Category Archives: News

Ratos AB – change in number of shares and votes

Ratos

The fifth opportunity to exercise warrants according to the incentive program for the CEO and other key personnel in Ratos decided on by the 2019 Annual General Meeting was completed in February 2024. Through the exercise of 329,200 warrants, the number of Class B shares increased by 329,200 and the number of votes by 32,920. After the increase, the share capital amounts to SEK 1,029,563,917.20.

Before exercise of warrants and conversion, no.   After exercise of warrants and conversion, no.
Class A shares: 84,637,060   Class A shares: 84,637,060
Class B shares: 241,879,428   Class B shares: 242,208,628
Total number of shares: 326,516,488   Total number of shares: 326,845,688
Total number of votes: 108,825,002.80   Total number of votes: 108,857,922.80

For further information, please contact:
Magnus Stephensen, General Counsel
+46 72 517 52 00

This is information that Ratos AB is obliged to make public pursuant to the Financial Instruments Trading Act. The information was submitted for publication at 08:00 CET on 29 February 2024.

About Ratos
Ratos is a Swedish business group focusing on technology and infrastructure solutions, consisting of 17 companies divided into three business areas: Construction & Services, Industry and consumer. The companies have approximately SEK 34 billion in net sales (LTM). We have a distinct corporate culture and strategy – everything we do is based on our core values: Simplicity, Speed in execution and It’s All About People. We enable independent subsidiaries to excel by being part of something larger. People, leadership, culture and values are key focus areas.

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Qovetia implements a financing of €130 million from Five Arrows Debt Partners to support its growth and carry out its development plan

Careventures

By bringing together more than 70 veterinary clinics in just 4 years, the Qovetia network has quickly distinguished itself by advocating for a unique model that integrates all specialties of the sector (companion animals, equine medicine, and rural medicine) and involves veterinarians in its governance.

Founded in 2020 by the grouping of around ten sites in Normandy, Burgandy Franche-Comté, and Occitanie, with the financial support of Careventures and Unexo, Qovetia has since been joined by around sixty sites covering the majority of French territory and become one of the main players in the veterinary clinics sector.

Qovetia stands out with a unique and “veterinarian-centric” value proposition, which promotes the quality of care and the performance of clinics. This unique model in the animal health sector allows for alignment of interests and a lasting alliance with veterinarians. Qovetia involves associate veterinarians in the group’s decision-making process and guarantees true medical autonomy to provide individualized care services at each clinic, closest to the patients.

Qovetia and its management were advised, in the context of their negotiations with lenders as well as in the development of a financial structure adapted to the Group’s ambitious external growth policy, by Degroof Petercam Investment Banking.

With a new financing of €130 million in the form of senior and junior bonds allows the Group to (i) improve its financial structure by refinancing a portion of its bank debts, (ii) finance an ambitious plan of around sixty acquisitions over the next 2 years, and (iii) finance development projects.

 

Jean-Matthieu Cottin, CEO of Qovetia: “I thank Five Arrows Debt Partners for their trust, as well as all the teams who made this operation possible. I am very happy about this important milestone for Qovetia. In a competitive and complex environment, in a sector undergoing profound evolution and facing major societal challenges, this new partnership will allow us to continue our development with the associated veterinarians in service of caregivers, their patients, and their owners.”

Eric Souêtre, Partner at Careventures: “As Co-founder and principal investor, Careventures is delighted to partner with Five Arrows to develop the Qovetia model both in France and Europe. Their support represents a validation of our commitment to the company, its management team, and its positioning.”

Raoul Mahler, Managing Director of Five Arrows Debt Partners: “We were very impressed by Qovetia’s business project, focused on supporting and empowering veterinarians, as well as by the quality of its management team. Qovetia is pursuing an ambitious yet controlled external growth strategy, which has strengthened our investment decision.”

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IK Partners to invest in Schwingshandl

IK Partners

IK Partners (“IK”) is pleased to announce that the IK Small Cap III (“IK SC III”) Fund has signed an agreement to invest in Schwingshandl automation technology GmbH (“Schwingshandl” or “the Company”), a leading provider of smart intralogistics automation solutions based in Austria. IK is partnering with the founders, Thomas Schwingshandl and Enrico Larcher, who will both retain a significant minority share in the Company. Financial terms of the transaction are not disclosed.

Founded in 2003 and headquartered near Linz, Austria, Schwingshandl provides innovative, made-to-measure automation solutions for a broad range of end-market applications. The Company specialises in designing, engineering and assembling customised modules and sub-systems such as storage and distribution technology, lifts, conveyor systems, (de-) palletisers, (de-) stackers and (un-) loading stations. Schwingshandl is a long-term partner to blue-chip customers globally, focusing on the development of high quality, complex intralogistics solutions, leveraging its successful automation track record of over 20 years.

Since inception, Schwingshandl has demonstrated impressive growth, in a large part due to the entrepreneurial spirit of the founders as well as the dedication of its 90 employees. The Company recently finalised the expansion of its production facility and has firmly established itself as a leading provider of customised warehouse automation solutions. In partnership with IK, Schwingshandl will look to: continue investing in its people and organisation; selectively broaden its service offering; and pursue international expansion. Both founders will retain their respective leadership positions on Schwingshandl’s management board and will remain significantly invested in the Company.

Thomas Schwingshandl, Founder and CEO of Schwingshandl, said: “The rise of warehouse automation is a key trend we are seeing across various end-industries, presenting attractive growth opportunities for a Company like ours. We are excited to welcome an experienced partner like IK on board. The team at IK has already recognised Schwingshandl’s potential for development and possesses both the experience and expertise to support our ongoing expansion strategy.”

Nils Pohlmann, Partner at IK and Advisor to the IK SC III Fund, said: “Under the stewardship of Thomas, Enrico and their team, Schwingshandl has established itself as a leading provider of customised intralogistics automation solutions in Europe. We have been extremely impressed with the Company’s journey to date and look forward to utilising our significant experience in the automation technology sector to unlock further value.”

For further questions, please contact:

IK Partners
Vidya Verlkumar
Phone: +44 (0) 7787 558 193
vidya.verlkumar@ikpartners.com

About IK Partners

IK Partners (“IK”) is a European private equity firm focused on investments in the Benelux, DACH, France, Nordics and the UK. Since 1989, IK has raised more than €14 billion of capital and invested in over 180 European companies. IK supports companies with strong underlying potential, partnering
with management teams and investors to create robust, well-positioned businesses with excellent long-term prospects. For more information, visit ikpartners.com

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About Schwingshandl

Founded in 2003, Schwingshandl is a leading provider of smart intralogistics automation solutions and focuses on innovative, made-to-measure modules and sub-systems for warehouse automation. Based in Holzhausen, Austria, Schwingshandl serves a global and trusted customer base across multiple end-markets as solution partner. schwingshandl.com

Categories: News

Thompson Street Capital Partners Portfolio Company PestCo Holdings Acquires PestShield

Thompson Street Capital

Thompson Street Capital Partners (TSCP), a private equity firm based in St. Louis, today announced the acquisition of the assets of PestShield, LLC (PestShield) by PestCo Holdings, LLC (PestCo), a TSCP portfolio company. Located in St. Louis, Missouri, PestShield is a leading provider of residential pest control services that partners with local home builders to pre-install preventive pest control equipment in homes during the construction phase. With the backing of PestCo’s team and resources, PestShield is positioned for future growth, while continuing to provide high-quality service to customers. Terms of the transaction were not disclosed.

This is the fourteenth investment for PestCo, a growth-oriented, national provider of pest control services to residential and commercial customers.

“PestShield is an excellent addition to our growing presence in the greater St. Louis area,” said Jay Keating, CEO of PestCo. “We look forward to working together with PestShield to enhance growth opportunities for the business and create opportunities for the team.”

Patrick Hoene, owner of PestShield, added, “PestCo impressed me throughout the acquisition process. Efficient due diligence, consistent attention to detail, collaborative engagement, thoughtful guidance, and fairness in all negotiations from beginning to end. I highly recommend this experienced and honest pest control buyer for any small to large company or owner considering a transition but uncertain of the process and the complexities of selling their business.”

“Thompson Street is excited to add a quality business in PestShield to PestCo’s growing presence in St. Louis, alongside our previous acquisitions of Bel-O and Mick’s,” said Dan Cooper, Director, TSCP.

PCO M&A Specialists, a division of PCO Bookkeepers, acted as the exclusive financial advisor to PestShield on the transaction.

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DIF Capital Partners sells US toll road Northwest Parkway

DIF

DIF Capital Partners (DIF) is pleased to announce that it has signed an agreement to sell its 33.3% stake in Northwest Parkway to VINCI Highways, subsidiary of VINCI Concessions, part of the VINCI group, global concession operator and construction company headquartered in France and listed on the Paris Stock Exchange. DIF is selling its stake in the toll road alongside its co-shareholders HICL Infrastructure PLC and funds managed by Northleaf Capital Partners in a joint sale for 100% of the equity interest in the project.

The Northwest Parkway toll road project (NWP) is a ca. 14km US toll road located in Denver, Colorado. Originally constructed in 2003, NWP comprises the northwest quadrant of the Denver Metropolitan area beltway. Among other purposes, the road serves as a vital connection between Northwest Denver and the Denver International Airport. The road was acquired by DIF in 2017, via its DIF Infrastructure IV (DIF IV) fund and co-investors, alongside consortium members.

Andrew Freeman, Partner and Head of Exits at DIF Capital Partners, said: “This successful exit represents a material transaction for DIF IV, after actively managing it through covid times back to normality, generating strong yield and now realising attractive returns for our investors.”

Closing of the transaction is subject to customary conditions and approvals, and is expected to take place in Q2 2024.

DIF was advised on the transaction by Evercore (financial), Kirkland & Ellis (legal), C&M (traffic & revenue), KPMG (accounting & tax) and Arup (technical).

About DIF Capital Partners

DIF Capital Partners is an infrastructure fund manager with over EUR 17 billion of assets under management. DIF was founded in 2005 and has a leading position in managing mid-market investments, primarily in Europe, North America and Australia.

DIF follows two strategies: its traditional DIF funds invest in lower-risk mid-sized infrastructure projects and companies in the energy transition (incl. renewables) and utilities sector, as well as PPPs and concessions. The firm’s CIF funds invest in small to mid-sized companies that will thrive in the new economy. These companies are typically active in the digital infrastructure, energy transition and sustainable transportation sector.

With a team of over 240 professionals in 11 offices, DIF offers a unique market approach combining global presence with the benefits of strong local networks and investment capabilities. DIF is located in Amsterdam, Frankfurt, Helsinki, London, Luxembourg, Madrid, New York, Paris, Santiago, Sydney and Toronto.

For more information, please visit www.dif.eu or follow us on LinkedIn.

Press contacts:
DIF Capital Partners: press@dif.eu

 

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JMI named to GrowthCap’s Top Growth Equity Firms of 2023

JMI Equity

JMI Equity is pleased to announce it has been named to GrowthCap’s list of The Top Growth Equity Firms of 2023.

This is GrowthCap’s tenth year running this award process and they began their evaluation process by assessing a set of over 400 firms. GrowthCap compiled their annual list by evaluating each firm’s unique capabilities, sector expertise, investment judgment, demonstrated value creation, senior partner composition, talent retention, firm evolution, and firm momentum, among other attributes. This year’s list of awardees is comprised of the best growth equity firms who have instituted integrity and instilled trust as a core part of their culture when interacting with each of their stakeholders—portfolio companies, limited partners, their employees, their industry colleagues and others.

Disclaimer: GrowthCap is a leading growth capital research and advisory firm. The criteria considered for this award is determined by GrowthCap which compiles its annual list by speaking with investors and CEOs across industries, evaluating firm attributes through nomination submissions, reviewing ESG commitment, and studying investment performance to form a holistic view. The award is the subjective determination of the party conferring the award and not of JMI Equity. JMI Equity submitted a nomination to be considered for, and once selected, paid to be included on, and to promote inclusion on, this list. JMI Equity received this award in 2024. For more information about GrowthCap, please see their website at growthcapadvisory.com. JMI is not responsible for the contents of any third-party website and has not confirmed the accuracy of any information provided therein.

Categories: News

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

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

02.28.2024 | By: Joanne Chen

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

 

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

Published on 01.31.2023
Written by Foundation Capital

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Nordic Capital makes majority investment in ActiveViam, provider of advanced analytics for financial institutions

Nordic Capital
  • The investment is made in partnership with ActiveViam’s founders and management to support and accelerate continued high-growth and expansion
  • Nordic Capital, a leading investor in banking software, will leverage its long-standing expertise and experience from accelerating digitization of the financial services industry 
  • The aim is to realize ActiveViam’s potential of improving the ever-growing needs of financial institutions’ regulatory compliance and real-time monitoring — as well as deep historical analysis — of performance, risk management and financial planning

 

Nordic Capital announced today it has acquired a majority stake in ActiveViam to support its next phase of growth. The investment is made in close partnership with ActiveViam’s founders and management who will invest alongside Nordic Capital.

ActiveViam is a leading provider of advanced analytics and decision-making solutions for financial institutions, including risk analytics and regulatory compliance software. The technology is purpose-built, scalable and handles massive datasets in sub-seconds. Founded in 2005 by industry experts, ActiveViam understands the data analytics faced by financial institutions across trading desks, risk and compliance, and its track differentiated core technology outperforms horizontal data aggregation and analytics tools.

ActiveViam serves a wide range of financial services organizations: Tier 1 and Tier 2 banks, hedge funds, asset managers, exchanges and regulators. The Company has lined up an extensive group of technology, system integrator, go-to-market and OEM partners, including Google, Accenture, AWS, Deloitte, ClickHouse, S&P Global, Snowflake, and Wolters Kluwer.

Financial analytics is a $10.4 billion addressable market growing at 13 percent a year, according to L.E.K. Consulting. Market drivers include continuous regulatory change, a focus on automation of manual processes, and an increasing need for a unified view of data spread across the fragmented IT ecosystem typical for large financial institutions.

As an experienced investor in the banking software sector, Nordic Capital aims to leverage its extensive expertise to scale the continued high organic growth of ActiveViam, by investing in the organization, driving continued excellence in R&D and new products, and by supporting partnerships and M&A.

Emil Anderson, Partner, Nordic Capital Advisors, said: “We are impressed by the ActiveViam team and what they have achieved:  they empower financial organizations to reduce risk and increase revenue by making better decisions, faster. Forty percent of Tier 1 banks worldwide work with ActiveViam technology, and the company has an especially strong footprint in Europe and North America.  With Nordic Capital’s prior experience in banking software, network of senior advisors, and internal operations resources, Nordic Capital is well positioned to support ActiveViam in its next stage of growth. Nordic Capital is excited about partnering with the founders and management to continue the company’s remarkable growth journey.”

Kathy Perrotte, CEO and Co-Founder, ActiveViam, said, “Nordic Capital’s investment is a great opportunity for ActiveViam and great news for our clients, partners and employees. As a large and respected private equity investor, Nordic Capital deploys its significant operational expertise, strategic capabilities and inventive approach to accelerate the growth of the technology leaders it invests in.  Nordic Capital recognizes the power, speed and flexibility of the technology our team has created for our financial services clients, and we look forward to their support as we make further advancements and explore acquisition opportunities.”

Nordic Capital has over 30 years’ experience of accelerating growth of innovative technology companies and is set to leverage its deep sub-sector and operational knowledge to create value and further boost the Company’s ambitious growth plans. As a leading specialized Technology & Payments investor globally, Nordic Capital has to date made 29 technology investments in companies with an aggregate enterprise value of close to EUR 24 billion.

As part of the transaction, Guidepost Growth Equity, which first invested in ActiveViam in 2019, will sell all its shares.

Raymond James was the exclusive financial advisor to ActiveViam on this transaction, and Broadhaven acted as financial advisor to Nordic Capital.

The parties have agreed that the terms of the transaction will not be disclosed. The transaction was completed on February 27, 2024.

 

About ActiveViam

ActiveViam is a pure player specializing in risk data analytics for the financial services sector, one of the fastest moving and most regulated industries. The Company has approximately 160 employees across offices in New York, London, Singapore, Sydney, Hong Kong, Paris and Frankfurt.  ActiveViam has pioneered the use of high-performance analytics in finance, helping the largest investment banks, asset managers and hedge funds make better decisions, explain results with confidence, and simulate the impact of their decisions. ActiveViam’s mission is to deliver train-of-thought analysis on terabytes of data in the most cost-effective way so its customers can explain their results with confidence and model the scenarios that will optimize their business. For more information please visit: www.activeviam.com.

 

About Nordic Capital

Nordic Capital is a leading sector-specialist private equity investor with a resolute commitment to creating stronger, sustainable businesses through operational improvement and transformative growth. Nordic Capital focuses on selected regions and sectors where it has deep experience and a long history. Focus sectors are Healthcare, Technology & Payments, Financial Services, and Industrial & Business Services. Key regions are Europe and globally for Healthcare and Technology & Payments investments. Since inception in 1989, Nordic Capital has invested EUR 23 billion in 140 investments. The most recent entities are Nordic Capital XI with EUR 9.0 billion in committed capital and Nordic Capital Evolution with EUR 1.2 billion in committed capital, principally provided by international institutional investors such as pension funds. Nordic Capital Advisors have local offices in Sweden, the UK, the US, Germany, Denmark, Finland, Norway, and South Korea. For further information about Nordic Capital, please visit www.nordiccapital.com.

“Nordic Capital” refers to, depending on the context, any, or all, Nordic Capital branded entities, vehicles, structures, and associated entities. The general partners and/or delegated portfolio managers of Nordic Capital’s entities and vehicles are advised by several non-discretionary sub-advisory entities, any or all of which are referred to as “Nordic Capital Advisors.”

 

Media contacts:

Nordic Capital
Katarina Janerud
Communications Manager, Nordic Capital Advisors
Tel: +46 8 440 50 50
e-mail: katarina.janerud@nordiccapital.com

US media contact – Brunswick Group
NordicCapital@brunswickgroup.com


ActiveViam
Erica Fidel
Vice President, Marketing
Tel: +1 646 688 4442
e-mail: efi@activeviam.com

Hilary Condit
Communications Consultant
Tel: +1 914 886 5027
hco@ext.activeviam.com

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Fluid Topics announces a €15 million investment from Kennet Partners to expand in the United States and maintain its 45% annula growth rate

Kennet Partners

LYON, France – February 2024

Fluid Topics, the leading Content Delivery Platform for product information, announced today the successful completion of its Series B funding round. Kennet Partners, a growth equity investor focused on capital-efficient companies, has invested €15 million in the company to reinforce Fluid Topics’ premier position on the market by scaling operations across the United States and leveraging the potential of artificial intelligence in customer support applications. Existing investors include Ventech, the pioneering pan-European early-stage VC, and Credit Mutuel Innovation.

Founded in 1999 by Fabrice Lacroix, Fluid Topics pivoted in 2014 when it launched its Content Delivery platform, reinventing how people search, read, and interact with product documentation. “For complex products, documentation often runs to tens of thousands or even millions of pages. This makes it extremely difficult for maintenance and repair technicians to find their way around. Fluid Topics has revolutionized customer support by guiding technicians to the information they need at any stage of their service calls”, explains Fabrice Lacroix, CEO of Fluid Topics.

Specifically, Fluid Topics’ SaaS-based platform unifies all product knowledge from a company: technical documentation, datasheets, marketing material, multimedia and more. It then delivers it as actionable information tailored to the user in a contextualized, personalized, and secure way, via business applications and digital communication channels.

A global enterprise customer base

Having developed almost exclusively internationally, Fluid Topics now generates 60% of its sales in North America and 40% in Europe, particularly in Germany, Switzerland, Austria, and the Nordics, with steady annual growth of over 45%. The company is serving a prominent customer base, including Fortune 500 companies and industry leaders such as Liebherr, Siemens, Johnson Controls, and Teradata. Over the past years, Fluid Topics has become the go-to solution for tech companies of all sizes seeking to enhance user self-service, case deflection, customer support, and field service operations with distinctive business applications fueled by product knowledge.

The funding aims to maintain the growth rate achieved by Fluid Topics in recent years. The company expects to increase sales to over 25 million euros in the next 3 years, while its workforce plans to grow from 80 to 150 employees by 2027.

This growth will be supported by opening a US team in 2024, whose mission will be to target the SMB market, which is more difficult to address from France.

Virtual assistants to guide technicians

The integration of Generative AI is the second major area of development. Artificial intelligence offers major opportunities for applications based on product content and strengthens the market position of Fluid Topics which has over 20 years’ experience in semantic search, natural language processing, and content governance. Specifically, Generative AI will enable virtual assistants to guide technicians while working on products, and answer their questions, even the most complex ones.

“Fabrice and the team have built an exciting business in a highly capital-efficient manner. We have been impressed by Fluid Topic’s strong financial performance and high-quality enterprise customer base. We are very excited to be partnering with the company to help it scale in the US and to further capitalize on the opportunities that AI enables,” said Hillel Zidel, Managing Director of Kennet.

Cillian Hilliard, Director, and Hillel Zidel, Managing Director at Kennet, will join Fluid Topics’ board of directors, alongside current members Claire Houry, General Partner at Ventech, and Maxence Valero, Investment Director at Credit Mutuel Innovation. Eric Barroca, founder and former CEO of Nuxeo, a Content Services platform for which Kennet helped accelerate the growth trajectory between 2016 and 2021, will also be appointed as an independent board member. Barroca’s successful development of Nuxeo and deep expertise in AI will further strengthen Fluid Topics’ commitment to strategic expansion.

“This funding round empowers us to accelerate in a market shifting rapidly towards solutions that transform operations and enhance competitiveness. As the leading platform, we take pride in offering cutting-edge technologies with utmost attention to security and seamless implementation,” said Fabrice Lacroix, CEO of Fluid Topics.

About Antidot:

Antidot is a SaaS company that leverages over 20 years of advanced research in semantic search, artificial intelligence, and content accessibility to develop Fluid Topics, the leading Content Delivery Platform for product information.

Fluid Topics unifies product content from all existing sources and delivers it as actionable information tailored to the user and situation. Serving Fortune 500 companies and tech organizations of all sizes, Fluid Topics is the go-to solution for tech companies seeking to enhance customer service and field service operations with distinctive business applications fueled by product knowledge. For more information, visit www.fluidtopics.com.

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Sagard acquires Groupe Acceo from Gimv

GIMV

On 27 February 2024, Sagard announces the acquisition from Gimv of Groupe Acceo, an independent French provider of engineering, inspection and certification services. Gimv will reinvest alongside them in this transaction.

Founded in 2003 near Marseille, Acceo has gradually expanded its offering to meet all the technical and regulatory needs of buildings. The Group has thus become a multi-service specialist covering 4 segments: Lifts, Health & Safety, Accessibility and Energy.

The Group provides a wide range of services to address building compliance, performance and sustainability issues across all these segments, including periodic and mandatory inspections, audits and technical assessments, asset management and monitoring solutions, compliance services and technical consultancy.

Acceo supports a highly fragmented and loyal customer base of more than 2,200 active customers, ranging from co-ownership associations to commercial building operators, local authorities and social housing.

In a market governed by constraints linked to the energy transition and growing concerns about health & safety, Acceo has built a differentiating and agile model in order to seize new regulatory opportunities. In particular, the Group benefits from close proximity to its customers, capitalising on its national network of branches and the digitalisation of its processes and services. Its unique, flexible model combines multi-specialist sales teams, capable of supporting customers in all their issues, with highly specialised technical teams in charge of carrying out assignments.

Since the acquisition by Gimv in 2016, the Group, which has posted solid organic growth, has also made 4 acquisitions that have enabled it to broaden its offering and geographical coverage, positioning Acceo as a consolidation platform in a fragmented market. With the appointment in 2021 of Jérôme Spencer as CEO, Acceo has continued the structuring of its organisation initiated in 2016 and has accelerated its development, particularly in the promising energy efficiency segment, bringing forecast sales for 2024 to over €50 million and the number of employees to 430 to date.

Following Sagard’s acquisition of Acceo, the Group’s management team (which will remain a key shareholder) will benefit from renewed all-encompassing support to pursue its further development, both organically and through mergers and acquisitions.

Jérôme Spencer, CEO of Acceo, comments: “I am very proud of what I have achieved with the Acceo teams over the last few years. I would like to thank Gimv for the quality of their guidance and their unwavering support before and after my arrival, which have been crucial to the Group’s success. They have been extremely trustworthy partners who have made a real contribution, and this fruitful and lasting collaboration has been a real boost to our development. With the quality and motivation of our teams, I’m very confident about Acceo’s future, and I’m delighted to be continuing the adventure with Sagard to pursue our ambitious growth strategy.

Saïk Paugam, Partner, and Jérôme Triebel, Managing Director at Sagard, added: “We are delighted to join forces with Jérôme Spencer and his team to support Acceo in its next phase of growth, particularly in the development of energy transition services and external growth. With Gimv’s support, the management team has achieved a remarkable track record and created a high-performance company that addresses the critical needs of its customers, with a DNA combining a sense of service, agility and proximity. We are therefore particularly proud to have convinced Jérôme Spencer and his team of our ability to support them in accelerating the Group’s development.

Nicolas de Saint Laon, Head of Gimv France and Francois-Xavier Rico, Principal Sustainable Cities, conclude: “We are very pleased to have supported Jérôme Spencer and his team in an ambitious growth strategy, which has enabled Acceo to change dimension and transform itself from a niche specialist into a multi-service reference player. From the outset, we have supported the Group in expanding its offering, both organically and through strategic acquisitions, focusing on the development of synergies and recurring services. Thanks to a dynamic strategy of investing in its digital tools and structuring its organisation, Acceo has been able to establish itself as a frontrunner in the regulatory challenges of energy efficiency. These growth and transformation projects are perfectly in line with the investment themes we wish to develop within our Sustainable Cities platform. We are delighted that Sagard will support Acceo in the next stage of its development, and we look forward to continuing our involvement as a minority shareholder alongside them.

This transaction has a positive impact on Gimv’s net asset value at 30 September 2023 of approximately EUR 1 per share. No further financial details will be disclosed.

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