We’re happy to announce that Industrifonden and Fairpoint Capital have co-led a €5.3 million growth investment in DbVis Software, a Stockholm-based database management and analysis tool for all major databases.

The new capital will be used to expand product development, strengthen the team and further accelerate growth. The company also announces the appointment of Martin Engdahl as its new CEO, to drive the global expansion of DbVis Software.

Launched in 2003, DbVis is a self-financed, global word-of-mouth success, with over 4.5 million downloads of its database software DbVisualizer. DbVisualizer is a universal database management tool that supports connecting to a wide range of data sources over a standardized protocol. The set of tools in DbVisualizer is identical whether using it in Windows, Linux or macOS, and the combination of database independence and cross platform support let users master a single tool to connect and work with all their data sources.

Today’s funding helps DbVis Software to build on the success and enable the company to move to the next level of growth. In addition to the funding, DbVis Software has appointed Martin Engdahl as CEO to lead the company into its next phase. Martin Engdahl was previously a director at Salesforce Sweden.

Rebecka Löthman Rydå, Investment Manager at Industrifonden explained the decision to invest in the company: “DbVis Software has a long track record of delivering an outstanding product within database visualization. The company has effectively implemented a product led growth strategy for many years. We believe the timing is right to further accelerate growth and expand product offering through our investment. We are very excited to partner with the company founder Roger as well as our newly recruited CEO Martin and to embark on this growth journey together.”

DbVisualizer is partly built on open source, with a free edition, as well as a commercial edition. Today the company has over 20 500 paying customers including a mix of Fortune 500 companies, national corporations, academic institutions, startups and independent developers. Facebook, Apple, Netflix are just some of the names on the customer list.

DbVis was founded by Roger Bjärevall, who has a long background in the software industry at both Ericsson and Sun Microsystems, said: “Building a team with Industrifonden, Fairpoint Capital, and the new management will further enhance and strengthen DbVis Software’s go-to-market capabilities and R&D. This is the next logical step to move our product forward and meet the growing demand of our customers.”

A warm and happy welcome to the family DbVis Software.

Learn more about DbVis Software at https://www.dbvis.com/

Di Digital: Doldisbolag tar in riskkapital efter 18 år – har Apple och Netflix som kunder

Evolta and its flagship product, Evolve, are now Cloudpermit. Evolve is an innovative cloud based system for municipal building permitting. Evolta is a rapidly expanding international software development company based in Finland, serves over 250 municipalities in North America and Europe.

On April 14, 2020, the new Cloudpermit branding will roll out. The e-permitting system will have a refreshed look and a new URL, ca.cloudpermit.com. However, the general layout and functionality of the software will be identical, so there will be no adjustment for current users. When users log into the new site, their login information, settings and data will remain the same. The corporate website and social media handles will also change to reflect the new name. Learn more at cloudpermit.com.

The leading-edge e-permitting software provides a virtual workspace for building departments that eliminates paper-based processes. Its accessible cloud platform expedites the flow of information, improves transparency, eliminates misplaced documents and saves staff time and money.

Cloudpermit’s brand launch will arrive as the world continues to grapple with the COVID-19 crisis. Suddenly, there is an acute awareness of the need for remote business solutions, so many municipal offices are exploring the best tools to allow staff and clients to work remotely while practicing social distancing.

Since Cloudpermit is a complete cloud based system for municipal building permits, it is the ideal tool to navigate these new circumstances. The intuitive system can be implemented for new clients remotely, so offices can get to work safely and efficiently while current distancing measures are in place.

The combined entity will accelerate Signicat’s share of the identity verification market—worth $15 billion by 2024

Signicat, the Trusted Digital Identity™ company, has acquired digital identity specialist Connectis, to create the most comprehensive digital identity platform in the European market.

Connectis was founded in 2008 and is headquartered in Rotterdam with an office in Bucharest, Romania. Connectis primarily delivers digital identity solutions to customers in the Netherlands, particularly organisations in the public sector, health care, insurance and financial services. The company has 52 employees in total.

Connectis develops secure solutions for online identification, authentication and authorisation for more than 350 organisations to identify over 14 million customers. Its products include:

• Connectis Identity Broker: With connections to multiple electronic identities, such as eHerkenning, iDIN, DigiD, and more.
• Connectis Identity & Access Management (CIAM): A comprehensive, yet fast and user-friendly CIAM solution.
• We-ID eRecognition tokens (eID): A standardised login system supplied as certified supplier in a public-private partnership with the Ministry of the Interior and Kingdom Relations.

As society continues to move online and interactions between consumers, businesses and institutions are becoming predominantly digital and increasingly mobile-first, trust is at a premium. Reducing fraud, and meeting regulatory requirements around digital identification, verification and recurring authentication ensures transactions can proceed with a stronger degree of trust.  The identity verification market alone is set to be worth $15 billion by 2024 (Goode Intelligence, 2019).

Signicat’s and Connectis’ combined expertise forms a strong collaboration from which to continue to drive and shape the digital identity industry in Europe. Signicat’s heritage in the Nordics and Connectis’ footprint in Benelux, particularly in the government and healthcare sector, will be instrumental in developing solutions that tackle some of the most complex digital identity challenges. The combined entity will focus on helping organisations looking to streamline online business while reducing risk and meeting a range of regulations such as KYC and AML. The combined offering now represents the most comprehensive digital identity solution on the market.

“The adoption of digital identity in the Netherlands and Belgium has been impressive, and we are very pleased with now expanding our operations in the region,” states Asger Hattel, CEO of Signicat. “With Connectis joining Signicat, we are not only expanding our reach and customer base, we are creating Europe’s strongest digital identity platform. We are really looking forward to working together and to offer existing and new customers an even stronger digital identity offering.”

“It’s time for Connectis to take the next step, towards a prominent role on the European market.” said Jeroen de Bruijn, CEO, Connectis. “By joining forces with Signicat, we really have the expertise, scale and competence to be an European market leader. We are looking forward to jointly serving customers a market-leading offering and driving innovation in the market.”

“Nordic Capital acquired Signicat a year ago with the ambition to support and accelerate its international expansion and strengthen its position as a leading digital identity platform. This acquisition is an important step to deliver even better digital identity solutions to the market, and Nordic Capital is enthusiastic about supporting Signicat’s continued growth journey in Europe”, said Fredrik Näslund, Partner, Nordic Capital Advisors.

Connectis’ previous owners, SIDN and 2050 Foundation, have reinvested in the combined entity, providing a further endorsement in Signicat’s future.

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About Connectis

Connectis was founded in 2008 and is located in Rotterdam with an office in Bucharest, Romania. Over 14 million customers have been identified using its software and eRecognition tokens, and 70% of all transactions using the eHerkenning identity and authorisation system (one of the most prevalent identity schemes in the Netherlands) are performed using Connectis infrastructure. Connectis allows customers to log in to online services using DigiD, eHerkenning, Facebook, Google, eIDAS, iDIN and many other digital identity methods.

About Signicat

Signicat is a pioneering, pan-European digital identity company with an unrivalled track record in the world’s most advanced digital identity markets. Its Digital Identity Platform incorporates the most extensive suite of identity verification and authentication systems in the world, all accessible through a single integration point. The platform supports the full identity journey, from recognition and on-boarding, through login and consent, to making business agreements which stand the test of time. Signicat was founded in 2007 and is headquartered in Trondheim, Norway.

Evernex, a leading international provider of third party maintenance (“TPM”) services for data centre infrastructure in which 3i invested in October 2019, has announced the acquisition of Storex, a South African provider of maintenance services for critical data centre equipment.

Storex maintains data centre hardware & critical IT assets, such as servers, storage and business network equipment with a multi-OEM expertise. Its level 1 B-BBEE status (“Broad-Based Black Economic Empowerment”) allows premium access to large South African corporates. Storex serves blue chip clients including banks, OEMs and telecoms companies in South Africa, Kenya and Turkey and has plans to expand into Dubai.

This acquisition will give Evernex local resources to grow its presence in South Africa, combined with the expertise of its seasoned founder who will stay with the business. Evernex and Storex have highly complementary capabilities and the acquisition provides further evidence of Evernex’s ability to integrate smaller businesses into its platform, after acquiring Roer in Argentina in 2019 and A Systems in Brazil in 2018.

Jan Beukes, CEO, Storex, commented: “Both of our companies are well-regarded in the African market and are highly compatible from a business standpoint, with a strong fit. We at Storex look forward to working closely with Evernex to build a strong international base.”

Stanislas Pilot, President and CEO, and Mohamed Bella, CMO and EVP MEA, Evernex, added: “We are delighted to be partnering with Storex. Combining our businesses will strengthen our position in Eastern and Southern Africa and enable us to grow our portfolio of blue-chip clients. Together with the talented teams at Storex, we will aim to provide the best service to our customers in South Africa and globally.”

Frédéric Chiche and Marc Ohayon, 3i France concluded: “Part of the rationale for investing in Evernex last year was to support its consolidation of the market and we believe this acquisition represents a material step towards creating a global market leader in the TPM space.”

3i invested in Evernex in October 2019. Headquartered in Paris, France, Evernex maintains over 200,000 IT systems in c. 160 countries, and has a global network of 34 offices. It is the preferred maintenance partner for multinational companies and has developed a multi-channel and multi-vendor flexible offering. Going forward, additional bolt-on acquisitions are expected to remain a key value-creation driver for Evernex and 3i.

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Download the press release  

For further information, contact: 

3i Group plc

Notes to editors:

About 3i Group

3i is an investment company with two complementary businesses, Private Equity and Infrastructure, specialising in core investment markets in Northern Europe and North America.

3i’s Private Equity team provides investment solutions for growing companies, backing entrepreneurs and management teams of mid-market companies with an EV typically between €100m – €500m. We back international growth plans, providing access to our network and expertise to accelerate the growth of companies across the consumer, industrial, healthcare and business and technology services industries.

For further information, please visit: www.3i.com

About Storex

Since 2008, Storex, a South African company, is a leading supplier of Third-Party Maintenance services. Storex is specialised in the multi-vendor support, maintenance and life-cycle extension of medium size and enterprise level IT hardware infrastructure. The company is a leading alternative support provider and provides SLA services via a single point of contact, on top of datacentre value-added services, in South Africa, Kenya and Turkey.

For further information, please visit: www.storexsa.co.za

Regulatory information

This transaction involved a recommendation of 3i Investments plc, advised by 3i France.

Today we are excited to announce that Industrifonden participates in ShardSecure’s Over-subscribed Seed Round.

ShardSecure™, the data protection company whose Microshard™ technology helps organizations accelerate cloud adoption by mitigating cloud misconfiguration and data security risks, announced today that Industrifonden has participated in the company’s oversubscribed seed round, joining lead investor SineWave Ventures, Tom Noonan, 500 Startups and others in the investment round originally announced late last year. The Stockholm-based Industrifonden is one of the largest and oldest early-stage venture capital firms in Northern Europe, with US $700 M under management.

“ShardSecure is thrilled to welcome Industrifonden as a significant investor in our growth journey,” said CEO & Co-founder, Bob Lam. “Industrifonden has a long and successful track record of backing early-stage startups. We look forward to working with Hadar and his team as we bring our data protection technology to market this year.”

Industrifonden Investment Director, Hadar Cars, also shared his enthusiasm about the announcement, adding, “Industrifonden is pleased to be adding ShardSecure™ to our portfolio as we see them filling an urgent need in the cloud data protection market. The prevalence of security incidents caused by cloud misconfigurations, and the resulting financial and reputational damages, present a significant hurdle for organizations looking to migrate more of their workloads to the cloud. ShardSecure’s Microshard™ technology tackles the problem at the source by reducing the sensitivity of data, providing a critical security solution that will help organizations accelerate cloud adoption with reduced risk and compliance burden.”

The oversubscribed funding round positions ShardSecure well for growth. Funds will be used to build an experienced sales and marketing team to bring the Microshard data protection technology to market this year as well as to continue strengthening an already robust development team.

Learn more about ShardSecure at www.shardsecure.com.