The investment will further the company’s mission to accelerate learning for students by bringing meaning to measurement

New York and Durham, North Carolina – July 30, 2019: MetaMetrics^®, developer of the widely adopted Lexile Framework^® for Reading and Quantile Framework^® for Mathematics, today announced that the Apax Digital Fund, the technology-focused growth equity fund advised by global private equity advisory firm Apax Partners, has entered into a definitive agreement to acquire the company from Pamlico Capital. The transaction is expected to complete in September 2019, subject to regulatory approval. Financial terms were not disclosed.

Founded in 1984 and based in the Research Triangle in North Carolina, MetaMetrics is a pioneer in the use of predictive analytics and data science to improve educational outcomes. MetaMetrics provides universal measures of reading and math skills achievement through the Lexile^® and Quantile^® frameworks. The frameworks place both the student and instructional material on the same scale to match the learner with reading and math resources at each student’s ability level. When students receive Lexile and Quantile measures, their test scores become more actionable, allowing teachers and parents to link assessment to instruction. MetaMetrics’ partners include leading providers of educational technology and assessment solutions, state departments of education and publishers who incorporate MetaMetrics’ scales in their products. More than 35 million students receive a Lexile measure each year.

Leveraging Apax’s experience in education, data and analytics, and software, the Apax Digital team will support MetaMetrics in delivering increased value to students, educators and the company’s partners, in particular through new product development and international expansion.

Malbert Smith III, Ph.D., co-founder and CEO of MetaMetrics said, “Apax Digital is the ideal partner for MetaMetrics as we continue to deepen our value proposition for students, teachers, parents and partners. Apax’s experience in the education space, its significant operational excellence capabilities, and its global platform will be extremely valuable assets as we grow MetaMetrics in the years ahead. We would also like to thank Pamlico for all its support over the past four years.”

Marcelo Gigliani, managing partner of Apax Digital, said, “Few things are more important than accelerating children’s learning. Malbert and the MetaMetrics team have developed a suite of category-defining measurement scales that support student growth and personalized learning. We look forward to partnering with Malbert and his team to continue to enrich their products and accelerate the company’s international expansion.”

Zach Fuchs, vice president of Apax Digital, added, “We look forward to supporting MetaMetrics and share the company’s goal of empowering educators and parents with valuable information to help children build strong literacy skills.”

Scott Stevens, partner of Pamlico Capital, shared: “It’s been a pleasure partnering with Malbert and the entire MetaMetrics team. We appreciate all the hard work put into the business over the last four years with us and we are excited to see what MetaMetrics continues to accomplish with Apax Digital moving forward.”

Raymond James & Associates served as exclusive financial adviser to MetaMetrics in connection with the transaction.

About MetaMetrics
MetaMetrics^® is an award-winning education technology organization that offers the only scientifically valid, universal scales for measuring reading and listening (Lexile^®) as well as math (Quantile^®). The Lexile and Quantile Frameworks measure student ability and the complexity of the content they encounter. Lexile and Quantile measures and related technologies link assessment to instruction and provide next steps for students of all ages and abilities. The measures also provide valuable insights about students’ potential for growth. MetaMetrics’ measures, products and services are licensed to dozens of education product companies to help achieve that growth. For 35 years, MetaMetrics’ work has been increasingly recognized for its research-based approach to improving learning. For more information, visit metametricsinc.com.

About Apax Digital 

The Apax Digital Fund specializes in growth equity and buyout investments in high-growth enterprise software, consumer internet, and technology-enabled services companies worldwide. The Apax Digital team leverages Apax Partners’ deep tech investing expertise, global platform, and specialized operating experts, to enable technology companies and their management teams to accelerate the achievement of their full potential. For further information, please visit http://digital.apax.com.

Over its more than 40-year history, Apax Partners has raised and advised funds with aggregate commitments of approximately $50 billion. These funds provide long-term equity financing to build and strengthen world-class companies. For more information see: www.apax.com.

About Pamlico Capital 

Pamlico Capital is a private equity firm founded in 1988 that invests in lower middle market companies in the U.S. Pamlico Capital seeks control-oriented growth equity investments alongside proven management teams in its target industries: business & technology services, communications, and healthcare. Since inception, the firm, based in Charlotte, NC, has invested over $3 billion. For additional information, please visit https://www.pamlicocapital.com.

Media Contacts

For MetaMetrics

Lisa Wolfe, L. Wolfe Communications | +1 312-953-8085 | lwolfe@lwolfe.com

For Apax Digital / Apax Partners

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

U.S. Media: Todd Fogarty, Connor Moriarty, Kekst CNC | +1 212 521 4800 | Apax@kekstcnc.com

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

For Pamlico Capital

All Media: Gillian Rhew | +1 704 414 7126 | gillian.rhew@pamlicocapital.com

Notes to Editors 

London-headquartered Apax Partners (www.apax.com), and Paris-headquartered Apax Partners (www.apax.fr) had a shared history but are separate, independent private equity firms.

HONG KONG, July 25, 2019 – Bain Capital today announced the merger of ChinData, a leading Chinese operator of campus-style, hyperscale data centres, and Bridge Data Centres, a wholesale and custom build data centre company, to form one of the leading pan-Asian data centre platforms. The new parent Company, ChinData Group, will continue to operate under the ChinData and Bridge brands respectively. Bain Capital acquired ChinData in May 2019 from Wangsu Science & Technology Co. Ltd and has owned Bridge Data Centres since 2017.

The combined company delivers hyperscale, wholesale and custom-build data centre solutions to leading regional and global customers, with facilities in China, India, and Southeast Asia.  The company currently has delivered over 100 MW of contracted capacity and is still under continuous and full-speed development.

Bain Capital’s investment in the combined entity is funded from vehicles managed by Bain Capital Private Equity and Bain Capital Credit. Executing this multi-part deal and corporate combination required long-term creative thinking and financing over more than three years, beginning with a greenfield development in India, acquisitions in Southeast Asia, and the exploration of the hyperscale opportunity brought about by the massive needs among Internet, cloud and technology companies in China. ChinData Group is poised to benefit from the dramatic growth in demand among enterprises for cloud services and the expansion of opportunities in Asia for international cloud providers that require high performance mission critical data centre facilities.

The combined company employs professionals with deep experience and capabilities in data centre design, development, and facility operations.  It expects to invest further capital to expand its footprint of wholesale and custom-build hyperscale solutions to more than 300 MW over the next two years to become one of the largest independent third-party data center platforms in Asia.

Jonathan Zhu, co-head of Asia Private Equity for Bain Capital, said: “This deal demonstrates Bain Capital’s capabilities as a truly cross-regional, multi-asset class investment platform.  The combined entity brings together the best minds to power the Asian data revolution, especially in China and India, the two largest and most promising markets globally. ChinData Group will be able to move quickly to serve customers on a pan-Asian regional basis and build a differentiated position in the market.”

Barnaby Lyons, a Managing Director and Head of Asia for Bain Capital Credit, said: “This transaction showcases that Bain Capital, with both private equity and special situations teams, can provide a wide spectrum of solutions to businesses in Asia looking for growth capital.”

About Bain Capital

Bain Capital (www.baincapital.com) has partnered closely with management teams to provide the strategic resources that build great companies and help them thrive since its founding in 1984. Bain Capital Private Equity’s and Bain Capital Credit’s global teams of more than 475 investment professionals create value for its portfolio companies through its depth of expertise in key vertical industries and global distressed and special situations platforms. Bain Capital has offices in Boston, Chicago, New York, Palo Alto, San Francisco, Dublin, London, Munich, Madrid, Luxembourg, Melbourne, Mumbai, Hong Kong, Shanghai, Sydney, Seoul, Guangzhou and Tokyo. Bain Capital invests across asset classes including private equity, credit, public equity, venture capital and real estate, managing approximately USD 105 billion in total and leveraging the firm’s shared platform to capture opportunities in strategic areas of focus.

Bain Capital’s proven operational expertise and ability to leverage a fully integrated global team presents a significant advantage for companies looking to identify and execute opportunities to tap into Asia’s high growth markets. Bain Capital works with companies in Asia to achieve their full potential and drive value through operating improvements, growth strategies, M&A and carve-outs from larger corporate partners, such as the recent acquisition of Toshiba Memory Corporation from Toshiba.

About ChinData

ChinData specializes in delivering campus-style hyperscale data centres to Internet, cloud and technology companies in China. It owns and operates data centres in Shenzhen, Beijing, Zhangjiakou and Datong, with further expansion planned across multiple locations. The company has pioneered custom-build designs suited to hyperscale customer requirements.  Founded in Beijing and formerly owned by Wangsu Science and Technology Co, ChinData focuses on the planning, investment, construction, testing and operation of high-performance information infrastructure.

ChinData is an industry-leading carrier neutral IT infrastructure solutions provider in China, focused on ecosystem planning, design, building, testing and operations. ChinData provides a full range of services for its customers, such as campus-style data centers, internet services and IT value-added business. Its customers include leading financial, internet, big data, AI enterprises as well as global hyper-scale cloud computing and technology companies.

Since its establishment in August, 2015, ChinData has rapidly built a cluster of hyper-scale IT infrastructure bases around the capital, the Yangtze River Delta, and the Greater Bay Area, with Beijing, Shanghai, and Shenzhen as core end markets, and more than 220 operators’ data rooms in China. In the above-mentioned regions, the company is involved in the development of the most basic level of infrastructure and resources. Its hyperscale data center ecosystem is an engine for development of renewal energy and the green economy.

ChinData’s world-class “edge computing data centers” and “hyperscale data centers” have respectively won the first Global HRA certificate for flexible internet solutions, the 2018 DCD Award for Global Edge Computing Data Center Innovation and the 2019 DataCloud Global Hyper-scale Innovation Award.

About Bridge Data Centres

Bridge is a wholesale and custom-build data centre solutions provider whose customers include large global enterprises and hyperscale cloud and technology companies with rapid expansion plans across the region. The company owns data center facilities in Malaysia and India while pursuing additional opportunities in Southeast Asia.  Established in 2017 to invest in greenfield projects in the India market, Bridge serves customers in multiple industry sectors, including financial institutions, technology companies, government and more recently large cloud services providers, with best-in-class operating and maintenance procedures to ensure the highest levels of uptime and reliability.

Wireless Logic Group, Europe’s leading IoT connectivity platform provider today announced the acquisition of Matooma, the Montpellier, France-based IoT connectivity specialist which has grown rapidly since its inception in 2012. Today, Matooma is recognised for its expertise and innovation within the cellular IOT (Internet of Things) connectivity space, with a broad base of customers using their secure network solutions across multiple applications.

The Matooma acquisition, for an undisclosed sum, is Wireless Logic’s third major purchase in 2019 having already welcomed Dutch-based M2MBlue and SIMPoint in February and June respectively. The three new organisations join the UK-headquartered IoT connectivity platform provider as it continues to deliver rapid expansion throughout its European network. With Matooma on board, the group has an increased presence in France working alongside Wireless Logic’s existing Aix-en-Provence team, and will enhance its European reach which includes offices in Denmark, France, Germany, Netherlands and Spain. The group’s European focus with global reach is backed by Montagu Private Equity who came on board in June 2018.

Commenting on the most recent acquisition, Oliver Tucker, Group CEO of Wireless Logic Group said: “We are delighted to be welcoming the Matooma team into the group. In just seven years, they have built an enviable reputation in France by delivering highly responsive and tailored IoT connectivity services, supported by exceptionally strong leadership. Over the coming months our integration programme will enable the group to enhance our best-in-class connectivity platform solutions to which Matooma will play a significant role, particularly within their core markets.”

On behalf of Matooma, founder and CEO Frédéric Salles said: “The success of Matooma has been based around the innovative use of secure mobile technology, a winning approach to nurturing long-lasting mobile network partnerships and in the strength and character of the Matooma team – our people have been so fundamental to where we are now today. Our journey so far has been short, fast-moving and with every opportunity seized. We are looking forward to combining our strengths with Wireless Logic and together building an even more exciting future as we develop and evolve the IoT connectivity market across France and further afield.”

3i Group plc (“3i”) today announces that it will invest in Evernex, a leading international provider of third party maintenance (“TPM”) services for data centre infrastructure. 3i is investing alongside the management team, headed by Stanislas Pilot, and is acquiring the business from Carlyle Europe Technology Partners.

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. It has developed a multi-channel and multi-vendor flexible offering. With a maintenance proposition covering data centre hardware & critical IT assets, the business provides solutions for servers, storage and network equipment, with a differentiated presence notably in Europe and Latin America.

Under 3i’s helm, Evernex will push its expansion agenda in a market backed by sound growth fundamentals: increasing diversity of servers and storage systems in data centres; customers’ propensity to seek alternatives to existing maintenance solutions; and a growing need from customers for integrated network maintenance. In this market, Evernex’s international scale and technological expertise fits IT decision makers’ requirements of relying on single point of contact providers to maintain mission-critical IT equipment across several continents.

Stanislas Pilot, CEO, Evernex, commented:

“3i has a truly international team and network, which makes it the best partner for businesses looking to expand geographically. It also has deep expertise in the outsourcing space and we look forward to benefiting from its track record as we look to accelerate our growth. ”

Rémi Carnimolla, Partner & Managing Director, Frédéric Chiche and Guillaume Basquin, Directors at 3i France, added:

“We are delighted to invest in Evernex, a business we have been tracking for more than 2 years and which fits strongly with our focus on the Business & Technology Services sector. It has performed solidly over the past 6 years, with c.20% growth per annum. Under Stanislas’ leadership, Evernex has become a leading player in the mission-critical IT lifecycle services with a highly differentiated proposition and a global footprint. We believe Evernex is the best positioned consolidation platform to take global leadership in a fragmented industry. We look forward to supporting its growth plans and working with Stanislas Pilot and his excellent management team.”

The transaction is subject to approval under foreign investment regulations in relevant jurisdictions and is expected to close by Q4 2019.

– ENDS –

Investment to fuel further international growth and technology innovation for Signavio’s one-million users 

Berlin, New York – July 11, 2019: Signavio, a leading provider of business transformation solutions, today announced a $177 million investment to fuel continued international expansion and further investment in its world-class software suite. The transaction was led by Apax Digital, the growth equity team of Apax Partners, with participation from DTCP. Existing investor Summit Partners will retain an equity stake in the business.

Signavio’s Business Transformation Suite enables its over 1,300 customers to effectively mine, model, monitor, manage and maintain their business processes. Its intelligent decision-making tools address digital transformation, operational excellence and customer centricity, helping place process at the very heart of organizations. Signavio has grown its revenue by more than 70% in the last twelve months. Today the company’s software is used by more than one million users across industries and geographies, including leading companies such as SAP, Deloitte, Liberty Mutual, Bosch, Comcast-NBCUniversal.

This new investment will be used to accelerate international expansion and to further invest in Signavio’s product suite. The company already has 9 offices across the world and is expanding operations in Japan and India, increasing its employee base by over 50% in 2019. Earlier this year, Signavio was recognized as a March 2019 Gartner Peer Insights Customers’ Choice for Enterprise Business Process Analysis Software.

“10 years ago, we set out on a journey to tackle the time-consuming practices that limit business productivity,” said Dr. Gero Decker, CEO and co-founder of Signavio. “This significant new investment further validates our approach to solve business problems faster and more efficiently, unleashing the power of process through our unique Business Transformation Suite. We are thrilled to welcome Apax Digital as our new lead partner, and look forward to building upon our success to date by leveraging our partners’ operating capabilities and global platforms for our international expansion.”

Concurrent with this investment, Daniel O’Keefe, Managing Partner, and Mark Beith, Managing Director, of Apax Digital will join Signavio’s board of directors. Summit Partners Managing Director Matthias Allgaier will retain a seat on the company’s board of directors.

“As businesses have become more global, and workforces more distributed, business processes have proliferated, and become more complex,” noted Mr. O’Keefe and Mr. Beith. “Signavio’s cloud-native suite allows employees across an enterprise to collaborate and transform their businesses by digitizing, optimizing and ultimately automating their processes. We are tremendously excited to partner with the Signavio team and to support their vision.”

“With innovative, intelligent and easy-to-use solutions, Signavio is helping to enable digital transformation across thousands of organizations worldwide, enabling new use cases and extending the reach of BPM software from IT to business users,” said Matthias Allgaier, Managing Director with Summit Partners, which first invested in Signavio in 2015. “It has been a delight to work closely with Gero and the entire team to support the company’s impressive growth thus far. We are thrilled to welcome Apax and to continue our partnership with Signavio.”

The transaction is expected to close later this year, subject to regulatory approvals.

About Signavio
Over 1 million users in more than 1,300 organizations worldwide rely on Signavio’s unique offering to make process part of their DNA. Signavio’s business transformation suite enables mid-size and large organizations to effectively mine, model, monitor, manage and maintain their business processes. Its intelligent decision-making tools address digital transformation, operational excellence and customer centricity, placing them at the heart of the world’s leading organizations. Headquartered in Berlin, with offices in US, UK, France, Netherlands, Switzerland, Singapore and Australia, Signavio is well placed to deliver local services on a global scale. For more information, visit www.signavio.com.

About Apax Digital
The Apax Digital Fund specializes in growth equity and buyout investments in high-growth enterprise software, consumer internet, and technology-enabled services companies worldwide. The Apax Digital team leverages Apax Partners’ deep tech investing expertise, global platform, and specialized operating experts, to enable technology companies and their management teams to accelerate the achievement of their full potential. For further information, please visit http://digital.apax.com.

Over its more than 40-year history, Apax Partners has raised and advised funds with aggregate commitments of c.$50 billion. These funds provide long-term equity financing to build and strengthen world-class companies. For more information see: www.apax.com.

About DTCP
DTCP is an investment management group with c. $1.7 billion assets under management and advisory from Deutsche Telekom and other corporate and institutional investors, and a portfolio of over 60 companies. The group provides venture and growth capital, private equity investments, and advisory services to the technology, media and telecommunication sectors. It operates and invests in Europe, the US, and Israel. To learn more about DTCP, visit www.telekom-capital.com or @TelekomCapital on Twitter.

About Summit Partners
Founded in 1984, Summit Partners is a global alternative investment firm that is currently managing more than $19 billion in capital dedicated to growth equity, fixed income and public equity opportunities. Summit invests across growth sectors of the economy and has invested in more than 500 companies in technology, healthcare and other growth industries. Summit maintains offices in North America and Europe, and invests in companies around the world. For more information, please see www.summitpartners.com or on Twitter at @SummitPartners.

Media Contacts 

For Signavio

Global Media: Geraldine Teboul, Signavio | +49 151 54070110 | geraldine.teboul@signavio.com
USA Media: Kyle Tildsley, PAN Communications | +1 978 790 2063| ktildsley@pancomm.com
Germany Media: Natascha Hass, PR-Com | +49 89 59997 801| natascha.hass@pr-com.de

For Apax Digital / Apax Partners

Global Media: Andrew Kenny, Apax | +44 20 7 872 6371 | andrew.kenny@apax.com
USA Media: Todd Fogarty, Kekst CNC | +1 212-521 4854 | todd.fogarty@kekstcnc.com
UK Media: Matthew Goodman / James Madsen, Greenbrook | +44 20 7952 2000 | apax@greenbrookpr.com

For DTCP

Global Media: Julia Wolters, DTCP |+49 160 6809906 | julia.wolters@telekom-capital.com

For Summit Partners

Global Media: Meg Devine, Summit Partners | +1 617 824 1047 | mdevine@summitpartners.com

Notes to Editors: 

London-headquartered Apax Partners (www.apax.com), and Paris-headquartered Apax Partners (www.apax.fr) had a shared history but are separate, independent private equity firms.