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GP Bullhound invests in big data platform Stratio

Gp Bullhound

GP Bullhound announces its investment in Stratio, a third generation big data platform, in a EUR13M Series B round led by Adara Ventures. The funds raised will go toward the continued evolution of the Stratio Big Data product suite while accelerating the growth of their software subscription business internationally.
Stratio CEO, Oscar Mendez, said: “Stratio’s growth in recent years has been on an exciting trajectory. We are delighted to continue to work with Adara Ventures and have built a fruitful relationship with GP Bullhound for the past few years. We look forward to working together with them on our international expansion and growth strategy.”

Joakim Dal, Partner at GP Bullhound, commented: “Stratio makes next generation technologies usable for IT heavy enterprises at a fraction of the cost of doing it themselves. We see significant opportunities for growth ahead for Stratio.”

Enquiries
For enquiries, please contact Joakim Dal, Partner at GP Bullhound, at joakim.dal@gpbullhound.com

About Stratio
Stratio is a leading Big Data and Artificial Intelligence software company, helping customers with their Digital Transformation by placing their data in the centre of their operations. From data intelligence to corporate culture, Stratio’s goal is to help the biggest sectors face the myriad of challenges and seize the opportunities that the digital revolution offers. The company has offices in Silicon Valley, Madrid, Sao Paolo, Bogota, and Vancouver. For more information please visit www.stratio.com

About GP Bullhound
GP Bullhound is a leading technology advisory and investment firm, providing transaction advice and capital to the best entrepreneurs and founders. Founded in 1999, the firm today has offices in London, San Francisco, Stockholm, Berlin, Manchester, Paris, Hong Kong, Madrid and New York. For more information, please visit www.gpbullhound.com, or follow on Twitter @GPBullhound.

 

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Funds advised by Apax Partners acquire Authority Brands

New York and Columbia, Maryland, 24 September 2018:Funds advised by Apax Partners (the “Apax Funds”) today announced the acquisition of Authority Brands, a leading North American franchisor of home services, from PNC Riverarch Capital. The financial terms of the transaction were not disclosed.

Founded in 1996 and headquartered in Columbia, Maryland, Authority Brands is the parent company of two home services franchisors: The Cleaning Authority, which provides residential cleaning services to over 100,000 customers across the U.S.; and Homewatch CareGivers, which delivers at-home services including elderly, disabled and after-surgery care, as well as help for those living with dementia. Authority Brands operates over 300 franchises in the U.S., Canada and Latin America, supporting them to grow through the provision of marketing, technology and operational support.

The acquisition by the Apax Funds will help the company accelerate its growth, both organically and through strategic acquisitions, as it looks to expand internationally and offer additional services. It also presents digitization opportunities as Apax intends to leverage its significant experience in this area to help Authority Brands provide enhanced software, digital marketing and systems to support its franchise partners. Under the terms of the acquisition, Authority Brands’ management team, led by Chief Executive Officer Rob Weddle, will remain in place.

Rob Weddle, CEO of Authority Brands, said: “We are very excited about the experience and depth the Apax team brings to this new partnership. Authority Brands has a vision to become the leading franchisor of home services by providing unparalleled business ownership opportunity to its franchisees and delivering first-class service to consumers. We are confident Apax shares in this vision and expect a bright future for Authority Brands.”

Ashish Karandikar, Partner at Apax Partners, said: “We have been attracted to the home services market for some time, due to its size, fragmentation and attractive growth rate. We have been impressed by Authority Brands’ established franchise network, experienced management, and strong track record of growth.

“We look forward to working with management and all franchise partners to accelerate growth, both organically and through M&A, as well as to leverage Apax’s significant experience in international expansion and digitization.”

About Authority Brands
Headquartered in Columbia, Maryland, Authority Brands, LLC is the parent company of two leading home service franchisors, The Cleaning Authority and Homewatch CareGivers. Together, these brands provide recurring home services through more than 300 franchise locations in the U.S., Canada and Latin America. Authority Brands is dedicated to supporting individual franchisee growth through providing strong marketing, technology and operational support.

About Apax Partners
Apax Partners is a leading global private equity advisory firm. Over its more than 35-year history, Apax Partners has raised and advised funds with aggregate commitments of over $50 billion. The Apax Funds invest in companies across four global sectors of Tech & Telco, Services, Healthcare and Consumer. These funds provide long-term equity financing to build and strengthen world-class companies. For more information see: www.apax.com.

Media Contacts:  

For Authority Brands

Nikki Rode, Fish Consulting | +1 954-893-9150 | nrode@fish-consulting.com

For Apax Partners

Global Media: Andrew Kenny, Apax | +44 20 7 872 6371 | andrew.kenny@apax.com

USA Media: Todd Fogarty, Kekst | +1 212-521 4854 | todd.fogarty@kekst.com

UK Media: Matthew Goodman / James Madsen, Greenbrook | +44 20 7952 2000 | apax@greenbrookpr.com

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DIF consortium selected as preferred bidder for Belgian Liege tram PPP

DIF

Schiphol, 24 September 2018 – DIF is pleased to announce that the Tram’Ardent consortium has been announced preferred bidder for the availability based public-private partnership contract, involving the design, financing, construction and maintenance of the first tramway line in Liège, Belgium. The consortium consists of DIF Infrastructure V, together with its partners Colas Projects, Colas Belgium, Colas Rail Belgium and Spanish rolling stock manufacturer Construcciones y Auxiliar de Ferrocarriles (CAF). The authority partner is the Walloon Transport Operator.

With a total length of 11.7 km, 90% of which is in a reserved lane section, Liège’s first tramway line will serve 21 stations, connecting the Sclessin multimodal station, in the southwest of Liège, to the city of Herstal, in the northeast, via the high-speed train station and Saint Lambert Square.

The consortium is responsible for the design, financing, construction and maintenance of the tramway. The consortium will be in charge of the design and build of the electrified rail network, the creation of a maintenance and storage centre, and the development of 240,000 m² of surrounding urban space. CAF will, in particular, supply the rolling stock as part of the consortium. Closing is expected before the end of the year and construction is to be completed by the second half of 2022.

The consortium is advised by Natixis (financial) and DLA piper (legal).

About DIF

DIF is an independent infrastructure fund manager, with €5.6 billion of assets under management across seven closed-end infrastructure funds and several co-investment vehicles. DIF invests in greenfield and brownfield infrastructure assets located primarily in Europe, North America and Australasia through two complementary strategies:

  • DIF Infrastructure V targets equity investments in public-private partnerships (PPP/PFI/P3), concessions, regulated assets and renewable energy projects with long-term contracted or regulated income streams that generate stable and predictable cash flows;
  • DIF Core Infrastructure Fund I targets equity investments in small to mid-sized infrastructure assets in the energy, transportation and telecom sectors with mid-term contracted income streams that generate stable and predictable cash flows.

DIF has over 100 professionals in eight offices, located in Amsterdam, Frankfurt, London, Luxembourg, Madrid, Paris, Sydney and Toronto. Please see www.dif.eu or further information on DIF.

For further information, please contact:

Paul Nash
Partner, Head of PPP/Infrastructure
Email: p.nash@dif.eu

Allard Ruijs
Partner, Head of Investor Relations and Business Development
Email: a.ruijs@dif.eu

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Altamir to invest via the Apax France IX fund in the Italian company AEB Group

Altamir

AEB Group, a worldwide leader in biotechnological ingredients for wine, food and beverage.

Paris, 21 September 2018 – As announced in our press release dated 5 September, a new transaction has been signed by Apax Partners SAS: the acquisition from SK Capital of 100% of the Italian company AEB Group, a worldwide leader in biotechnological ingredients and related services for wine, food and beverage. The company’s management will reinvest alongside Apax Funds.

Leveraging their expertise in biotechnology and oenology, AEB Group offers custom solutions based on more than 600 proprietary products and specialty equipment, especially designed for the wine, beer, juice, cider and food industry.

With a unique coverage across 5 continents, AEB Group employs more than 300 persons, including 170 agents and sales representatives in 13 countries. The company has 8 production units, 4 R&D laboratories and 7 quality control laboratories globally and collaborates with more than 20 universities and research institutes to foster continuous innovation. In 2017, the company generated revenues of nearly €100 million.

The company’s objective is to pursue its international expansion by leveraging the existing worldwide sales and agents network and to conduct an ambitious buy and build strategy.

Financial terms of the transaction are not disclosed. Closing of the transaction is expected in the beginning of October.

Altamir’s investment is expected to be in the region of €35m based on the upper limit of its commitment in the Apax France IX fund.

About Altamir

Altamir is a listed private equity company (Euronext Paris-B, ticker: LTA) founded in 1995 and with almost €800m in assets under management. Its objective is to provide shareholders with long term capital appreciation and regular dividends by investing in a diversified portfolio of private equity investments.

Altamir’s investment policy is to invest via and with the funds managed by Apax Partners SAS and Apax Partners LLP, two leading private equity firms that take majority or lead positions in buyouts and growth capital transactions and seek ambitious value creation objectives.

In this way, Altamir provides access to a diversified portfolio of fast-growing companies across Apax’s sectors of specialisation (TMT, Consumer, Healthcare, Services) and in complementary market segments (mid-sized companies in French-speaking European countries and larger companies across Europe, North America and key emerging markets).

Altamir derives certain tax benefits from its status as an SCR (“Société de Capital Risque”). As such, Altamir is exempt from corporate tax and the company’s investors may benefit from tax exemptions, subject to specific holding-period and dividend-reinvestment conditions.

For more information: www.altamir.fr

Contact

Agathe Heinrich

Tel: +33 1 53 65 01 74

E-mail: investors@altamir.fr

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Investment facilitates innovation furthering MariaDB as the leading enterprise open source database

Tesi

INVESTMENTS IN COMPANIES – 20.9.2018

MENLO PARK, Calif. and HELSINKI – September 20, 2018 – MariaDB® Corporation today announced that Pat Casey, SVP of Development and Operations at ServiceNow®, is joining its board of directors and ServiceNow Ventures is participating in MariaDB’s Series C funding round. Pat Casey joins executives from Intel and Alibaba who collectively bring a wide range of deep cloud experience to the enterprise open source database company. MariaDB products are used in ServiceNow’s cloud-based platform, running workflows for the world’s largest companies. To operate at scale, ServiceNow’s platform runs on up to 85,000 MariaDB databases that serve more than 25 billion queries per hour.

“MariaDB is an essential building block of ServiceNow’s cloud infrastructure,” said Michael Howard, CEO, MariaDB Corporation. “ServiceNow architected its platform from the ground up to deliver an exceptional customer experience and leverage open source to enable innovation. With Pat Casey on our board, we gain the guidance of a seasoned executive and the continued partnership of an innovator and cloud leader to ensure the success with our own MariaDB cloud solutions.”

“We are actively investing to make the Now Platform the most innovative for our customers to get work done,” said Pat Casey, SVP of Development and Operations, ServiceNow. “We are investing in MariaDB to lend our expertise in cloud automation and enable some of the world’s largest companies at scale. By collaborating on new features with MariaDB, we are changing database technology for the better.”

In addition to Pat Casey joining the board, ServiceNow is a collaborative development partner with MariaDB and recently worked to deliver real-time data definition language (DDL), available with MariaDB TX 3.0. The two companies are continuing to work on several database solutions including a distributed database strategy to address the needs of their largest customers.

Last year, MariaDB raised $54 million in funding from the European Investment Bank and an initial Series C funding round led by Alibaba, bringing the total raised to $98 million. MariaDB can be deployed on premises with commodity hardware, across any public, private or hybrid cloud topology and is available in any of the world’s major cloud providers. With MariaDB, users get the perfect database every time thanks to its purpose-built storage engines that simultaneously support multiple workloads with different characteristics – transactional, analytical, write-intensive or extreme scale.

MariaDB Acquires Clustrix Adding Distributed Database Technology

Clustrix technology will allow MariaDB to scale beyond traditional distributed solutions such as Oracle RAC to levels only achieved with NoSQL, without compromising core enterprise features. The acquisition helps advance the MariaDB Labs mission to tackle the most extreme challenges in the database field, specifically around distributed computing, machine learning, and next-generation chips, memory and storage environments.

“Today, the choices for a scale-out database option are limited – go with a traditional solution like Oracle with high cost and bloat or choose a NoSQL solution that has limited capabilities for data integrity,” said Michael Howard. “With Clustrix, MariaDB can provide a better solution for our customers that have challenging scale-out enterprise environments. Our distributed solution will satisfy the most extreme requirements of our largest customers and gives them the freedom to break from Oracle’s lock-in.”

Additional Resources
Watch ServiceNow’s keynote at M|18

Watch MariaDB’s CEO discuss MariaDB Labs at its annual user conference

Visit mariadb.com

Follow @mariadb on Twitter

Read MariaDB’s blog

MariaDB frees companies from the costs, constraints and complexity of proprietary databases, enabling them to reinvest in what matters most – rapidly developing innovative, customer-facing applications. MariaDB uses pluggable, purpose-built storage engines to support workloads that previously required a variety of specialized databases. With complexity and constraints eliminated, enterprises can now depend on a single complete database for all their needs, whether on commodity hardware or their cloud of choice. Deployed in minutes for transactional or analytical use cases, MariaDB delivers unmatched operational agility without sacrificing key enterprise features including real ACID compliance and full SQL. Trusted by organizations such as Deutsche Bank, DBS Bank, Nasdaq, Red Hat, The Home Depot, ServiceNow and Verizon – MariaDB meets the same core requirements as proprietary databases at a fraction of the cost. No wonder it’s the fastest growing open source database. Real business relies on MariaDB™.

Tesi (Finnish Industry Investment Ltd) is a venture capital and private equity company that accelerates companies’ success stories by investing in them directly and via funds. Tesi always invests together with other investors, providing them with access to high quality deal-flow in Finland. Our investments under management total €1.2 billion and we have altogether 700 companies in portfolio. www.tesi.fi/ @TesiFII / www.dtg.tesi.fi

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ONCAP Acquires Walter Surface Technologies

Onex

Toronto, Ontario and Montreal, Quebec September 20, 2018

– ONCAP today announced it has purchased a majority stake in Walter Surface Technologies (“Walter” or the “Company”), in partnership with the existing management team. The Walter Group will retain a minority interest in the Company.

Walter is a leading provider of innovative solutions for the metal working industry. Its premium, consumable metal working solutions include abrasives, tooling, power tools, chemical solutions and welding process solutions. The Company sells its portfolio of products to a diverse array of end markets, including metal fabrication, transportation, construction, energy, mining, forestry and lumber, food and pharmaceuticals. Walter was founded in 1952 by Walter Somers and, over the past 30 years, his son Pierre Somers led the Company and expanded it internationally.
“Walter is committed to creating the best performing products and offering innovative, safe, user-friendly and environmentally conscious solutions to its customers,” said Gregory Baylin, a Managing Director with ONCAP. “The Company’s dedication to excellence and strong workforce are what attracted us to the business. We’re thrilled to partner with the management team and the founding family to build upon the entrepreneurial spirit and vision Walter and Pierre Somers created.”

“ONCAP’s Canadian roots and outstanding investment track record make it an ideal partner for us,” said Marc-André Aubé, the newly-appointed Chief Executive Officer of Walter. “Together, we’ll continue to focus on providing the best solutions to our customers to improve their productivity and make their jobs easier and safer. ONCAP’s support will help us grow both organically and through strategic add-on acquisitions.”
“This transaction is the logical step to take Walter to new and exciting heights. The Company is in great hands with Marc-André and the management team we’ve worked hard to build,” said Pierre Somers, the retiring Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Walter and the Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Walter Group. “We’re excited to remain a minority shareholder and watch the Company’s growth during this next chapter. The Walter Group will now turn its focus to expanding our investing activities.”
The investment was made by ONCAP IV, Onex Corporation’s (TSX:ONEX) $1.1 billion fund. The terms of the transaction are not being disclosed.

About ONCAP
ONCAP is the mid-market private equity platform of Onex. In partnership with operating
company management teams, ONCAP invests in and builds value in North American
headquartered medium-sized businesses that are market leaders and possess meaningful growth
potential. For more information on ONCAP, visit its website at www.oncap.com.
Onex is one of the oldest and most successful private equity firms. Through its Onex Partners
and ONCAP private equity funds, Onex acquires and builds high-quality businesses in
partnership with talented management teams. At Onex Credit, Onex manages and invests in
leveraged loans, collateralized loan obligations and other credit securities. Onex has more than
$33 billion of assets under management, including $6.8 billion of Onex proprietary capital, in
private equity and credit securities. With offices in Toronto, New York, New Jersey and
London, Onex and the team are collectively the largest investors across Onex’ platforms. Onex
shares trade on the Toronto Stock Exchange under the stock symbol ONEX. For more
information on Onex, visit its website at www.onex.com.

About Walter Surface Technologies
Walter Surface Technologies provides innovative solutions for the global metal working
industry. From high performance abrasives, power tools and tooling to industrial parts washing
systems, cleaners, degreasers and lubricants Walter focuses on helping its customers work better.
Founded in 1952, the Company is established in 7 countries throughout North America, South
America and Europe. International headquarters is in Montreal and U.S. headquarters is located
in Windsor, Connecticut. Key certification and awards include ISO 9001: 2008, Wall Street
Journal Award; Deutscher Material Preiz; American Eagle Award; CleanTech Cleaning
Technology Award. For more information, please visit www.walter.com.

About Walter Group
For more than 60 years, the Walter Group of Companies has been guided by a strong
entrepreneurial spirit that has been passed down from one generation to the next. Leveraging its
unique position, the Group has evolved into a flourishing ecosystem of companies driven by
entrepreneurship and innovation. Over the years, the Walter Group has been investing and
supporting growth through Walter Financial, a private investment firm targeting both private and
public markets, with permanent capital base and long-term investment horizon. Among its
strategies, Walter Financial has allocated over C$240 million to its two dedicated internal private
equity firms, Walter Capital Partners and newly created Walter Global Asset Management. For
more information, please visit www.waltergroup.ca.

For further information:
Onex
Emilie Blouin
Director, Investor Relations
Tel: +1.416.362.7711
Walter Surface Technologies
Stephanie Boucher
Marketing Communications Manager
E: SBoucher@walter.com
Walter Group
Carl Vallée
HATLEY Strategy Advisors
Tel: +1.514.316.7089
2

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CVC Capital Partners announces majority interest investment in UnitedLex

Senior team has fully reinvested to further company’s mission to drive innovation in the legal marketplace

CVC Capital Partners (“CVC”) today announced that funds managed by CVC will make a majority interest investment in UnitedLex, the pioneer of enterprise legal services for the world’s leading corporations, law firms, and universities. The transaction is subject to customary regulatory approvals. The UnitedLex senior leadership team has fully reinvested in the transaction to further the company’s mission to lead the revolution of the practice of law and legal services delivery and to drive innovation in the legal marketplace.

The investment represents one of the largest transactions to date with any legal services provider. It comes on the heels of UnitedLex closing deals worth $1.5 billion in total contract value over the last 18 months.

Founded in 2006, UnitedLex provides enterprise legal services to its clients, which include more than 25% of the Global Fortune 500, across 18 countries. UnitedLex’s year-over-year growth has been purely organic, enabling a singularity of culture focused on delivering significant client value and providing its professionals a unique home to extend the current boundaries of client solutions through the “art of the possible.” The company has created a one of a kind legal services platform: a consulting, technology, and resource solutions company; an international law firm constellation; and a law firm resource platform – all focused on the areas of contracts and commercial transactions, litigation, intellectual property, consulting, and compliance.

Daniel Reed, CEO of UnitedLex, said, “I am very pleased to welcome CVC as our partner in what marks an important milestone in UnitedLex’s evolution. As Europe’s largest private equity firm with current and past portfolio companies such as Breitling, AlixPartners, and Formula 1, CVC has the geographic reach, sector expertise, scale, and significant capital that will undoubtedly help us expand our technology development and provide clients with unique financial structuring as part of our industry-changing solutions.”

Siddharth Patel, Senior Managing Director at CVC, commented, “UnitedLex has a multi-billion-dollar opportunity ahead of it, with legal services being one the few remaining verticals that is early in the penetration curve of technology, consulting, and solution delivery. UnitedLex continues to innovate with game-changing engagements with the world’s leading companies. Now is the perfect time for us to provide significant capital to enhance its growth and scale, the beginnings of which we’ve already seen in its impressive financial performance, customer wins, and pipeline of opportunities.”

Amit Soni, Managing Director at CVC, added, “We are excited to partner with UnitedLex and its excellent management team and to provide necessary capital to pursue both strategic acquisitions in a consolidating space, as well as transformational client wins. We have known the company for many years and have been impressed by its consistent track record of growth and ability to design and deliver unique solutions in the enterprise legal space.”

 

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HOLLAND VENTURE invests in LIVASSURED to support further development of the nightwatch

A groundbreaking detection system for nocturnal epileptic attacks
 
Amsterdam, 20 September 2018 – Investment company Holland Venture invests with Oost NL and Health Innovations Fund in LivAssured, which developed the revolutionary NightWatch in collaboration with neurologists and patient associations. The NightWatch supports  the care task of parents and healthcare professionals by giving off a warning in the event of a heavy night-time epileptic seizure. Because of the NightWatch, help can be provided quickly and adequately, reducing the risk of medical complications. The investment enables further development and the international roll-out of the NightWatch. With the investment in LivAssured, Holland Venture officially launched the Holland Venture Healthcare Innovation Fund II.

Annually, about 100,000 Dutch people must deal with epilepsy. A severe attack requires medical attention in approx. 30% of cases. Most of these attacks occur at night and often go by  unnoticed, leading to serious medical complications. Because of this parents often experience night-time stress. Research among the parents of the patients of epilepsy clinic Kempenhaeghe shows that about 60% of the parents are actively looking for a solution. Healthcare professionals also benefit from an adequate detection system to improve the quality of care and to ease the care task.

Conceived by neurologists, advised by epilepsy associations.

To solve this problem LivAssured, founded in 2013, developed the NightWatch in cooperation with institutions Kempenhaeghe, Sein, UMC Utrecht, and the Epilepsy Fund. The detection system consists of a bracelet that the patient wears around his upper arm at night. It uses a unique combination of heart rate and motion analysis, where the device recognizes movement patterns and changes in heart rate with a high degree of accuracy. A smart algorithm assesses whether these signals indicate an epileptic seizure. In the case of an epileptic seizure, the NightWatch sends an alarm to the healthcare professional or parent. This could prevent that an epileptic lead to more damage, hospitalization or even death.

Healthcare return
According to a longitudinal study at epilepsy institutes Sein and Kempenhaeghe, the NightWatch detects 9 out of 10 clinical urgent attacks and alerts emergency workers in time. That is more than a huge improvement compared to alternative products that are currently on the market. The results of this study will be published shortly. The NightWatch is currently being used to great satisfaction by a growing group of Dutch families and in care institutions.

Jan-Frens van Giessel, Investment Director by Holland Venture. ‘The safety for patients isn’t the only thing which increases due to the NightWatch, it also relieves the care task of parents and healthcare professionals. It realizes a huge impact in the care of a very vulnerable group of patients and their attendants. This explains why the investment in LivAssured fits perfectly within our investment focus, where we aim to reduce healthcare costs while increasing the quality of care. We foresee enormous (international) growth opportunities for the company and are proud to be able to contribute to its development.’

Jeroen van den Hout, CEO LivAssured, add to this: ‘We can set the next steps with the knowledge and capital of Holland Venture. With this investor, LivAssured gets a strong partner with experience in the healthcare sector and enable us to further develop the NightWatch and achieve our international growth ambitions.’

LivAssured is the first investment of the Healthcare Innovation Fund II (HVZI II) of Holland Venture.

With her recently started second Healthcare Innovation Fund, Holland Venture provides growth capital to promising Dutch entrepreneurs in the healthcare market. The fund, with a size of 14 million euros, has set itself the goal of building a portfolio of around 10 investments within the segment’s devices, diagnostics, and digital health.
About Holland Venture
Over the past 35 years, Holland Venture has invested in more than 130 Dutch SMEs in a responsible and successful manner. With a clear investment strategy, Holland Venture is active in the growth markets of both healthcare and technology. The experienced and involved investment team knows what entrepreneurship is like. With the joint goal of achieving growth, Holland Venture strives for an open, sustainable and professional relationship with the management teams of the companies in which she invests. Holland Venture is supported by a broad network of successful healthcare and technology entrepreneurs.

 

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Drillinginfo Acquires Oildex Expanding Capability by Integrating Financial Automation Solutions

The combination of decision support with operations automation will create unmatched benefits for customers in multiple market segments

Austin, Texas (September 18, 2018) – Drillinginfo, the leading energy SaaS and data analytics company, has acquired Oildex, the largest oil & gas financial automation software firm in North America. This combination will transform the way the industry connects, collaborates, and automates data exchange for financial transactions and field operations.

“By acquiring Oildex, we immediately expand our E&P and Oilfield Services base and reach across the energy value chain with Oildex’s full suite of financial automation solutions for automating invoicing, payments, field tickets, and data exchange. Oildex is a leader in managing relations between operators and their valued mineral rights owners, which enables us to accelerate our growth priority in the large mineral owner market. Our common core customer base and approaches to platforms in the cloud spark an immediate synergy,” said Jeff Hughes, CEO and President of Drillinginfo.

“Drillinginfo has a reputation for enabling energy companies to gain efficiencies and understand competitive positioning,” added Craig Charlton, CEO Oildex, an Accel-KKR portfolio company.  “They have evolved beyond just focusing on upstream activity to driving value creation for customers across multiple oil & gas market segments. Together we will be able to apply more of our problem-solving capabilities to help the oil & gas industry,” said Charlton.

The Oildex network excels at enabling seamless and secure collaboration across business partners, automating critical business processes, and eliminating the high cost and errors associated with handling paper. Drillinginfo’s vast store of current and historic industry data combined with built-in analytics will complement these capabilities in a way that no other combination could.

Additionally, solutions for oilfield services (OFS) are an area of rapid innovation and growth for both companies. Combining Drillinginfo’s powerful OFS mobile app with Oildex’s OpenTicket and the broader suite of Oildex’s field services management tools will provide an unmatched end-to-end SaaS platform for oilfield services. Drillinginfo will connect workflows from lead generation to job delivery and payment processing, reducing costs, improving resource utilization, and increasing productivity and transparency to make better business decisions. This incredible combination for oil & gas service providers is scalable and can serve the needs of customers ranging from small regional businesses all the way to global OFS companies.

Minerals represent a growth area for both companies’ solutions, which will only get stronger as a result of the combination. In today’s “cash is king” market environment, operators are increasingly outsourcing non-core services like owner relations, including check stub processing, call centers, and payments. This frees up precious resources and sharpens focus on their actual competitive advantage—drilling better wells.

“We aim to provide a decision support platform combined with financial automation that adds far more value than simple process efficiency within any one segment or function,” added Hughes. “The extensive and growing network of industry participants will create a multiplier effect of value for every business served. We couldn’t be more excited.”

Oildex is hosting its annual User Conference September 18–20 in Park City, Utah.

The Oildex team will join Drillinginfo and add their teams from downtown Denver, Houston, Calgary, Austin, and Tennessee, along with several remote location team members. This marks the first acquisition Drillinginfo has made after Genstar Capital purchased a majority stake in the company from Insight Venture Partners in July 2018.

About Drillinginfo

Drillinginfo delivers business-critical insights to the energy, power, and commodities markets. Our state-of-the-art SaaS platform offers sophisticated technology, powerful analytics, and industry-leading data. Our solutions deliver value across upstream, midstream and downstream markets, empowering exploration and production (E&P), oilfield services, midstream, utilities, trading and risk, and capital markets companies to be more collaborative, efficient, and competitive. Drillinginfo delivers actionable intelligence over mobile, web, and desktop to analyze and reduce risk, conduct competitive benchmarking, and uncover market insights. Drillinginfo serves over 3,500 companies globally from its Austin, Texas, headquarters and has approximately 675 employees. For more information visit drillinginfo.com.

About Oildex

Oildex, an Accel-KKR portfolio company, is transforming the way the oil and gas industry connects, collaborates and automates. More than 1,100 operators, 74,000 registered service providers, dozens of financial institutions and millions of mineral rights owners use the Oildex Network to seamlessly and securely collaborate with their business partners, automate critical business processes, eliminate the high cost and errors associated with the handling of paper, and obtain access to key data to make more informed business decisions. Oildex is headquartered in Denver and has offices in Calgary; Houston; Austin; Fayetteville, Arkansas, and Tennessee. Learn more about Oildex at www.oildex.com.

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MEDIA INQUIRIES:

Contact: Jon Haubert
303.396.5996

 

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Folmer Equity Fund II invests in Europlan Engineering Oy

Folmer

Folmer Equity Fund II Ky, a fund managed by Folmer Management Oy, is making an
investment in marine sector by acquiring a majority stake in Europlan Engineering Oy. As
part of the transaction, Hermann´s Finland Oy, a company specialized in demanding interior
solutions, becomes a wholly-owned subsidiary of Europlan Engineering group.

Europlan Engineering Oy, founded in 1990, is a leading Finnish marine technology project management company.
The core business of Europlan Engineering Oy consists of challenging turn-key projects for both domestic and
international clients. The company provides solutions for global cruise ships, superyachts and construction industry.
The company’s project management capabilities as well as its flexible network of subcontractors enable large-scale
global projects. The estimated revenue of the company for the current fiscal is ca. 55 MEUR.
The current owner and Managing Director of the company, Jari Savola, will continue as the Managing Director and
minority shareholder of the company with 40% equity stake. Moreover, the previous owner of Hermann´s Finland Oy,
Heikki Nieminen, will stay with the company.

“I wanted a partner that will ambitiously pursue the company to the next level through all aspects of the company. With
the large global orders in the backlog, we need particularly high standards as a company. We look forward continuing
to exceed the expectation levels of our clients”, says Jari Savola, The Managing Director of Europlan Engineering Oy.
“The prevailing megatrend of growth within the cruise ship industry provides us tailwind. Moreover, considering the
business climate, the opportunity to expand into new business segments is attractive”, says Sami Tuominen, the
Managing Director and Partner of Folmer. “Europlan Engineering Oy consists of group of experienced special talents
of the Finnish marine industry. Hermann´s Finland Oy offers exceptional production engineering capabilities. Together
the companies make a globally-recognized pioneer”, adds Johanna Marin, the Investment Director and Partner of
Folmer.

For more information:
Managing Director, Partner Sami Tuominen, Folmer Management Oy, tel. +358 40 708 4905,
sami.tuominen@folmer.fi
Managing Director, Europlan Engineering Oy, jari.savola@europlan.fi

Europlan Engineering Oy is a project management company providing its domestic and global clients with turn-key
solutions. The company services its clients within global cruise ship, superyacht and construction industry.
www.europlan.fi

Hermann´s Finland Oy is a production engineering company that specializes in demanding interior solutions. The
key competencies of the company are craft work, creative design and know-how in modern manufacturing methods.
The production of the company is built on IT-based design techniques and rigorous modelling. www.hermanns.fi
Folmer Management Oy is a Finnish private equity company investing in Finnish SMEs. Folmer creates value through
active development work. Folmer provides companies with support and professional experience – a requirement for
success. www.folmer.fi

Folmer Equity Fund II Ky benefits from the support of the European Union under the Equity Facility for Growth
established under Regulation (EU) No 1287/2013 of the European Parliament and the Council establishing a
Programme for the Competitiveness of Enterprises and small and medium enterprises (COSME) (2014-2020).
Businesses can contact selected financial institutions in their country to access EU financing: www.access2finance.eu.

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