LOS ANGELES, April 25, 2019 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — K1 Investment Management (“K1”), a leading investment firm focusing on high-growth enterprise software companies, today announced the sale of its portfolio company, Rave Mobile Safety, to funds affiliated with TCV. As a K1 portfolio company, Rave became the category leader in public safety software sold to the higher education, government, K-12 and corporate markets.

During its ownership, K1 expanded the Rave management team, refined its go-to-market strategy, and strengthened its product portfolio on key solutions for pressing safety needs, including addressing the growing need for improved school safety with Rave Panic Button. Additionally, Rave consolidated a fragmented industry landscape through strategic acquisitions, bringing together three additional companies under the platform’s umbrella, broadening its market reach and delivering a comprehensive product suite to its customers.

Representative clients of Rave include the City of Chicago, Washington D.C. Schools, the City of Cincinnati, Iowa State University and the City of Virginia Beach.

“K1 was instrumental in guiding us toward furthering our mission of better connecting organizations with those they protect through innovative software that enhances public safety and helps save lives,” says Todd Piett, CEO of Rave. “The team’s operational and strategic guidance allowed us to drive organizational health, accelerate product innovation and strengthen our go-to-market. Without K1’s involvement, we would not have been able to achieve such rapid growth. I am incredibly optimistic about the future of Rave and couldn’t be happier with the effort and results achieved by the Rave and K1 teams.”

“It has been a pleasure working with Todd and the Rave team over the last three years on tripling revenue and building the preeminent provider of emergency notification and safety solutions for education, government and corporate customers,” says Taylor Beaupain, Managing Partner at K1. “We have high confidence that Rave will continue delivering outstanding value to customers and wish them continued success.”

Raymond James & Associates acted as exclusive financial advisor to Rave Mobile Safety.

About Rave Mobile Safety

Rave Mobile Safety provides the leading critical communication and data platform trusted to help save lives. Used by leading education and healthcare institutions, enterprises and state and local public safety agencies, the award-winning Rave platform including Rave Alert™, Rave 911 Suite™, Rave Panic Button™, Rave Guardian™, Rave Prepare™, Rave Eyewitness™ and Swift911™ and SwiftK12™ protects millions of individuals. Rave Mobile Safety is headquartered in Framingham, MA. For more information, please visit https://www.ravemobilesafety.com.

About K1

K1 is a leading investment firm focusing on high-growth enterprise software companies globally. K1 seeks to help dynamic businesses achieve successful outcomes by identifying and executing organic and acquisition-based growth opportunities that position its companies as industry leaders. K1 typically invests alongside strong management teams that continue to guide their organizations on a day-to-day basis. K1’s investments vary in the level of ownership in order to meet the needs of entrepreneurs and managers. Representative past and present portfolio companies include industry leaders such as Apttus, Buildium, Certify, Checkmarx, ChiroTouch, Chrome River, Clarizen, Granicus, IronScales, Jobvite, Litera Microsystems, Onit, RFPIO, Smarsh and WorkForce Software. For more information about K1, please visit www.k1capital.com or www.linkedin.com/company/k1im.

Media contact:
Kevin Wolf
TGPR
(650) 483-1552
kevin@tgprllc.com

Source: https://www.globenewswire.com/news-release/2019/04/25/1809876/0/en/K1-Sells-Public-Safety-Software-Leader-Rave-Mobile-Safety.html

ARLINGTON, VA. (PRWEB) APRIL 23, 2019

ChurnZero, a real-time Customer Success platform, has announced that it secured $7 million in Series A funding led by Baird Capital. Returning investors in the round include Grotech Ventures, Middleland Capital, Charlottesville Angel Network and Center for Innovative Technology. The latest investment round will be used to support all of ChurnZero’s efforts. The team will invest in growing the Customer Success ecosystem, accelerate and deepen product development in the award-winning ChurnZero platform, and support customer facing teams in delivering the best Customer Success and Support among their peers.

The ChurnZero solution helps subscription businesses fight customer churn, expand their current accounts, increase product adoption and optimize the overall customer experience.

“At Untappd, we pride ourselves in delivering great Service and Customer Success to our brewery, restaurant and retail customers and we have been blown away with ChurnZero’s level of Customer Success as well as the care and thought they put into their product,” said Jeremy Jeffers, VP of Customer Success, Untappd. “We have seen a large improvement on the level of customer touchpoints our Customer Success Managers are able to do today versus before and we have seen a massive increase in retention for our small and medium-sized accounts.”

“Building a Customer Success platform that integrates data and customer touchpoints from a myriad of sources, generates insights and analytics, and kicks off workflows and communications is a tough technical project and is a proud achievement for our team,” said You Mon Tsang, Co-founder and CEO of ChurnZero. “But our real achievement is creating a happy and successful customer base. Our growth has been testament to our efforts so far and I am thrilled to have Baird Capital as partners to invest further in the company and in the ecosystem.”

In connection with the investment, Joanna Arras of Baird Capital has joined ChurnZero’s board of directors. “Customer Success is a persistent issue for companies in a variety of industries, and we are beginning to see the emergence of best practices to professionalize and scale Customer Success teams,” said Arras. “The market for Customer Success software is relatively nascent; as such we are excited to partner with ChurnZero to create the enterprise’s next great system of record.”

This investment brings the total funding that ChurnZero has raised to date to $10 million.

Since its founding in 2015, ChurnZero has modernized and empowered Customer Success, Account Management, and Customer Marketing teams to proactively engage with customers in an on-going and automated way to work towards their business outcomes. ChurnZero is dedicated to helping their ever-growing customer base fight churn.

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About ChurnZero
ChurnZero helps subscription businesses fight customer churn. Its software solutions allow businesses to understand how their customers use their product, asses their health and their likelihood to renew, and give businesses the means to personalize the customer experience through timely and relevant touchpoints. ChurnZero is headquartered in Arlington, VA and is backed by leading angles and venture capital firms such as Baird Capital, Grotech Ventures and Middleland Capital. For more information, visit churnzero.net.

About Baird Capital
Baird Capital makes venture capital, growth equity and private equity investments in strategically targeted sectors around the world. Having invested in more than 300 companies over its history, Baird Capital partners with entrepreneurs and, leveraging its executive networks, strives to build exceptional companies. Baird Capital provides operational support to its portfolio companies through teams on the ground in the United States, Europe and Asia, a proactive portfolio operations team and a deep network of relationships, which together strive to deliver enhanced shareholder value. Baird Capital is the direct private investment arm of Robert W. Baird & Co. Incorporated. For more information, please visit BairdCapital.com.

AXA XL teams up with Contguard to launch Connected Cargo

AXA XL Risk Consulting, in partnership with Contguard, today announced the launch of “Connected Cargo”, a real-time digital cargo tracking solution designed to help French companies optimise their supply chain.

Contguard specialises in Big Data and uses Artificial Intelligence to develop applications and services for companies that need to secure their goods in transit. The company uses data from sensors placed on containers, such as geolocation, temperature and humidity fluctuations, door opening or shock.

Through this partnership, clients will benefit from 24/7 monitoring and the expertise of AXA XL’s risk engineers in order to implement prevention plans.

Maxime Ambourg, Director, Offer & Innovation at AXA Matrix*, now part of AXA XL, comments: “Connected Cargo brings together some of the best tracking and datamining technologies and the experience of our specialised risk engineers. Working with Contguard allows us to augment our consultants’ expertise and to provide more precise and impactful prevention services for the risks associated with transportation and logistics.”

AXA Venture Partners, AXA’s venture capital fund dedicated to technology, invested in Contguard in 2018.

Sébastien Loubry, Partner, Global Head of Business Development at AXA Venture Partners, explains: “We are delighted that Contguard, one of our investments, established a partnership with AXA XL. We are convinced that the technology they developed, which brings a real difference to that market, will provide a lot of value to their clients.”

Follow AXA XL on Twitter and on LinkedIn.

¹AXA XL is a division of AXA Group providing products and services through four business groups: AXA XL Insurance, AXA XL Reinsurance, AXA XL Art & Lifestyle and AXA XL Risk Consulting.

New owners to build on growth achieved under CCI

Ireland – Carlyle Cardinal Ireland has announced that Payzone, one of Ireland’s largest providers of payment solutions, is to be acquired by a newly-formed joint venture established by AIB Group plc (AIB) and First Data Corporation. The joint venture will acquire a majority stake in Payzone from existing shareholders, including Carlyle Cardinal Ireland Fund (CCI), for an enterprise value of up to €100 million.

CCI, the private equity fund established by The Carlyle Group (NASDAQ: CG) and Cardinal Capital Group, acquired a majority shareholding in Payzone in March 2015 and the company has grown strongly during the four years of CCI ownership. CCI worked closely with the management team to diversify the business and develop the company into a multichannel payments provider, employing 90 people. 

Today Payzone’s technology solutions allow both large and small Irish businesses to accept payments in store, on the road, over the phone, and through a website or app. The company processes 125 million transactions annually for 100+ client companies and operates Ireland’s largest retail payments network with 11,500+ points of sale throughout the country.

The change in ownership will have no impact on the day-to-day business operations of Payzone in Ireland. The senior management team, including Jim Deignan, CEO and Nigel Bell, CFO, will remain in their roles. 

Jim Deignan, Chief Executive, Payzone Ireland, said: “This development is a positive step for Payzone and a vote of confidence in the future of the business. We see significant opportunity to grow our footprint in the fintech sector and this can only be enhanced further with the backing and support of our new shareholders, who bring deep industry expertise to make things happen. The team at Carlyle Cardinal Ireland, which originally invested in Payzone in 2015, has worked very successfully with us to help develop the business and to support our continued growth. We thank them for their great support and investment over that period.”

Peter Garvey, Managing Director, The Carlyle Group, said: “Working with the fantastic management team at Payzone, CCI’s investment in innovation and new product development has helped to accelerate the growth of the business and to transform it into one of Ireland’s most successful multi-channel payment solutions platforms. Net revenue and EBITDA have grown by 40% and 70% respectively, since we invested. Payzone still has numerous opportunities for further growth, which can now be realised with the support of the new investors. This is the fund’s third exit and once again demonstrates the benefits of active, growth-focused private equity investment for ambitious Irish businesses.”

Daragh Lane, Cardinal Capital Group said: “At CCI we believe in helping management teams grow the companies we invest in. When CCI acquired a majority shareholding in Payzone four years ago it processed 61 million transactions a year, delivering a gross transaction value of €1 billion to its customers. Today it processes 125 million transactions a year delivering in excess of €2 billion of value to its customers and is a well-established Irish fintech organisation that drives significant innovations across many traditionally cash-based markets.”

CCI representatives Peter Garvey and Robert Easton of The Carlyle Group and Daragh Lane of Cardinal Capital Group will step down from the Payzone Board on completion of the transaction, which is subject to approval from the European and Irish competition authorities.

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Press Contacts:

Cardinal Capital Group
Tom McEnaney, McEnaney Media
Tel: +353 87 2222 666 tom@tommcenaney.com

The Carlyle Group
Laurie Mannix, MKC Communications
Tel. +353 1 703 8620 Mob: 086 814 3710 laurie@mkc.ie

Payzone
Frans van Cauwelaert, WHPR
Tel: +353 87 947 6743 frans.vancauwelaert@ogilvy.com

About Payzone

In Ireland, Payzone is the largest consumer payments network in the country with over 7,500 retail agents which process a variety of electronic transaction services, including mobile phone top ups, debit/credit card transactions; M50 motorway toll payments; Leap travel cards, local property tax payments, parking fees, schools and clubs payment platform, pre-paid utility and parcel collection services.

The company employs over 90 people based in its Sandyford head office in Dublin.

Payzone’s focus is on delivering leading edge payment services that drive greater efficiency for clients and increased revenues for its retail partners.

As industry leader, Payzone’s technology credentials, capabilities and expertise are a particular strength of the business.    

Visit www.payzone.ie

About Carlyle Cardinal Ireland

Carlyle Cardinal Ireland is a joint venture between The Carlyle Group (NASDAQ: CG) and Cardinal Capital Group.  The €292 million private equity fund is focused on growth capital and buyout investment opportunities across the island of Ireland.

About Cardinal Capital Group

Cardinal Capital Group is Ireland’s leading provider of alternative capital, directing private-equity capital, mezzanine finance and alternative lending to a broad range of sectors in the Irish market.  Cardinal invests its own capital alongside institutional funders to support entrepreneurs and corporate management teams as well as real-estate investors and developers.

Web: www.cardinalcapitalgroup.com

About The Carlyle Group

The Carlyle Group (NASDAQ: CG) is a global investment firm with $216 billion of assets under management across 343 investment vehicles as of December 31, 2018.  Carlyle’s purpose is to invest wisely and create value on behalf of its investors, many of whom are public pensions.  Carlyle invests across four segments – Corporate Private Equity, Real Assets, Global Credit and Investment Solutions – in Africa, Asia, Australia, Europe, the Middle East, North America and South America.  Carlyle has expertise in various industries, including: aerospace, defense & government services, consumer & retail, energy, financial services, healthcare, industrial, real estate, technology & business services, telecommunications & media and transportation.  The Carlyle Group employs more than 1,650 people in 31 offices across six continents

Web: www.carlyle.com
Videos: www.youtube.com/onecarlyle
Tweets: www.twitter.com/onecarlyle
Podcasts: www.carlyle.com/about-carlyle/market- commentary