comprehensive Planview platform and enterprise success model enable customers to deliver innovative, competitive products, services, and customer experiences. Headquartered in Austin, Texas, Planview has more than 700 employees supporting 3,500 customers and 1 million users worldwide. For more information, visit: https://www.planview.com/.

About TPG
TPG is a leading global alternative asset firm founded in 1992 with approximately $83 billion of assets under management and offices in Austin, Beijing, Fort Worth, Hong Kong, London, Luxembourg, Melbourne, Moscow, Mumbai, New York, San Francisco, Seoul, Singapore, and Washington, DC. TPG’s investment platforms are across a wide range of asset classes, including private equity, growth equity, real estate, and public equity. TPG aims to build dynamic products and options for its investors while also instituting discipline and operational excellence across the investment strategy and performance of its portfolio. For more information, visit www.tpg.com on Twitter @TPG.

About TA Associates
TA Associates is a leading global growth private equity firm. Focused on targeted sectors within five industries – technology, healthcare, financial services, consumer and business services – TA invests in profitable, growing companies with opportunities for sustained growth, and has invested in more than 500 companies around the world. Investing as either a majority or minority investor, TA employs a long-term approach, utilizing its strategic resources to help management teams build lasting value in high quality growth companies. TA has raised $33.5 billion in capital since its founding in 1968 and is committing to new investments at the pace of over $3 billion per year. The firm’s more than 100 investment professionals are based in Boston, Menlo Park, London, Mumbai and Hong Kong. More information about TA Associates can be found at www.ta.com.

About Thoma Bravo
Thoma Bravo is a leading private equity firm focused on the software and technology-enabled services sectors. With more than $70 billion in assets under management as of October 31, 2020, Thoma Bravo partners with a Company’s management team to implement operating best practices, invest in growth initiatives and make accretive acquisitions intended to accelerate revenue and earnings, with the goal of increasing the value of the business. The firm has offices in San Francisco and Chicago. For more information, visit www.thomabravo.com.

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The Riverside Company Welcomes Iain Leigh to Board of Advisors

Riverside

News Release November 10, 2020

The Riverside Company, a global private equity firm focused on the smaller end of the middle market, welcomes Iain Leigh as the newest member of the Riverside Board of Advisors (RBA) upon his retirement as founder of the private equity business of APG Asset Management. Leigh is also well known for his prior role leading AlpInvest Partners in North America.

The RBA was formed by Riverside Co-CEOs Stewart Kohl and Béla Szigethy in 2015, valuing the board’s strategic guidance for the growth of Riverside as a global GP providing leading LP’s global access to the smaller end of the middle market. Leigh will join Riverside advisors Paul Dimitruk, Co-Founder and Senior Partner – Partners Capital; Chuck Hardin, Partner – Jones Day; Linda Lynch, Co-Founder and Managing Director – Winthrop Square Capital; and Chris Rossi, Director of Private Equity and Real Estate – Parkwood Corporation.

“We’re honored to have Iain join the RBA and the larger Riverside family,” said Riverside Co-CEO Stewart Kohl. “The PE industry is evolving rapidly in so many ways, and Iain is uniquely able to help us navigate this dynamic chapter in our own evolution of service to investors and portfolio companies. He brings deep and unique global experience as an LP, GP, co-investor, secondary buyer and leader with many of the largest and most innovative and sophisticated private capital investors.”

Leigh joins Riverside with nearly 45 years of experience in various investment professional roles. From 2012 to 2020, Leigh was Global Head of Private Equity for APG Asset Management, and at the end of his tenure, the firm managed more than $550bn on behalf of Dutch pension schemes across most asset classes, with private equity NAV of more than $30bn. He was responsible for founding the private equity business for APG, covering Funds, Co-Investments and Secondaries, from offices in New York, Hong Kong and Amsterdam.

“We view Riverside as a leading PE firm in the SEMM, and Iain is someone who has experience working with some of the largest firms in the world,” said Riverside Co-CEO Béla Szigethy. “Iain has a unique pulse for the industry, including the evolving partnership between LPs and GPs. Stewart and I are excited to have his expertise as we continue to grow the firm.”

“For more than thirty years, Stewart and Béla have built an impressive organization, cultivated the right team and created a broad product suite to address the smaller end of the middle market,” said Leigh. “I am delighted to be joining the RBA in a capacity where I can contribute to Riverside’s continued growth.”

From 2000 to 2011, Leigh was a co-founder of AlpInvest Partners, with responsibility for the North American business and managing the US Co-Investment and Mezzanine teams. He started his career in London spending 25 years with merchant bankers Kleinwort Benson there and in Hong Kong, Singapore and Geneva.

Muellerholly BKG 300X450 Holly Mueller Consultant, Global Marketing and Communications Cleveland +1 216 535 2236

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Dickinson Fleet Services Acquires Interstate Truck Center

Ridgemont Equity Partners

November 10, 2020

Leading Fleet Repair & Maintenance Provider Expands Mobile Service Offering

Indianapolis, IN and Kansas City, MO (11/10/2020) – Dickinson Fleet Services (“Dickinson” or “DFS”), along with majority shareholder Ridgemont Equity Partners, is pleased to announce the acquisition of Interstate Truck Center (“Interstate” or “ITC”) of Kansas City, MO, forming a unique partnership which will leverage the mobile expertise and capabilities of both companies. Interstate will continue to operate under its founder-led management team and be supported by the DFS platform. This new partnership will cement the combined business as the largest mobile maintenance provider in North America and provide fleets with an increased breadth of services across both scheduled and unscheduled fleet maintenance. The combined entity has mobile power, mobile trailer, and mobile emergency service capabilities across an enhanced footprint, with a combined fleet of 700+ mobile repair units. The partnership will also position DFS and ITC to better capitalize on the shift to mobile maintenance demanded by the fleet maintenance industry today.

“We are very excited to partner with the Interstate team,” said Ted Coltrain, Executive Officer at DFS. “ITC has built a strong reputation for providing exceptional and timely emergency mobile repair services nationwide. This strong track record will serve as a solid base to accelerate future growth for both DFS and ITC by expanding our market presence and service offering for new and existing customers.”

“The combined service offering of DFS and ITC is a win for us and for our customers. We can now provide a self-performing, full-service solution for our customers across both scheduled and unscheduled maintenance, which is truly unique in the industry today,” added Mike Dickinson, Executive Officer at DFS.

“Partnering with Dickinson provides us with a unique opportunity to more effectively deliver on our promise to customers of always having knowledgeable, professional technicians available to keep our customers’ fleets moving. Together, we will deliver industry-changing commitments to reduce downtime for our customers. The partnership of ITC and DFS is a natural fit and will create tremendous growth opportunities for all involved,” said Scott Higgs, President of Interstate Truck Center.

As companies grapple with increasing supply chain complexity, driver shortages, and the impacts of e-commerce, the mobile emergency services offered by DFS and ITC will provide unparalleled value to the customers of both companies by fulfilling the promise to ensure that customers will never have to miss a delivery as a result of an emergency breakdown event. Additionally, the full spectrum of mobile offerings will continue to drive incremental value for North American fleets by minimizing downtime and reducing inefficiencies in the repair cycle.

ITC marks Dickinson’s tenth acquisition since 2017. DFS continues to pursue additional acquisition targets across North America. Dickinson was supported in the formation of this partnership by Ice Miller LLP for legal matters and by KSM Business Services, Inc. for financial matters.

About Dickinson Fleet Services

Headquartered in Indianapolis, Indiana, Dickinson Fleet Services has grown into one of the largest independent fleet maintenance and management companies in the country. DFS is the leading provider of on-site mobile maintenance and repair services nationwide, offering mobile on-site maintenance and repair services for light, medium and heavy duty trucks and trailers with over 300 mobile units operating in 40 states. DFS services fleet customers with 15 company-owned maintenance facilities each offering select services from accident repair, paint, refurbishment and dedicated technician services, combined with an in-house CARES CALL center providing 24/7 repair assistance. DFS has made significant investments in training and technology, including WebWrench® (maintenance tracking and scheduling through proprietary technology) and TRAIT® (real-time reporting and dynamic preventative maintenance inspections processed through a proprietary field service application), and is the only fleet services company in the nation to provide both fleet maintenance and management to its customers nationwide.

http://dickinsonfleet.com
About Ridgemont Equity Partners

Ridgemont Equity Partners is a Charlotte-based middle market buyout and growth equity investor. Since 1993, the principals of Ridgemont have invested approximately $4.4 billion. The firm focuses on equity investments up to $250 million in industries in which it has deep expertise, including business and industrial services, energy, healthcare, and technology and telecommunications.

https://www.ridgemontep.com
Media Contact:
Kelly Lineberger
Ridgemont Equity Partners
704 944 0935
klineberger@ridgemontep.com

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Novacap Portfolio Company, The Master Group acquires Alberta motor distributor Soper’s Supply Ltd.

Novacap

Master diversifies its offerings and obtains expertise in the electric motor sector

November 10th, 2020 – Novacap is pleased to announce that its portfolio company, The Master Group, the most important independent distributor of heating, ventilation, air conditioning and refrigeration products (CVCA-R) in Canada has completed the acquisition of Alberta-based Soper’s Supply Ltd. (“Soper’s”). Soper’s specializes in the sale and distribution of electric motors, fans, blowers, and pumps and is one of Canada’s largest distributors of HVAC-R motors. Soper’s services Western Canada from their branches in Winnipeg, Edmonton, Calgary, Surrey and Vancouver.

Soper’s is recognized for its vast inventory, extensive knowledge, and high level of expertise in the electric motor sector, as well as in the replacement motor field. Soper’s has developed market leading competencies that quickly and efficiently identify replacement equivalents to most motors.  This new partnership represents a fantastic diversification opportunity for The Master Group.

“The acquisition of Soper’s allows us to diversify into electric motors, and to join forces with the most qualified experts in this field across Canada. This association will be a great opportunity to expand our product offering for the benefit of all customers from coast to coast,” explains Louis St-Laurent, CEO, The Master Group. “We are very proud to welcome Soper’s team into the Master family.”

“The Master team has similar values to ours,” said Jim Moroz, President, Soper’s. “As a family business, it was imperative to join a company with the same customer service focus and one that provides a healthy and opportunity-filled work environment to our employees. We are delighted with this transaction, to work within a recognized Canadian company that has assumed leadership in its field for so many years. ”

 

About Novacap

Founded in 1981, Novacap is a leading Canadian private equity firm with CA$3.6 billion of assets under management. Its distinct investment approach, based on deep operational expertise and an active partnership with entrepreneurs, has helped accelerate growth and create long-term value for its numerous portfolio companies. With an experienced management team and substantial financial resources, Novacap is well positioned to continue building world-class businesses. Backed by leading global institutional investors, Novacap’s deals typically include leveraged buyouts, management buyouts, add-on acquisitions, IPOs, and privatizations. Over the last 39 years, Novacap has invested in more than 90 companies and completed more than 130 add-on acquisitions. The firm has offices in Brossard, Quebec and Toronto, Ontario. For more information, please visit www.novacap.ca.

 

About The Master Group
A leader in the heating, ventilation, air conditioning, and refrigeration sector for over 68 years, The Master Group has been named one of Canada’s best-managed companies since 2010 and is the largest HVAC/R distributor in Canada. The company now employs over 950 dynamic and devoted individuals who serve the industry at more than 44 branches and 4 distribution centres from British Colombia to the Atlantic Provinces. To learn more, go to master.ca or follow us on LinkedIn at linkedin.com/company/themastergroup.

 

About Soper’s Supply Ltd.

The team of experts at Soper’s has been serving customers in Western Canada since 1968 specializing in the replacement of electric motors and fans. They are a principal supplier and distributor of branded products. Soper’s has business locations in Vancouver, Surrey, Calgary, Winnipeg and head office in Edmonton, Alberta. Over 90% of the products sold by Soper’s are in inventory. Their commitment to customer service has helped make Soper’s the number one supplier of electric motors, blowers, fans, circulation pumps and related products.

 

For further information: Novacap: Alexandra Troubetzkoy, NOVACAP, +1 450-651-5000 ext.291, atroubetzkoy@novacap.ca

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Smarsh Acquires Digital Reasoning, Combining Global Leadership in Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning With Market Leading Electronic Communications Archiving and Supervision

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K1

November 10, 2020Acquisition Transforms the Technology-Enabled Risk and Compliance Space with First End-to-End AI-Powered Offering to Protect Regulated Organizations from Financial and Reputational Damage

Global Customers to Benefit from AI and ML for Data Search and Supervision, Amid Surges in Remote Workforces and Digital Communications and Collaboration Tools

PORTLAND, Ore. & NASHVILLE, Tenn., November 10, 2020 – Smarsh®, enabling organizations to manage risk and uncover value within their electronic communications, announced the acquisition of Digital Reasoning, a global leader in natural language processing (NLP), artificial intelligence (AI), and machine learning (ML), at the 2020 FINRA Artificial Intelligence Virtual Conference. The transaction brings together the leadership of Smarsh in digital communications content capture, archiving, supervision and e-discovery, with Digital Reasoning’s leadership in advanced AI/ML powered analytics. The combined company will enable customers to spot risks before they happen, maximize the scalability of supervision teams, and uncover strategic insights from large volumes of data in real-time.

Smarsh manages over 3 billion messages daily across email, social media, mobile/text messaging, instant messaging and collaboration, web, and voice channels. The company has unparalleled expertise in serving global financial institutions and US-based wealth management firms across both the broker-dealer and registered investment adviser (RIA) segments. Smarsh has been named a Leader in the Gartner Magic Quadrant for Enterprise Information Archiving (EIA) since 2015. The report evaluates vendors on their completeness of vision and ability to execute, and in the 2020 edition, Smarsh was placed highest in ability to execute and positioned furthest in completeness of vision.1

Brian Cramer, CEO of Smarsh, said, “Smarsh and Digital Reasoning’s combined capabilities equip customers with an entirely new expertise that we are calling ‘Communications Intelligence.’ Using artificial intelligence and machine learning helps firms more efficiently supervise and mitigate risk at scale, and will now enable them to analyze their electronic communications to uncover business intelligence that can fuel sales and other revenue drivers.

Mr. Cramer continued, “The ongoing pandemic and its impact on how and where people work has accelerated long-term trends that were already well underway.  The exploding volume, velocity, and variety of electronic communications are creating greater risks for firms, while also presenting opportunities to leverage communications data to spot risks before they happen, and identify new insights to drive fresh growth initiatives. These conditions are creating a large divide between firms investing to harvest data-driven insights and leverage data to manage risk, and those who are falling behind. This will bear out in earnings and share prices in the years to come.”

Tim Estes, Founder and CEO of Digital Reasoning, said, “In this new world of remote work, a company’s digital communications infrastructure is now the most essential one for it to function and thrive. Smarsh and Digital Reasoning provide the only validated and complete solution for companies to understand what is being said in any digital channel and in any language. This enables them to quickly identify things like fraud, racism, discrimination, sexual harassment, and other misconduct that can create substantial compliance risk.”

The combined capabilities of Smarsh and Digital Reasoning enable customers to:

  • Strengthen lexicon-driven supervision with AI-powered surveillance across the widest breadth of digital communications channels
  • Automate surveillance across the emerging collaboration tools (such as Microsoft Teams, Zoom, Slack, and Workplace by Facebook) that are critical for productivity in the COVID-era remote workforce reality
  • Reduce costs of human capital, by minimizing the amount of communications people must review
  • Accelerate the ability to leverage massive amounts of data for insights that can drive business growth
  • Identify troublesome patterns or trends of employee behavior before they cause irreparable harm

According to the 2020 Gartner Magic Quadrant for Enterprise Information Archiving, “Enterprises are increasingly tapping into business intelligence (BI) by applying analytics, semantics analysis and classification to many data types and sources.  Enterprises are looking for improved offerings that will integrate the archiving of such platforms for compliance-based or business-analytics-based initiatives.”1

Smarsh customers include 9 of the top 10 banks in the world. Digital Reasoning’s world-class AI and high-quality NLP models are powering conduct surveillance at many of the largest Tier 1 investment banks worldwide. Its investors, including leading global financial institutions Barclays, BNP Paribas, Goldman Sachs, Nasdaq, Macquarie Group, and Standard Chartered, will continue to support the business following this combination.

Together, Smarsh and Digital Reasoning can enable global customers to get ahead of unwanted or illegal activities such as fraud, insider trading, money laundering, customer complaints, and other top priorities. The enhanced platform will be especially adept at satisfying requirements from financial services regulators in the United States and overseas, including the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA), and the U.K.’s Financial Conduct Authority (FCA).

Digital Reasoning was recognized among Fast Company’s Most Innovative Companies for AI and recently received the Frost & Sullivan Product Leadership Award in the AI Risk Surveillance Market. Smarsh and Digital Reasoning will be presenting on Communications Intelligence as the new imperative for the risk and compliance industry at the upcoming 1LoD XLoD global conference.

The addition of Digital Reasoning to the Smarsh organization follows the acquisition by Smarsh of Entreda, the leading cybersecurity compliance solutions provider for the wealth management space, in May of this year.

Financial details of the transaction, which is expected to close in the next 60 days, were not disclosed. Barclays acted as exclusive financial advisor to Digital Reasoning.

 

1 Gartner, “Magic Quadrant for Enterprise Information Archiving”, Michael Hoeck, Jeff Vogel, October 27, 2020.

 

About Smarsh

Smarsh is the recognized global leader in electronic communications archiving solutions for regulated organizations. The Smarsh Connected Suite provides innovative capture, archiving, e-discovery, and supervision solutions across the industry’s widest breadth of communication channels.

Scalable for organizations of all sizes, the Smarsh platform provides customers with compliance built on confidence. It enables them to strategically future-proof as new communication channels are adopted, and to realize more insight and value from the data in their archive. Customers strengthen their compliance and e-discovery initiatives, and benefit from the productive use of email, social media, mobile/text messaging, instant messaging and collaboration, web, and voice channels.

Smarsh serves a global client base that spans the top banks in North America and Europe, along with leading brokerage firms, insurers, and registered investment advisors. Smarsh also enables federal and state government agencies to meet their public records and e-discovery requirements. For more information, visit www.smarsh.com.

About Digital Reasoning

Digital Reasoning is a global leader in understanding human communications and behavior through the combination of applied AI, deep collaboration with industry experts, and a commitment to use technology for positive change. Through the combination of our trusted technology and our customers’ experience, for example, patients have a better chance of surviving, banks can ensure their employees are meeting the highest standards of conduct, and law enforcement can protect the most vulnerable citizens in our society.  For more information, go to www.digitalreasoning.com and follow on Twitter at @dreasoning.

 

More Resources
Smarsh and Actiance Complete Merger, Combine Forces to Redefine Archiving Under the Smarsh Brand
Smarsh Acquires Entreda, Leader in Cybersecurity Risk and Compliance Software for Wealth Management Industry

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Innovestor invests in Linear – Digitalizing the real estate business

Innovestor

Linear, a Finnish startup focusing on the digitalization of real estate brokerage, has closed €1.1 million in seed funding. The round was led by Innovestor Ventures, joined by institutional and private investors as well as the company’s previous backer, Superhero Capital. Linear will use the latest funding round on future growth and expansion to new markets.

Linear Oy, founded in 2018, offers a digital ecosystem that is driven by artificial intelligence and machine learning to facilitate the housing trade. The services benefit both private sellers and professional realtors.

Linear offers realtors a comprehensive SaaS (Software as a Service) automation tool for managing the sales process and acquiring new customers. Furthermore, realtors have access to a wide range of digital marketing tools, such as virtual apartment tours and virtual interior designs. Realtors can use Linear to minimize the amount of manual work, allowing them to focus solely on the sales process. This increases the annual sales capacity of realtors significantly.

To date, Linear has over 600 registered realtors as customers from the majority of Finland’s largest realtor agencies, including Remax, Kiinteistömaailma and Bo LKV.

For private home sellers, Linear provides an integrated platform (named Dixu) with all the necessary tools to sell homes independently. For a flat fee, private sellers get AI-driven pricing suggestions, support in preparing legal documents, marketing materials and a sample of the most efficient realtors in their own area, if they decide to turn to professional sales support.

The development of the real estate sector has recently focused heavily on digital services and concepts that facilitate the sale of a house listing without a realtor. Miro Eriksson, CEO at Linear, believes realtors will continue to play an important role in the real estate selling process.

“While many choose to sell their homes independently, from consumer to consumer, we think that realtors continue to have a solid position in the market – and we are happy to provide them with a new solution to make their job easier and more efficient. We are proud and humble to successfully close this investment round, giving us confidence to continue developing our products and services”, Eriksson says.

 

“We were able to quickly build conviction around Linear’s ambitious team and their vision for applying tech to develop the home selling market. Moreover, in this market, we believe the Human+Machine approach will be a successful formula. Over a short period of time, the company has validated its offering and is now ready to scale”, says Innovestor’s Wilhelm Lindholm.

 

This was Superhero Capital’s follow-on investment into the company, as the Helsinki-based venture capital firm made their initial investment in Linear’s pre-seed round in 2019.

Although Linear’s platform was launched in 2019, the startup has shown strong growth as their revenue has increased by 14 percent month-over-month during the first half of 2020.

 

In the media 

Suomalainen asuntokaupan nettiapuri keräsi 1,1 miljoonan euron rahoituksen – Idea keksittiin pankissa: ”Olemme myöntäneet miljoonien edestä lainoja ja huomasimme ongelmia” (Talouselämä)

Finnish startup Linear raises €1 million to digitalise real estate but keep realtors in the game (Tech.eu)

 

Contact

Miro Eriksson

CEO, Linear
miro(a)linear.fi
+358 44 5801656

 

Wilhelm Lindholm

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