Tag Archives: Information technology

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

Categories: News

Tags:

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.

****

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

Categories: News

Tags:

Hg invests in Litera Microsystems

HG Capital

Transaction will be Hg’s sixth legal and compliance business in the current portfolio

7 May 2019. Hg announces today that it will invest in Litera Microsystems (“Litera”), a leading provider of end-to-end document lifecycle solutions to the legal and life sciences industries worldwide, headquartered in Chicago. Terms of the transaction are not disclosed.

Based in London, Munich and New York, Hg is a specialist private equity investor focused on software and service businesses, committed to building businesses that change the way we all do business, through deep sector specialisation and dedicated operational support.

Litera has developed a leading suite of legal document productivity applications, delivered as an end-to-end platform to more than 1,300 organisations across the globe. Based in Chicago, New York and London, Litera provides a suite of best-in-class productivity tools that help customers to focus on what matters: creating the highest quality documents.

The investment in Litera follows one of Hg’s core investment theses, focused on the secular growth of software suppliers for business-critical functions in the legal and regulatory compliance sector. Hg has been actively following this theme for over 15 years, with Litera representing the sixth legal and compliance business currently in Hg’s portfolio, with others including STP, a leading provider of insolvency and law practice software in Germany; and Mitratech, a leading global provider of Enterprise Legal Management (‘ELM’) software to corporate legal departments, based in Austin, Texas.

Hg’s team has known Litera for several years, recognising it as a business solving mission-critical workflows for its customers, leading to strong recurring revenues and displaying the same growth characteristics as many others in the Hg portfolio. The investment will be made from Hg’s Genesis 8 Fund which, following the completion of this transaction, will be 54% invested across 7 software and service businesses.

Ben Meyer, Jean Baptiste Brian and Hector Guinness at Hg, said: “We have been very impressed with Litera’s great track record of delivering innovative products that change the way legal professionals work, with an unmatched record of excellent customer support and satisfaction. We look forward to working closely with Avaneesh and his team to continue the success of this company”.

Avaneesh Marwaha, CEO of Litera, said: “Over the last few years, Litera has experienced great success in creating a platform for long term growth.  As we looked for the next partner to align the business with, Hg stood out.  Leveraging Hg’s support and their experience in software, legal, life sciences and global expansion will enable Litera to reach new levels of success with confidence, whilst also allowing us to further invest in our people and culture. We look forward to partnering with Hg and developing new products and capabilities to continue to meet the evolving needs of our customers.”

Hg were advised by Evercore (M&A), EY (Financial & Tax), Deloitte (Financing), PWC (Commercial) and Skadden (Legal). Litera were advised by William Blair.

Categories: News

Tags:

K1 Sells Document Management Software Leader Litera Microsystems

K1

LOS ANGELES, May 7, 2019 /PRNewswire/ — K1 Investment Management, LLC (“K1”), a leading investment firm focusing on high-growth enterprise software companies, today announced the sale of its portfolio company, Litera Microsystems (“Litera”), to funds managed by Hg. With K1’s partnership, Litera tripled its revenue to become one of the world’s leading providers of end-to-end document management software. Litera helps organizations mitigate risk and drive return on investment by enabling users to create, check, repair, collaborate, and share high-quality complex documents.

Following K1’s acquisition of Litera in July 2016, Litera made substantial investments to more than double its product portfolio and build a robust global go-to-market engine. Additionally, Litera pursued a bold add-on acquisition program, made possible by K1’s operational assistance, to seamlessly bring together four companies under one name.

Litera’s 1,300 clients include some of the largest law firms and life sciences firms in the world.

“K1 provided unparalleled operational value, focusing our company on customer-centric, industry-specific software solutions,” says Avaneesh Marwaha, CEO of Litera. “The firm’s expertise in growing successful enterprise software companies helped Litera get ahead of the curve and avoid the pitfalls of a typical high-growth company. Litera’s relentless drive for innovation and deep focus on the end-user has fundamentally changed the way our customers utilize and manage the document lifecycle, enabling them to provide superior services to their clients.”

“It has been an incredible journey to partner with the Litera management team to innovate and transform the document lifecycle market,” says Ron Cano, managing partner at K1. “Litera has become a trusted platform for its customers and is well positioned for continued future success.”

Litera was an investment in K1’s third fund (K3). The firm is currently investing out of its fourth fund (K4). William Blair acted as exclusive financial advisor to Litera.

About Litera Microsystems

Litera Microsystems is a leading provider of software for drafting, proofreading, comparing, repairing and cleansing documents in the legal and life sciences industries worldwide. Headquartered in Chicago, Litera’s core products empower users to generate, review, and distribute high-quality content quickly and securely, from any device. Today, Litera supports over a thousand document-intensive organizations across the globe, helping them satisfy the complex demands of clients and regulators. https://www.litera.com/

About K1

K1 builds category leading enterprise software companies. As a global investment firm, K1 assists high-growth businesses achieve successful outcomes. K1 invests alongside strong management teams that continue to guide their organizations on a day-to-day basis. With over 75 professionals, K1 changes industry landscapes by executing organic and acquisition-based growth strategies. Since inception of the firm, K1 has partnered with over 100 enterprise software companies including industry leaders such as Apttus, Buildium, Certify, Checkmarx, ChiroTouch, Chrome River, Clarizen, Granicus, IronScales, Jobvite, Onit, Rave, RFPIO, Smarsh and WorkForce Software. For more information about K1, please visit www.k1capital.com or www.linkedin.com/company/k1im.

SOURCE K1 Investment Management

Categories: News

Tags:

Herkules sells Puzzel to Marlin Equity Partners

Herkules
Herkules Private Equity Fund III (“HPEF III” or “Herkules”) is pleased to announce the sale of Puzzel AS (“Puzzel”). On 12 April 2019, HPEF III entered into an agreement to sell Puzzel, a leading European provider of cloud-based contact center software solutions, to Marlin Equity Partners.
During the Herkules ownership, Puzzel was transformed into a SaaS business. Significant investments were made into the software platform. Today, the company has a comprehensive multi-channel CCaaS solution that is both scalable and flexible, and designed to support contact centers of all sizes. The company combines its omni-channel technology with artificial intelligence capabilities to provide comprehensive, end-to-end customer interaction solutions in an age of digitization.As part of the Herkules value creation plan, Sales & Marketing was strengthened and Puzzel has experienced strong software growth across Europe that has been fueled by feedback and advocacy from market-leading customers.
In 2018, Puzzel was recognized as a Challenger in the Gartner Magic Quadrant report for Contact Center as a Service in Western Europe for the fourth consecutive year given its strong growth, functional capabilities, strengths in standards and compliance, customer service and support.Puzzel is headquartered in Oslo, Norway, with offices in six European markets including the U.K and the company serves more than 900 customers across 40 countries.“Puzzel’s leading position in the market, knowledgeable employees and pioneering technology platform positions them well to continue to successfully scale their business,” says Gert Munthe, Partner at Herkules Capital.
 

The exit process was advised by Carnegie Investment Bank, Wiersholm, PwC, and BCG. It was strong interest from both Industrial buyers and financial sponsors.

Categories: News

Tags:

TID Informatik becomes part of the SCHEMA Group

ik-investment-partners

The SCHEMA Group (SCHEMA) is expanding its previous 27% shareholding in TID Informatik GmbH (TID) to 100%.

TID Informatik GmbH (TID), headquartered in Inning am Ammersee and with a branch in Amberg, Germany, produces the CATALOGcreator® software and specializes in electronic spare parts catalogs and the management of service and spare parts information. With its products SCHEMA ST4 and SCHEMA CDS, SCHEMA is the leading manufacturer of professional software solutions for product and process documentation.

As a new wholly-owned subsidiary of the SCHEMA Group, TID Informatik will continue to operate as an independent company on the market alongside SCHEMA Consulting and SCHEMA Systems. The previous managing directors, founders Robert Schäfer and Rafi Boudjakdjian, will continue to run TID Informatik GmbH as managing directors.

With this acquisition, the SCHEMA Group is expanding its portfolio as a provider of system solutions for content lifecycle management. With more than 300 customers from various industries, TID Informatik is the leading producer of software for the creation of electronic parts catalogs and service information systems. TID has recorded strong and profitable growth in recent years and employs around 50 people at its Inning am Ammersee and Amberg locations. The SCHEMA Group has thus grown to a total of 180 employees.

“I am delighted that TID Informatik and SCHEMA will be working even more closely together in the future. Through integrated software solutions and services, we can offer a unique platform for digitization and automation of product and service information,” explains Robert Schäfer, founder and Managing Director of TID Informatik GmbH.

“We are pursuing the same strategic goals together and complement each other perfectly,” emphasizes Marcus Kesseler, founder and Managing Director of the SCHEMA Group.

“Digitization and Industry 4.0 is based on professionally created, digitized and integrated product and service information. Together, we can offer our customers a unique product and service offering.”

What is SCHEMA?
The SCHEMA Group was founded in Nuremberg in 1995 and is a medium-sized software manufacturer with more than 130 employees. The SCHEMA Group produces component content management and content delivery solutions for editorial offices that create product-related content. Software from SCHEMA helps companies to describe complex products and to produce and distribute these descriptions on different media.

The XML editing system SCHEMA ST4 is one of the most widely used systems for the modular creation of documentation, package inserts and marketing materials. The system covers all areas of creation, versioning, variant control, translation, administration and publication of product-related content – from authoring support during input to the finished layout for the print catalog.
The SCHEMA Content Delivery Server offers companies a standard solution for automatically distributing intelligent information created in editorial systems to end users in a targeted and context-specific manner. This ensures that exactly the right information arrives automatically on mobile devices.

SCHEMA’s software solutions are used by more than 500 customers in the mechanical engineering, automotive, information technology, electronics, medical technology and pharmaceutical industries. Customers such as ABB, Agilent, Andritz, Bentley, Bombardier, Bosch, Bundesanzeiger, Carl Zeiss, Caterpillar, Daimler, Datev, Doppelmayr, General Electric, KSB, MAN, Miele, Österreichische Bundesbahnen, Philips, Porsche, Roche, Schaeffler Group, SEW Eurodrive, Siemens, SMA, Toyota, TüV, Voith and Wincor Nixdorf and many others rely on SCHEMA systems.

SCHEMA. Complex documents easy. www.schema.de

Translated with www.DeepL.com/Translator

Categories: News

Tags:

Industrifonden leads Series A round in IIoT pioneer Crosser

Industriefonden

We are glad to welcome the team at Crosser to the portfolio, as the company has closed a EUR 3 million financing round to support international expansion.

Together with German early stage tech VC 42CAP, we led the round, with participation from existing investors Spintop Ventures, Almi Invest and Norrlandsfonden.

With the IoT market growing in a rapid pace, we spend a lot of time thinking about industrial IoT and the next paradigm shift for the industry: industry 4.0. Crosser stands out because they understand the big picture, and has built a platform that complements and improves the customers’ existing technology. We are really excited about this partnership and what it will bring, says Martin Gemvik, Senior Investment Manager at Industrifonden.

Factory/Asset owners and machine builders are looking into digital solutions to increase uptime, optimize processes and find new business models. The Crosser real-time analytics platform helps enterprises to integrate the machine world with the rest of their business and accelerate their digital transformation.

We are very pleased to have two new investors with a strong interest in industrial technologies, says Martin Thunman, CEO and co-founder of Crosser. This round of funding enables us to expand internationally, build out our partner ecosystem and to invest further in the development of our platform. The first step will be to expand into Germany, the leading industrial country in Europe.

Crosser recently announced its “Bring Your Own AI” strategy with support for a variety of third-party machine learning frameworks and an open ecosystem approach for machine learning algorithms in the Edge. The Crosser platform offers a unique simplicity to deploy and orchestrate advanced machine learning algorithms, data processing, analytics and data integration in the Edge at scale.

> More on Crosser

Categories: News

Tags:

Perforce Software Announces Strategic Investment from Francisco Partners

Franciso Partners

  • Francisco Partners and Clearlake to Become Equal Partners
  • Additional Capital to Accelerate the DevOps Platform’s Organic and Inorganic Growth

Minneapolis, MN, San Francisco, CA, and Santa Monica, CA – Perforce Software (“Perforce” or the “Company”), a global provider of enterprise-grade development operations (“DevOps”) software solutions, today announced a significant new equity investment from Francisco Partners, a global technology-focused private equity fund. With the investment, Francisco Partners will become an equal partner with affiliates of Clearlake Capital Group, L.P. (“Clearlake”), which initially invested in Perforce in late 2017. Terms of the transaction were not disclosed.

Perforce has expanded significantly since Clearlake’s acquisition, completing three acquisitions and building out its platform across areas of agile management, application management and components, code management and collaboration, and automated testing. As a leader in the DevOps industry, Perforce provides the broadest suite of solutions that balance the security, compliance, and control needs of leading enterprises while providing developers and designers the freedom to innovate at global scale. With its extensive portfolio, Perforce helps global enterprises solve complex problems across the entire software development lifecycle.

“Throughout our partnership with Clearlake, Perforce has successfully accelerated revenue growth, continued significant innovation, and strengthened relationships with numerous blue-chip customers,” said Mark Ties, Perforce CEO. “We are excited to welcome Francisco Partners, a firm with deep infrastructure software experience, as we continue to expand our global footprint and deliver pioneering products efficiently and effectively. With these leading investment firms’ support, we will reach a new level of scale and accelerate our acquisition strategy, while remaining hyper-focused on our customers.” “We are very impressed by the leadership position that Perforce has established in the DevOps market and are excited to partner with management and Clearlake to drive the next phase of expansion,” said Brian Decker, Partner at Francisco Partners. “Perforce has successfully gained market share both organically and inorganically, and we look forward to building on this strong foundation,” added Evan Daar, Principal at Francisco Partners.

Behdad Eghbali, Co-Founder and Managing Partner at Clearlake, commented, “Since our investment, Perforce has significantly scaled its revenue and profitability profile and expanded its breadth of solutions. With the implementation of our O.P.S.® approach, Perforce has grown into the category leader and is well positioned to leverage its unmatched technology to increase the adoption of DevOps practices across all end markets.”

Prashant Mehrotra, Partner at Clearlake added, “This partnership with Francisco Partners further supports our original investment thesis and sponsorship of Mark and the collective management team’s best in class playbook to sustainably drive organic growth combined with an aggressive M&A strategy in the DevOps market.”

The transaction is expected to close in the second quarter of 2019. Financing and advisory services for the transaction will be provided by Credit Suisse, Deutsche Bank, and Ares. William Blair and Shea & Co served as co-financial advisors to Perforce. BofA Merrill Lynch, Evercore, and Goldman Sachs & Co. LLC also served as financial advisors in the transaction.

About Perforce

Perforce is a leading provider of enterprise scale software solutions to technology developers and development operations (“DevOps”) teams requiring productivity, visibility and scale during all phases of the development lifecycle. Enterprises across the globe rely on its agile planning and ALM tools, automated mobile and web testing, developer collaboration, static code analysis, version control and repository management solutions as the foundation for successful DevOps at scale. Perforce is trusted by the world’s most innovative brands, including NVIDIA, Pixar, Scania, Ubisoft, and VMware. For more information, please visit www.perforce.com.

About Francisco Partners

Francisco Partners is an investment firm that specializes in technology and technology-enabled services 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, please visit www.franciscopartners.com.

About Clearlake

Clearlake Capital Group, L.P. is a leading private investment firm founded in 2006. With a sector-focused approach, the firm seeks to partner with world-class management teams by providing patient, long-term capital to dynamic businesses that can benefit from Clearlake’s operational improvement approach, O.P.S.®. The firm’s core target sectors are software and technology-enabled services; industrials and energy; and consumer. Clearlake has managed over $8 billion of institutional capital since inception and its senior investment principals have led or co-led over 100 investments. More information is available at www.clearlake.com.

Categories: News

Tags:

Dynamo Software Acquires Preqin Solutions

Franciso Partners

Dynamo expands private equity monitoring and valuation capabilities with the acquisition of leading cloud software provider Preqin Solutions, a subsidiary of London-based Preqin Limited

Dynamo Software, the premier provider of comprehensive cloud software and data solutions for the alternative investment industry, announced today that it has acquired Preqin Solutions, formerly Baxon Solutions. Based in London, Preqin Solutions provides cloud-based software for private equity portfolio monitoring, valuation, performance analysis, and ESG impact design and measurement. The acquisition adds significant value across Dynamo’s existing client base of over 500 private fund managers and allocators that use Dynamo’s CRM, deal management, portfolio monitoring, and investor reporting capabilities.

Preqin Solutions’ software enables a broad range of functionality that speeds the collection, transfer, and analysis of data across a private equity portfolio. Key components include the automation of monthly and quarterly performance data collection from underlying portfolio companies; the ability to seamlessly feed data into valuation, cap table and waterfall models; and the inclusion of key market and performance data from Preqin and other third-party data sources. Preqin Solutions’ market-leading features add a new dimension to the Dynamo platform and are clear differentiators in the marketplace. Importantly, the addition of Preqin Solutions’ global customer footprint and employee base brings unique reach and expertise to Dynamo’s product development and client success teams, significantly expanding Dynamo’s existing London and APAC presence.

Dynamo Software and Preqin Limited maintain a long-standing relationship under which Dynamo has utilized Preqin’s data in its core CRM platform, offering customers the ability to access market participant data easily via browser or mobile device. As part of the acquisition, Dynamo and Preqin Limited are strengthening their partnership to facilitate a seamless transition for Preqin Solutions customers and staff and to ensure that existing and new customers can continue to benefit from the Dynamo platform, Preqin Solutions portfolio tools and Preqin data.

“We are excited to welcome the Preqin Solutions team to the Dynamo family and expand our platform with the unique capabilities their system offers.”, commented Hank Boughner, Dynamo’s CEO. “Preqin Solutions’ cloud software is a perfect complement to Dynamo’s deal management, middle, back office, and LP reporting features and will extend the functionality and services we are able to provide to our clients investing in private assets. We look forward to a long-term partnership with Preqin Limited as we continue meeting the needs of sophisticated customers in the alternative investment space.”

Mark O’Hare, founder and Chief Executive of Preqin, added: “We are very pleased to combine the Preqin Solutions business with the Dynamo cloud platform, and we know that Preqin Solutions clients and employees will be in great hands as part of the global Dynamo family. We look forward to continuing our mutually beneficial partnership by ensuring a seamless transition for all Preqin Solutions customers, and by providing Preqin’s high-quality data for use across the Dynamo client base.”

Chris Ferguson, the current CEO of Preqin Solutions, added, “We are thrilled about what Dynamo can offer the business – this move will be of great benefit to both Preqin Solutions’ employees and customers. Going forward, the business will have the best of both worlds: operating as part of a specialist, best-in-class software house while maintaining close ties and data integrations with a market-leading data provider.”

Specific terms of the deal were not disclosed.

Marlin & Associates acted as exclusive strategic and financial advisor to Preqin.

About Dynamo Software

Dynamo Software has provided industry-tailored, highly configurable investment management, reporting and data management cloud software solutions to the global alternative investment industry since 1998. Dynamo provides SaaS solutions across the private investment landscape including: private equity and venture capital funds, real estate investment firms, hedge funds, endowments, pensions, foundations, prime brokers, funds of funds, family offices, and fund administrators. The Dynamo™ platform has improved the productivity of fundraising, deal, management, research, investor servicing, portfolio management, and compliance teams worldwide. Collectively, Dynamo’s 500+ clients manage over $3 trillion in assets.

For more information about Dynamo Software, please visit www.DynamoSoftware.com.

About Preqin

Preqin is the home of alternative assets, providing industry-leading intelligence on the market and cutting-edge tools to support participants at every stage of the investment cycle. More than 73,000 industry participants in over 90 countries rely on Preqin as their indispensable source of data, solutions, and insights. Preqin’s data and analyses are frequently presented at industry conferences, and is used in the global financial press and academic journals & white papers. Preqin is always happy to support journalists by providing reports, custom data, and one-on-one interviews.

For more information about Preqin, please visit www.preqin.com.

 

Categories: News

Tags:

PayScale Announces Majority Growth Investment from Francisco Partners at an Enterprise Value of $325 Million

Franciso Partners

nvestment Will Help the Cloud Compensation Software Provider Accelerate Growth and Innovation

Seattle, WA and San Francisco, CA – PayScale, Inc., the leading provider of SaaS-based compensation data, analytics and software, announced today a majority investment from Francisco Partners, a global technology-focused private equity fund. This investment will provide PayScale with a new financial partner to build upon the company’s strong momentum and help continue to drive product innovation.

PayScale has grown substantially in recent years as employees and employers alike increasingly demand modern compensation software that enables more data-driven compensation decisions, leading to greater pay transparency and equity. The company’s growth has coincided with the emergence of social movements demanding greater gender and racial equality (both broadly and with respect to the pay gaps that still exist), as well as the increasing scrutiny organizations are under to make their business operations match their recruiting rhetoric. The Seattle-based company pioneered the use of big data and unique matching and prediction algorithms to create the industry’s most advanced compensation platform, which has propelled PayScale to market leadership.

“We have made tremendous progress in delivering our promise to Bring Pay Forward and in the process have established PayScale as the clear market and technology leader in SaaS compensation management solutions,” commented Mike Metzger, Chief Executive Officer of PayScale. “This could not have been possible without the tireless efforts of our employees to drive superior customer outcomes and their dedication to contributing to the PayScale culture. The future of PayScale is bright and we look forward to welcoming Francisco Partners into the shareholder base.”

“Compensation-related friction continues to affect employers and employees globally,” said Adam Solomon, Principal at Francisco Partners. “The changing dynamics of the workforce, including the shift from Boomers to Millennials as the dominant cohort in today’s workplace and the entrance of Gen Z, has made it impossible for CEOs to leave compensation to chance. PayScale helps bridge the disconnect by enabling its more than 8,000 customers to make compensation decisions that are more rooted in data and aligned to business goals than ever before. With this compelling value proposition, PayScale is well-positioned to capitalize on the large market opportunity ahead of the company.”

Peter Christodoulo, Partner at Francisco Partners, added, “We are extremely excited to be partnering with PayScale as the company enters the next chapter of its growth story. The team is focused on its mission of helping companies align their compensation practices with their business goals and of easing the burden of communicating well about compensation to employees, and we look forward to supporting and furthering that vision.”

Warburg Pincus will be exiting its investment in PayScale in this transaction. “We are proud of PayScale’s significant growth over the past five years to become the leading cloud compensation data and SaaS provider in the space,” said Ashutosh Somani, Managing Director, Warburg Pincus. “As growth investors, we feel privileged to have partnered with Mike and the PayScale team and we wish the company continued success in the future,” added Justin Sadrian, Managing Director, Warburg Pincus.

Raymond James & Associates, Inc. acted as exclusive financial advisor and Willkie Farr & Gallagher LLP acted as legal advisor to PayScale and its Board of Directors. Kirkland & Ellis LLP acted as legal advisor to Francisco Partners. The transaction is subject to customary closing conditions and is expected to close within the next 15 days.

About PayScale

PayScale offers modern compensation software and the most precise, real-time, data-driven insights for employees and employers alike. More than 8,000 customers, from small businesses to Fortune 500 companies, use PayScale to power pay decisions for more than 23 million employees. These companies include Encana, Patagonia, The New York Times, Sunsweet, T-Mobile, United Health Group, Wendy’s and Perry Ellis. For more information, please visit: www.payscale.com or follow PayScale on Twitter: twitter.com/payscale.

About Francisco Partners

Francisco Partners is an investment firm that specializes in technology and technology-enabled services 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, please visit www.franciscopartners.com.

About Warburg Pincus

Warburg Pincus LLC is a leading global private equity firm focused on growth investing. The firm has more than $58 billion in private equity assets under management. The firm’s active portfolio of more than 180 companies is highly diversified by stage, sector and geography. Warburg Pincus is an experienced partner to management teams seeking to build durable companies with sustainable value. Founded in 1966, Warburg Pincus has raised 18 private equity funds, which have invested more than $74 billion in over 860 companies in more than 40 countries. The firm is headquartered in New York with offices in Amsterdam, Beijing, Hong Kong, Houston, London, Luxembourg, Mumbai, Mauritius, San Francisco, São Paulo, Shanghai and Singapore. For more information please visit www.warburgpincus.com..

Categories: News

Tags: