Tag Archives: Information technology

Genstar Capital Acquires Prometheus Group for Over $1 Billion

Franciso Partners

Partnership with Management to Continue Strong Growth Trajectory

SAN FRANCISCO — Genstar Capital, a leading private equity firm focused on investments in targeted segments of the software, industrial technology, healthcare, and financial services industries, announced today the acquisition of Prometheus Group from Francisco Partners for over $1 billion. Eric Huang, Chief Executive Officer and founder of Prometheus, will remain a significant shareholder in the company, and Francisco Partners will retain a minority investment.

Prometheus is an industry leading provider of comprehensive and intuitive plant maintenance operations and optimization software. Its solutions utilize data analytics to deliver a uniform experience across the platform and are trusted by the largest asset-intensive companies in the world operating in the oil & gas, chemical, pulp & paper, mining & metals, and utilities industries. Founded in 1998 and based in Raleigh, NC, the company has a global operating footprint and customer base and has over 300 employees.

Eli Weiss, Managing Director of Genstar, said, “We have invested extensively in software solutions providers similar to Prometheus, and their reputation as a leader in the plant maintenance technology sector is well deserved. Eric and his team have built an integrated easy-to-use platform, and their solutions help transform plant maintenance operations. Prometheus aligns well with our previous investments, and we are excited to work with Eric and his team to help further expand the solutions portfolio and target acquisitions that will broaden the company’s suite of services.”

“We have an unwavering focus on integrating all aspects of plant maintenance and operations and delivering hard dollar ROI for our customers,” remarked Eric Huang, founder and CEO of Prometheus Group. “With Francisco Partners’ support and shared vision, we scaled the business significantly and expanded our platform to solve an even broader set of our customers’ critical pain points. We are very excited to continue that journey with Genstar leveraging their industrial technology expertise.”

“We are proud to have partnered with the Prometheus team in building out a unified platform for operational excellence through both organic growth and M&A,” said Petri Oksanen, Partner at Francisco Partners. “We look forward to continuing the relationship and seeing Prometheus further build on its heritage of innovation.”

Lazard served as financial advisor to Prometheus Group. Genstar Capital was advised by Irell & Manella LLP, Francisco Partners was advised by Paul Hastings, and Eric Huang was advised by Holland & Knight.

About Prometheus Group

Prometheus Group is a leading global provider of comprehensive and intuitive plant maintenance operations and optimization software, with a broad platform of solutions addressing the unique idiosyncrasies and requirements of heavy asset operators. Prometheus’ interconnected platform allows changes to be communicated in real-time across an organization, improving manpower efficiency and driving production uptime. For more information on Prometheus Group, please visit: www.prometheusgroup.com.

About Francisco Partners

Francisco Partners is a leading global private equity firm that specializes in investments in technology and technology-enabled businesses. Since its launch over 19 years ago, Francisco Partners has raised over $14 billion in committed capital and invested in more than 200 technology companies, making it one of the most active and longstanding investors in the technology industry. The firm invests in opportunities where its deep sectoral knowledge and operational expertise can help companies realize their full potential. For more information on Francisco Partners, please visit: www.franciscopartners.com.

About Genstar Capital

Genstar Capital is a leading private equity firm that has been actively investing in high quality companies for over 30 years. Based in San Francisco, Genstar works in partnership with its management teams and its network of strategic advisors to transform its portfolio companies into industry-leading businesses. Genstar currently has approximately $17 billion of assets under management and targets investments focused on targeted segments of the software, industrial technology, healthcare, and financial services industries. For more information on Genstar, please visit: www.gencap.com.

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Black Mountain Systems Announces Acquisition by Vista Equity Partners

Vista Equity

SAN DIEGO–(BUSINESS WIRE)–Black Mountain Systems, LLC (“Black Mountain”), the leading provider of innovative workflow software solutions to credit investors and alternative asset managers, announced today that it is being acquired by Vista Equity Partners (“Vista”), a leading investment firm focused on enterprise software, data and technology-enabled businesses.

“Black Mountain has long been the standard-bearer for process management and portfolio monitoring solutions in its field”

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Vista’s investment in Black Mountain will help drive the software company’s continued growth domestically and internationally, while also providing new capital to invest in the development of Black Mountain’s state of the art platform and tailored solutions for data aggregation, process management, and business reporting.

“We’re thrilled to become a part of the Vista family and look forward to the myriad of ways that their investment will help us grow our company, better serve our customers, and expand our team,” said Black Mountain founder and co-CEO Kevin MacDonald. “We look forward to working with them as we enter this next chapter.”

“This investment is a significant milestone for our company, our employees, and our customers,” said Black Mountain co-CEO Andy Horwitz. “We’ve already established ourselves as the market leader in workflow software for credit, structured credit, and alternative asset managers and now we have a partner in Vista who will help us leverage and build upon that leadership position with financial and intellectual capital to accelerate our growth.”

Black Mountain’s software and data aggregation capabilities provide mission critical solutions and valuable insights to a customer base that includes 50 of the top 100 Collateralized Loan Obligation managers, leading private debt funds, commercial banks and alternative asset managers, representing more than two trillion dollars in total assets under management.

“Black Mountain has long been the standard-bearer for process management and portfolio monitoring solutions in its field,” said Robert F. Smith, Founder, Chairman and CEO of Vista Equity Partners. “We’re looking forward to working with this talented and innovative company to push it even further ahead of the competition, unlocking new value for both customers and stakeholders.”

Black Mountain’s current investor, Stone Point Capital LLC (“Stone Point”), acquired the software company in 2015. Stone Point will exit its partnership with Black Mountain upon its sale to Vista, which is subject to customary closing conditions and regulatory approvals.

“We thank Andy Horwitz, Kevin MacDonald and the Black Mountain team for an outstanding partnership,” said Chuck Davis, CEO of Stone Point. “Black Mountain has achieved significant growth in revenue and profitability since our investment in 2015, and we wish the company much continued success under Vista’s ownership.”

Jefferies LLC served as the exclusive financial advisor to Black Mountain, and Kramer Levin Naftalis & Frankel LLP was the company’s legal advisor. SunTrust Robinson Humphrey acted as financial advisor to Vista, and Kirkland & Ellis served as Vista’s legal advisor.

About Black Mountain Systems

Black Mountain is a software company that offers highly configurable solutions including portfolio management, trade order management, compliance, research management, investment accounting, performance attribution, customer relationship management, investor reporting, enterprise data management and data warehousing. Clients consist of many of the world’s leading investment managers, credit funds, hedge funds, private equity, direct lenders and banks who use the company’s platform to manage all varieties of loans, fixed income, alternatives, derivatives, equities, and FX. Black Mountain’s software can be configured to model any business process, store any data, integrate with any system, and provide transparency for all of the above in any format. For more information about Black Mountain visit: www.blackmountainsystems.com

About Vista Equity Partners

Vista Equity Partners is a U.S.-based investment firm with offices in Austin, Chicago, New York City, Oakland, and San Francisco and more than $46 billion in cumulative capital commitments. Vista exclusively invests in enterprise software, data, and technology-enabled organizations led by world-class management teams. As a value-added investor with a long-term perspective, Vista contributes professional expertise and multi-level support towards companies to realize their full experience in structuring technology-oriented transactions, and proven management techniques that yield flexibility and opportunity. For more information, please visit www.vistaequitypartners.com.

About Stone Point Capital

Stone Point Capital LLC is a financial services-focused private equity firm based in Greenwich, CT. The firm has raised and managed seven private equity funds – the Trident Funds – with aggregate committed capital of approximately $19 billion. Stone Point targets investments in companies in the global financial services industry, including asset and wealth management; advisory, broker-dealers and merchant trading; banking institutions; HR benefits and employer services; insurance underwriting; insurance distribution and services; managed care and healthcare services; outsourcing and technology; real estate finance and services; and specialty finance and non-bank lending. For more information, please visit www.stonepoint.com.

Contacts

For Black Mountain Systems:
Liz Speier
lspeier@blkmtn.com

For Vista Equity Partners:
Alan Fleischmann
vista@laurelstrategies.com
202-776-7776

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CipherHealth Names New CPO & COO as Company Accelerates Growth

JMI Equity

NEW YORK, May 29, 2019 /PRNewswire/ — As part of its expansion and strategic growth initiative, CipherHealth, the leading patient engagement software company, has announced the new roles of Chief People Officer (CPO) and Chief Operating Officer (COO).

Jennifer Compagni has joined CipherHealth as Chief People Officer and Jake Pyles, the current Chief Financial Officer at the company, is expanding his role to include Chief Operating Officer.

Both will help further CipherHealth’s mission of empowering healthcare providers across the care continuum with integrated patient engagement solutions that improve patient communication and care coordination.

Compagni has an extensive background in corporate business, research, government and educational institutions as an HR executive. She has led HR teams and projects at Warner-Lambert Company, (Pfizer, Adams USA), Antenna Software, Revlon, Alpharma Inc. and The National Research Council of the National Academies. Prior to CipherHealth, Compagni also led the HR organization at SmartLinx Solutions, a growing SaaS company in the workforce management space.

As CPO at CipherHealth, Jennifer Compagni ensures a fluid human resource strategy that supports the overall business plan and strategic direction at the company to attract and retain great talent and make sure employees have an amazing career experience. She also provides strategic leadership by articulating HR needs and plans to the executive management team, shareholders and the board of directors.

“The award winning patient engagement product suite and mission-driven culture attracted me to CipherHealth. The team is an amazing, smart, cohesive group of people working together to enable patients to heal and thrive,” said Compagni.

Jake Pyles, who became CipherHealth’s CFO in August 2018, will now also lead the company’s operations function. With more than twenty-five years of financial and operations experience at various software companies, Pyles has a significant amount of experience with managing high-growth technology companies. Prior to CipherHealth, Pyles spent four years as CFO at Paradigm Geophysical, leading the company to its eventual sale to Emerson Electric.

“We are thrilled with the addition of Jennifer and Jake’s expanded role to help us continue delivering solutions that ensure patients get the best care possible,” said CipherHealth CEO and Co-Founder Randy Cheung.

ABOUT CIPHERHEALTH
Ranked as the top-performing vendor for patient outreach and digital rounding by KLAS in 2019, CipherHealth is a proven healthcare technology partner committed to enhancing communication and care team coordination throughout the patient journey. CipherHealth’s suite of integrated patient engagement solutions empowers healthcare organizations across the continuum to achieve the Quadruple Aim.

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LiveU Announces Majority Investment from Francisco Partners to Accelerate Growth

Franciso Partners

Enables LiveU to focus on long-term strategy and advance its business objectives

HACKENSACK, New Jersey — LiveU, the leader in live IP video solutions, is pleased to announce that Francisco Partners, a global technology-focused private equity firm, together with co-investor IGP Capital, have acquired LiveU from its existing shareholders to accelerate further the company’s global expansion. With support from its new investors, LiveU will continue the company’s strong growth momentum.

LiveU is democratizing live video by providing high quality live video solutions for TV, mobile, online and social media with its innovative portable devices and cloud services. With over 3,000 customers in 130+ countries, LiveU’s technology is the solution of choice for leading broadcasters, sport organizations, news agencies, online and social media.

Samuel Wasserman, CEO and Co-Founder of LiveU, said, “We are delighted to have Francisco Partners, a firm with an established track record, as our new majority owner. This will allow us to focus on our long-term strategy and growth objectives, benefiting our customers, partners and employees. I would like to take this opportunity to thank our previous shareholders Canaan Partners, Viola Ventures, Pitango Venture Capital, and Lightspeed Venture Partners for their valued support along the way, and contribution to our success.”

“We have made tremendous progress in delivering on our promise to establish LiveU as the clear market leader in providing live video streaming solutions for TV, digital and social media,” added Wasserman. “This could not have been possible without the tireless efforts of our amazing employees developing and driving superior technology solutions that contribute to LiveU’s current market position.”

“We are extremely excited to be partnering with LiveU as the company enters the next chapter of its growth story,” said Eran Gorev, Senior Operating Partner at Francisco Partners. “LiveU is already recognized as the industry leader, and we look forward to partnering with IGP Capital and LiveU’s management team to further enhance the company’s solutions, grow the customer base and advance its strategic goals.”

Mario Razzini, Principal at Francisco Partners, added, “The broadcast and media industries are in a period of rapid change and LiveU is distinctively positioned to help customers capitalize on this opportunity with its strong market position and unmatched product innovation and performance.”

IGP Capital General Partner Assaf Harel, added, “We are thrilled to join Francisco Partners in backing the company and its talented team of professionals. LiveU is uniquely positioned in the global broadcast and media markets and we’re excited to support the company with new investment initiatives and future growth prospects.”

Goldman Sachs acted as exclusive financial advisor to Francisco Partners.

About Francisco Partners

Francisco Partners is a leading global private equity firm that specializes in investments in technology and technology-enabled businesses. Since its launch over 19 years ago, Francisco Partners has raised over $14 billion in committed capital and invested in more than 200 technology companies, making it one of the most active and longstanding investors in the technology industry. The firm invests in opportunities where its deep sectoral knowledge and operational expertise can help companies realize their full potential. For more information on Francisco Partners, please visit www.franciscopartners.com.

About IGP

Israel Growth Partners (IGP) is a private equity investment firm established with a mission to provide growth capital to Israeli-related technology companies. With $500 million in AUM, IGP seeks to partner with exceptional companies and management teams who are eager to accelerate their growth and to reach category leadership and significant position in their respective markets. For more information visit www.igpcapital.com.

About LiveU

LiveU is driving the live video revolution, providing live video streaming for TV, mobile, online and social media. Let your audience become part of your story with high-quality and flawless live video, transmitted from anywhere in the world, through the use of our patented bonding and video transport technology. LiveU creates a consistent bandwidth and a reliable connection so you can acquire, manage and distribute high quality remote live broadcasts over IP. Our broad portfolio of products sets the industry standard for live video production. From backpacks to smartphones, and satellite/cellular hybrid to external antenna solutions, LiveU offers a complete range of devices for live video coverage anytime, anywhere. In addition, LiveU offers extensive cloud-based management and video distribution solutions. With over 3,000 customers in 130+ countries, LiveU’s technology is the solution of choice for global broadcasters, online media, news agencies and social media. For more information, visit www.liveu.tv, or follow us on Twitter, Facebook, Youtube, LinkedIn or Instagram.

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CSAM Announces Deal to Acquire KIBI

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Priveq

The transaction expands CSAM’s leadership in the Nordic niche eHealth market OSLO, Norway(May21, 2019) –CSAM announced today that it has entered into an agreement to acquire KIBI –a medical diagnostics and documentation company with offices in Sweden, Finland and Denmark.

KIBI’s medical imaging solutions are used by more than 100 Nordic hospitals and healthcare centreswithin primary, outpatient and inpatient care.The company is one of relatively few in the Nordics that addresses both DICOM and non-DICOM formats, with full integration of all medical imaging components with various electronic patient record (EPR) systems. KIBI’s headquarters are located in Stockholm,Sweden.

-KIBI’s solutions are a strategic complement to CSAM’s strong offerings in medical imaging and connected healthcare domains, said Sverre Flatby, CSAM CEO. –Together, CSAM and KIBI will offer an unmatched portfolio of scalable, integrated and innovative solutions that provide significant value to our customers and their patients. -I am excited for the opportunity ahead as KIBI and CSAM join our visions, solutions and specialised teams, said Robert Cygnaeus, KIBI CEO.

–CSAM has built a strong reputation as a leader in the Nordics, and I am confident that together we can strengthen our presence further indeliveringnicheeHealth solutions that improve healthcare throughout the Nordics and beyond. The acquisition of KIBI is consistent with CSAM’s strategy to pursue growth through a combination of strategic M&As and organic sales. The transaction is estimated to close by the end of May.

-KIBI’s specialised solutions and highly skilled employees are a strong fit with CSAM’s and will help us achieve our short-and long-term growth ambitions, said Flatby. -With this acquisition, CSAM expands its position across the Nordics, increasing our customerbase in Denmark, Finland and Sweden.

CSAM has been a leading provider of medical imaging and connected healthcare solutions in the Nordics for more than a decade. The company works closely with healthcare professionals and organisations to develop software solutions that deliver the highest value for their operations.

About CSAM

CSAM has established itself as a leading Nordic niche player in the specialised eHealth market with a unique blend of best-in-class innovative technology, and outstanding human skills. The company’s diverse portfolio of software solutions enables healthcare providers to access relevant clinical information at the point of care. CSAM’s commercial headquarters are located in Oslo, Norway. The company also has local offices in Stockholm, Karlstad, Gothenburg, Helsinki, Oulu, Tampere, Tromsø and Warwickshire, as well as a wholly owned software engineering subsidiary in the Philippines.A privately-owned company backed by strong financial partners, CSAM aspires to achieve continued growth both organically and through selected mergers and acquisitions. For more information, visit www.csamhealth.com.

For more information, please contact:

Sverre Flatby, CEOJennifer Goode, Communications Directorsverre.flatby@csamhealth.comjennifer.goode@csamhealth.com+47 9159 9159+1-705-760-0782KIBI contact:Robert Cygnaeus, CEOAnn-Christine Jungmar, CCOrobert.cygnaeus@kibi.seann-christine.jungmar@kibi.se+46 58 23951+46 70912 31 11

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Ivalua Exceeds $1B Valuation in New Funding Round to Accelerate Global Expansion & Technology Innovation

Ardian

Valuation establishes Ivalua as the next unicorn founded in France

Paris, France – May 21th, 2019 – Ivalua, a leading provider of global Spend Management cloud solutions, today announced that it has raised $60 million in growth equity funding to further accelerate its rapid growth. This capital raise values the company at a ‘unicorn’ level of more than $1 billion, making Ivalua one of only a handful of unicorns founded in France. Ivalua recently announced that it is on pace to exceed $100 million in annual revenue in 2019.

Investors in this round include Tiger Global Management, a new investor in Ivalua, and Ardian Growth, one of Ivalua’s early investors who increased its overall investment level. Tiger Global Management joins Ivalua’s founders, KKR and Ardian Growth as shareholders. Ivalua’s management retains a majority stake in the company to ensure stable, long term planning and a continued focus on customers.

Spend Management software has emerged as an increasingly strategic tool for businesses, boosting profitability by streamlining procurement processes, improving collaboration with suppliers and optimising cash flow. The Spend Management market is sized at more than $20 billion and continues to develop rapidly as one of the most dynamic segments of the broader software-as-a-service (SaaS) market.

Ivalua has continued to increase its market share due to the unique advantages of its platform. The depth and breadth of its fully unified suite, combined with the unique combination of rapid delivery and unmatched flexibility, allow it to support customers at every stage of their digital transformations. The flexibility allows it to rapidly and uniquely develop and launch industry-specific solutions while maintaining a single code base. Customers realise more and faster value and never outgrow the platform, which allows Ivalua to consistently boast the industry’s highest retention rate, at over 98%, while also rapidly acquiring new customers.

Ivalua has grown while maintaining profitability. The additional funding will support future investments in organic product innovation, global expansion and possibly strategic acquisitions. David Khuat-Duy, CEO and Founder of Ivalua, said, “This investment by one of the world’s leading investment funds is a further testament to Ivalua’s long term strategy and business model. This additional capital will allow us to deliver ever more value to our customers and secure future growth.”

Laurent Foata, Head of Ardian Growth added, “We have been supporting Ivalua since 2011, at the start of their global expansion. We see Ivalua as the future leader in the large and fast growing Spend Management market. I am extremely grateful to Ivalua’s founders for their long term trust, and congratulate the team for this tremendous journey in which they remain the majority shareholder.”

About Ivalua

Ivalua is the Procurement empowerment platform. Recognised as a Leader by Gartner and other analysts, Ivalua’s Source-to-Pay suite is leveraged by over 300 leading companies across the globe to manage over $500 Billion in direct and indirect spend. The platform’s combination of ease-of-use, depth, breadth and flexibility ensures high employee and supplier adoption, rapid time to value and the ability to meet unique or evolving requirements, evidenced by the industry’s leading 98%+ retention rate. Realise the possibilities at :
www.ivalua.com. Follow us at @Ivalua.

About Tiger Global Management

Tiger Global Management, LLC is an investment firm that deploys capital globally. The firm’s fundamentally oriented investments focus primarily on the global Internet, software, financial technology, consumer and industrial sectors. The private equity strategy has a ten-year investment horizon and targets growth-oriented private companies. Such investments have included Spotify, Juul, Harry’s, Warby Parker, Peloton, JD.com, Facebook, LinkedIn, Yandex, Mail.ru Group, Despegar and Ola. The public equity efforts emphasise deep due diligence on individual companies and long-term secular themes. Tiger Global Management, LLC was founded in 2001 and is based in New York with affiliate offices in Hong Kong, Singapore, Bangalore and Melbourne.

About Ardian

Ardian is a world-leading private investment house with assets of US$90bn managed or advised in Europe, the Americas and Asia. The company is majority-owned by its employees. It keeps entrepreneurship at its heart and focuses on delivering excellent investment performance to its global investor base.
Through its commitment to shared outcomes for all stakeholders, Ardian’s activities fuel individual, corporate and economic growth around the world.
Holding close its core values of excellence, loyalty and entrepreneurship, Ardian maintains a truly global network, with more than 600 employees working from fifteen offices across Europe (Frankfurt, Jersey, London, Luxembourg, Madrid, Milan, Paris and Zurich), the Americas (New York, San Francisco and Santiago) and Asia (Beijing, Singapore, Tokyo and Seoul). It manages funds on behalf of around 880 clients through five pillars of investment expertise: Funds of Funds, Direct Funds, Infrastructure, Real Estate and Private Debt.
www.ardian.com

Media Contact

Tom Reynolds / Robert Fretwell
Spark Communications for Ivalua
0207 436 0420
ivalua@sparkcomms.co.uk
Ardian
Headland
Viktor Tsvetanov
vtsvetanov@headlandconsultancy.com
Tel: +44 (0)20 3435 7469

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CPA Global and ipan/Delegate Group announce closing of merger and future outlook for the combined organization

Castik Capital

IP management and technology companies CPA Global® and ipan/Delegate Group today announce the closing of their previously announced merger.

The new organisation will deliver best-in-class technology and integrated software, and IP services solutions for corporations and law firms globally. These solutions will offer a unique customer experience and superior service supported by the global footprint of our combined team.

Simon Webster, CEO of the combined group, commented: “I am delighted to announce that we are now one company. The combination of our two companies and the great teams that work within each of them will accelerate our primary focus of delivering solutions that meet our customers’ most important intellectual property management needs.”

Patrice Durand, CEO of ipan/Delegate, commented: “We’re very excited to start working with the CPA Global teams on bringing our joint vision to life. We aim at driving innovation to the benefit of the IP industry, to improve interactions between our customers, partners and teams.”

About CPA Global

CPA Global is a trusted IP management company, leading by blending new technology with unrivalled expertise to better many of the world’s respected corporations and law firms. Delivered by an outstanding global team of 2400 people, our integrated offering sets the standard for reliability and secure, verified IP data. For our customers, we minimise risk and deliver actionable IP intelligence for better decision making. Put simply, we take the hassle out of IP management, liberating our customers to focus on what they do best.

About ipan/Delegate Group

ipan/Delegate Group was formed in 2018 through the combination of Intellectual Property Associates Network (ipan) and Delegate (formerly Valipat/Envoy). Headquartered in Brussels, Belgium and Munich, Germany with offices globally, the Group’s customer centric approach to optimizing process and innovative web enabled platforms has made it the solution of choice for IP owners and law firms across the world. The Group offers services for annuities and renewals, EP validations, IP foreign filing and IP Recordals and three Intellectual Property Management Software (IPMS), namely Unycom, IPSS and IPfolio.

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Onit Acquires SimpleLegal to Modernize Global Legal Operations

K1

HOUSTON and MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif. – May 13, 2019 – Onit, Inc., a leading provider of enterprise workflow solutions including enterprise legal management, contract management and business process automation, today announced the acquisition of SimpleLegal, a leading provider of modern legal spend, matter and vendor management software. Terms of the acquisition were not disclosed.

Onit brings a management team with more than two decades of domain-specific expertise and a history of creating the e-billing and legal spend management market. SimpleLegal brings a fresh perspective to a 30+ year-old corporate market with a focus on simplicity and modern design. Working together, this acquisition will drive meaningful change for the entire legal industry and especially legal operation teams seeking a comprehensive end-to-end solution, legal technology innovation and shared best practices.

“Onit and SimpleLegal share both a passion for both disrupting the legal technology space and valuing product innovation,” said Eric M. Elfman, Onit CEO and co-founder. “Our shared commitment to elevate legal operations technology is an asset for all of our customers – from rapidly growing start-ups with their first in-house counsel all the way to the largest, most complex organizations. Together, our goal is to help all legal operations professionals achieve operational excellence on their legal technology journey.”

All product, support and services will continue uninterrupted for all customers. Management teams from both organizations will remain intact. Elfman, who was previously CEO of Onit, will serve as the CEO of the merged organization, and Nathan Wenzel, previously the CEO and co-founder of SimpleLegal, will serve as the General Manager of SimpleLegal.

“Today, corporations spend more than $160 billion on their in-house legal teams. The combination of Onit and SimpleLegal is a game-changer for the legal market and the future of legal operations,” said Wenzel. “Our teams are uniquely equipped to help shape the technology that is powering legal departments worldwide. Together, we’re looking forward to combining efforts and talent to build and bring to market the next generation of legal operations technology.”

Founded in 2013, SimpleLegal is widely recognized as a disruptor in the legal technology market. With a simple and intuitive solution delivering fast time-to-value, customers have access to software that is easy to use, implement and configure. In the last five years, SimpleLegal has helped corporate legal departments process more than $1 billion annually and manage nearly 500,000 legal matters globally.

About SimpleLegal

SimpleLegal provides a modern legal operations management platform that streamlines the way corporate legal departments manage their matters, track and interpret spend, and collaborate with vendors and law firms. SimpleLegal combines e-Billing and spend management, matter management, vendor management, and reporting and analytics into one comprehensive application to optimize legal operations and the management of the entire legal department. The company, founded in 2013, is privately held and located in Mountain View, California. For more information, visit www.simplelegal.com.

About Onit

Onit is a global leader of enterprise workflow solutions for legal, compliance, sales, IT, HR and finance departments. Our solutions transform best practices into smarter workflows, better processes and operational efficiencies. With a focus on enterprise legal management, matter management, spend management, contract management and legal holds, we operate globally and help transform the way Fortune 500 companies and billion-dollar legal departments bridge the gap between systems of record and systems of engagement. We help customers find gains in efficiency, reduce costs and automate transactions faster. For more information, visit www.onit.com or call 1-800-281-1330.

Source: https://www.onit.com/news/onit-acquires-simplelegal-to-modernize-global-legal-operations/

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Wirepas raises 14.4 million euros to capitalize the market momentum for Massive IoT

Tesi

Investments in companies – 14.5.2019

Tesi and KPN Ventures join existing investors in supporting Wirepas on its growth trajectory

TAMPERE, Finland, — May 14th, 2019 — ETF Partners, Inventure, KPN Ventures, TESI (Finnish Industry Investment) and Vito Ventures have invested €14.4 million in Wirepas, a Finnish software company that has built a wireless connectivity platform solving the major challenges of the Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT) and enabling broad adoption of Massive IoT. The additional funding, including the participation of existing investors, takes the total investment in Wirepas to €22 million.

“I am delighted to have Tesi and KPN Ventures joining as Wirepas investors and board observers. It is now clear that massive IoT networks are at the breakout phase and mesh networking from Wirepas is uniquely enabling that to happen. I am grateful that Tesi and KPN Ventures have joined our existing shareholders and share our vision.” welcomes Andrew Gilbert, Chairman of the board at Wirepas.

Wirepas will focus its investments on further strengthening and increasing the reach of the global Wirepas ecosystem as well as on continuous product development. During the last three years the company has built an ecosystem of semiconductor, module partners, OEMs and System Integrators to serve end users around the globe resulting in millions of Wirepas enabled devices shipped. Today Wirepas Mesh is being used to connect smart meters, lights and other assets in supply chain and logistics to reliably deliver the data needed by enterprises to boost their competitiveness and sustainability.

Recently signed customer agreements with industry leaders such as Prologis, Maersk and Fujitsu will provide the backbone of its future growth, adding to Wirepas’ existing customer base of over 100 companies and offering further proof of the competitive advantage of Wirepas Mesh.
“We are clearly seeing that the Massive IoT market is maturing as evidenced by our customers and partners: no longer is it about testing and piloting. We believe in the power of ecosystems where specialized vendors combine their competencies and passion to serve the customer. Together we are delivering concrete and tangible benefits to enterprises wishing to boost their efficiency and sustainability through the adoption of massive IoT. Our connectivity platform is field proven and meets the needs of a plethora of market needs ranging from asset tracking to smart cities and lighting. Wirepas increases end user return on assets significantly and aims to become the most pervasive connectivity system for massive IoT.”, summarizes Teppo Hemiä, CEO at Wirepas.

Sjoerd Spanjer, investment director of KPN Ventures: “As a leading connectivity provider, KPN acknowledges the growing momentum for IoT solutions with an increasing amount of connected devices throughout the value chain. IoT networks that can facilitate large scale deployments with flexible capabilities are becoming increasingly important for successful roll-out. The Wirepas team has developed unique best-in-class software for this purpose and is already working with leading international partners and customers. Through our investment, we aim to support Wirepas in their global expansion and see opportunities to leverage Wirepas’ technology to enhance and complement KPN’s IoT network technologies: M2M, LoRa, LTE-M and in the future also 5G”.

“We were convinced that Wirepas technology is a key enabler for Industrial IoT adoption especially in use cases where massive, cost efficient scaling is required. A number of global blue-chip customers are currently adopting the Wirepas mesh technology, which alongside economic benefits also drives positive environmental impact and resource efficiency and thereby supports our responsible investment principles. As a European company with global ambitions, Wirepas is also a natural fit with the EFSI programme”, comments Juha Lehtola, Tesi´s Director, Venture Capital.

EU enabling exceptionally significant financing rounds

Tesi’s investment in Wirepas is the first to take advantage of the new financial mechanism between the European Investment Bank (EIB) and Tesi, paving the way for large investments in growth companies. Tesi is the EIB’s first partner in the Nordics that channels financing guaranteed under the European Fund for Strategic Investments (EFSI) to SMEs and innovative midcap companies as equity investments.

”When we formed this co-investment platform with Tesi, this is the kind of investment we had in mind.” added EIB vice-president Alexander Stubb. “Although already quite competitive, in the Finnish equity investment landscape especially larger equity investment rounds were seen to be lacking investor support. This is a clear example of what Europe, and in particular the EIB, should be doing; to support innovation and improve peoples’ lives by strategic investments. We’re definitely looking forward to seeing more of these investments.”

Wirepas was founded in 2010 as a spinoff from Tampere University, where it was part of a research program to connect an unlimited amount of environmental sensors wirelessly. Since 2014, the company has provided a hardware-independent radio communications protocol based on a de-centralized network topology, using a software licensing model. Wirepas shareholders include founders, Inventure Investment Fund from Finland, Vito Ventures from Germany, ETF Partners from the UK, management shareholders and private investors. The company employs approximately 50 people in 9 countries.

Further information

Teppo Hemiä, CEO – Wirepas, +358 50 561 0198, teppo.hemia(at)wirepas.com

Patrick Sheehan, Managing Partner – ETF Partners, +44 20 7318 0700, patrick(at)etfpartners.capital

Sami Lampinen, CEO – Inventure, +358 40 520 5295, sami(at)inventure.fi

Stijn Wesselink, Press Officer – KPN, +31 6-25074971, stijn.wesselink(at)kpn.com

Juha Lehtola, Director Venture Capital – Tesi, +358 400 647 671, juha.lehtola(at)tesi.fi

Benedikt von Schoeler, Managing Partner – Vito Ventures, +49 173 8669952, bene(at)vito.vc

 

Wirepas Mesh enables wireless IoT networking at massive scale. It is a de-centralized IoT network protocol that can be used to connect, locate and identify lights, sensors, beacons, assets, machines and meters in cities, buildings, industry, logistics and energy – with unprecedented scale, density, flexibility and reliability. It can be used on any radio hardware and on any frequency band. Wirepas has its headquarters in Tampere, Finland and offices in Australia, France, Germany, India, South Korea, Taiwan, the UK and the United States. Things connected – Naturally.
www.wirepas.com

ETF Partners supports talented entrepreneurs and management teams with investment capital and experience. Our funds come from institutional investors, global corporations and family offices. We create value by investing in technology companies that make a difference. We call it ‘sustainability through innovation’. Environmental Technologies Fund and Environmental Technologies Fund 2 L.P. is supported by the European Union through the ‘Competitiveness and Innovation Framework Programme’ (CIP).
Sustainability through innovation – www.etfpartners.capital

Inventure is a Nordic technology fund backing early-stage entrepreneurs. Having the roots in Finland, the team enjoys domains many don’t feel comfortable with, and makes big bets on deep tech. The strong capital base of €250M allows Inventure to lead investments starting from initial seed-stage all the way through expansion. The team operates from offices in Helsinki and Stockholm.
inventure.fi

KPN Ventures is the corporate venture capital arm of KPN, The Netherlands’ leading telecom & ICT company. KPN Ventures aims to build value-creating partnership with innovative technology companies, providing access to capital, industry expertise, technical infrastructure, professional network and channels to customers. It focuses on direct and indirect (fund-in-fund) early-stage investments in the segments: Networking Technology, Cyber Security, Internet of Things, Smart Home, Digital Healthcare, Video/OTT, Cloud and Data/AI. KPN Ventures has its main office in Rotterdam, The Netherlands.
www.kpnventures.com

Tesi is a state-owned investment company that invests profitably and responsibly, creating value from day one. Tesi’s investments under management total EUR 1.2 billion and it has altogether more than 700 companies in portfolio, either directly or through funds. Tesi helps Finland to the next level of growth and internationalisation.
www.tesi.fi / www.dtg.tesi.fi / @TesiFII

Vito Ventures is one of Europe’s leading deep-tech investors. The early-phase investor is rooted in the German SME markets and boasts a unique network within European industry. The team has a comprehensive understanding of the deep-reaching technological change as well as the dynamics and requirements for both, established companies as well as start-ups.
www.vito.vc

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KKR Completes Acquisition of MYOB

KKR

SYDNEY–(BUSINESS WIRE)–May 8, 2019– Global investment firm KKR and leading Australian online business management company MYOB Group Limited (“MYOB” or the “Company”) today announced the completion of the previously announced acquisition of MYOB by KKR.

This press release features multimedia. View the full release here:https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20190507006190/en/

David Lang, Member at KKR, said, “MYOB is a true leader in the growing and innovative business solutions software segment. We are excited to partner with and support MYOB as it accelerates the company’s growth plans in Australia and New Zealand while also exploring the significant opportunities it has to offer its customers new products and solutions.”

Tim Reed, CEO of MYOB, said, “The past year has been an eventful one for MYOB in which we accelerated our investment in the MYOB Platform and fast-tracked its delivery to our customers. This rollout helped us to achieve even greater online subscriber growth and propelled us to a leading position in Australia and New Zealand’s online accounting market. Now with KKR’s support and expertise, we are even better positioned for future growth. I am confident the business will continue to thrive well into the future, and am excited to embark on MYOB’s next chapter.”

MYOB entered into a Scheme Implementation Agreement with KKR on December 23, 2018, under which KKR proposed to acquire all the MYOB shares it did not already own. MYOB shareholders voted in favour of the Scheme on April 17, 2019, and implementation took effect today.

KKR’s investment in MYOB was made from its flagship Asian Fund III.

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About MYOB

MYOB Group Ltd is a leading provider of online business management solutions. It makes business life easier for approximately 1.2 million businesses and accountants across Australia and New Zealand by simplifying accounting, payroll, tax, practice management, CRM, job costing, inventory and more. MYOB operates across three core segments – Clients and Partners (business solutions to SMEs and Advisers); Enterprise Solutions (larger businesses) and Payment Solutions. It provides ongoing support through client service channels including a network of over 40,000 accountants, bookkeepers and other consultants. It is committed to ongoing innovation, particularly through its Connected Practice Strategy and through the development of the MYOB Platform. For more information, visit http://investors.myob.com.au/Investors or follow @MYOB on Twitter.

About KKR

KKR is a leading global investment firm that manages multiple alternative asset classes, including private equity, energy, infrastructure, real estate and credit, with strategic partners that manage hedge funds. KKR aims to generate attractive investment returns for its fund investors by following a patient and disciplined investment approach, employing world-class people, and driving growth and value creation with KKR portfolio companies. KKR invests its own capital alongside the capital it manages for fund investors and provides financing solutions and investment opportunities through its capital markets business. References to KKR’s investments may include the activities of its sponsored funds. For additional information about KKR & Co. Inc (NYSE:KKR), please visit KKR’s website at www.kkr.com and on Twitter @KKR_Co.

Source: KKR

Media:
For KKR
KKR Asia
Anita Davis
+852 3602-7335
Anita.Davis@KKR.com

KKR Americas
Kristi Huller / Cara Major
+1 212-750-8300
Media@KKR.com

Newgate Communications (For KKR Australia)
Miche Paterson
+61 400 353 762
miche.paterson@newgatecomms.com.au

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