Tag Archives: Information technology

Axon ICT I Fund is fully divested in seven years

Axon

14th march. Axon Partners Group successfully exited the last company in the portfolio of its ICT I Fund, marking the conclusion of the fund’s lifecycle.The fund achieved a strong overall annual return of 65% and a multiple of 3.5 times on invested capital. This performance positions Axon’s ICT I in the top quartile of the 2011 vintage funds in Europe. Companies such as Wuaki, Nice People at Work or Akamon were part of the portfolio and proved to be great examples of Spanish start-up success stories, each achieving exit valuations of over € 20m.

ICT I was primarily focused on investing in seed and early stage companies within the digital sector in Spain. A remarkably low average holding period of 3.4 years allowed the Fund to be fully divested in under 7 years. On top of that, the Fund had an unusual write-off ratio of 0%.

Both the low holding period and the 0% write-off ratio highly differ from what is normally observed in the early stage VC industry and are a clear proof of the current opportunity and maturity of the European VC market.

“When looking at the overall VC industry, it is usual to observe that the average loss ratio of early-stage funds stands at around 40-50%, and that holding periods are typically longer. Axon’s performance clearly breaks this stereotype. Through our Fund-of-Funds strategy, we have gained a deep insight into the European VC market, and we definitely see that the overall performance is improving. ICT I is certainly a top quartile performer not only at European, but also at global level” said Francisco Velázquez, President of Axon Partners Group.

“At Axon, we have a very rigorous selection process and deep level of involvement with our portfolio companies. This allows us to support and accelerate their growth while being able to detect and correct any deviation from the business plan. Our investment philosophy is not focused on the search for “unicorns”, but for companies backed by strong teams and disruptive, non-capital intensive business models”, remarked Alfonso de León, CEO of Axon Partners Group.

Axon Partners Group is an Alternative Asset Manager, with more than 12 years of track record investing in the technological sector. Currently, the firm has more than € 250m AUM across 3 funds in Europe, one in Latin America and another in India. In 2018, Axon launched Aurora Fund-of-Funds, which is the first FoF with an exclusive focus on the Pan-European tech opportunity.

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MOBILEXPENSE strengthens international footprint by acquiring the Swedish market leader in travel expense management

Fortino Capital

MobileXpense, the Brussels-based company that provides worldwide mobile solutions for travel expense management, is making its first strategic acquisition in taking over eBuilder Travel, the travel and expense management market leader in Sweden. This further strengthens MobileXpense’s position as a key international software supplier. In 2017, Fortino Capital Partners invested 20 million euros in the company’s commercial growth and the development of new mobile services.

Pieter Geeraerts, CEO, clarifies MobileXpense’s ambition: “MobileXpense has shown substantial and consistent growth in recent years. This acquisition allows us to further heighten our position in the international market where we have become a leading European player able to challenge the world’s largest software suppliers. We want to maintain this pioneering position and develop solutions that are able to follow the most complex processes of large multinational corporate and governmental organizations.”

MobileXpense was founded in 2000 as one of the first European Software-as-a-Service (Saas) companies. It specializes in software applications for travel and expense management and offers complete automation of the entire process from planning and booking, to reimbursement and accounting. MobileXpense has become a front-row service provider for multinationals in Europe, the UK, the US, Latin America and China.

This success is due to the solution’s user-friendliness, flexible integration with existing Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) and payroll solutions, and particularly its compliance with local tax regulations and procedures in more than 70 countries. MobileXpense currently has 1.2 million users worldwide, spread over 100+ countries and almost 300 corporate customers including blue-chip companies such as Canon, UCB, DB Schenker or Panalpina but also the Belgian National Bank and the Dutch government.

In 2018, Pieter Geeraerts joined MobileXpense as its new CEO, bringing along his strong track record in growing software companies. Today, MobileXpense reaches another important milestone with the acquisition of eBuilder Travel, a strong player in travel and expense management in the Nordics. With this acquisition, MobileXpense obtains a solid set of large customers in Sweden and Finland backed by a strong team of local experts and aims to further expand its activities in the Nordics and strengthen its international offering.

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Servelec announces sale of Servelec Technologies to Laurel Solutions

Montagu

London | 14 March 2019

Servelec confirms the sale of its subsidiary Servelec Technologies, a market-leading provider of remote monitoring systems, secure SCADA systems, and business optimization software, to Laurel Solutions, a holding company which works with leading businesses to grow the smart use and development of industrial technology.

Servelec
Servelec, a leading software provider to the NHS and local government for over 20 years, will now focus on the healthcare, social care and children’s services markets. With a strategy to support the provision of Digital Care, Servelec’s software helps NHS trusts to deliver against the NHS 10 year plan for digital maturity and supports local authority social work, youth services and education practitioners in accessing the right information at the right time to deliver improved outcomes.

Neville Davis, Chairman of Servelec commented; “We are pleased to confirm the sale of Servelec Technologies. The company has a strong strategy in place to further develop the business and we wish David Frost, Managing Director of Servelec Technologies, and the team every success for the future.

“Servelec is now wholly focussed on our core public sector markets of NHS and local government. As these markets continue to integrate and share data to deliver improved care, we are working very closely with our customers to provide what they need for a joined-up future. Digital Care is at the heart of what we do; we are certain that this will enable the sectors we address to provide higher quality service in a more cost-effective manner.”

Servelec Technologies
“Servelec Technologies is a leading, global provider of connected remote monitoring and control solutions, helping clients and industries to realise their digital futures. The business is a leader in the UK and other water and wastewater markets, and a major player internationally in sectors including energy, transport and infrastructure. This investment further builds out our leading portfolio in remote asset monitoring and control.” said Martin Carter, CEO of Laurel Solutions. “We are excited to partner with Servelec Technologies’ highly talented management team, and plan significant investment in innovative products and solutions that will enhance their already outstanding offering.”

“We’re thrilled to have the backing of Laurel Solutions as we start a new chapter as a standalone business,” said David Frost, Managing Director at Servelec Technologies. “They bring not only the technical knowledge, but the business operations experience and capital resources that will be instrumental in our success and future growth.”

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CXA Group Raises US$25 Million to Accelerate Expansion Across Asia-Pacific

Heritas

New investors HSBC, Singtel Innov8, Telkom Indonesia MDI Ventures, Sumitomo Corporation Equity Asia, Muang Thai Fuchsia Ventures, Humanica, Heritas Venture Fund and others join CXA’s latest financing round

This strategic capital will accelerate CXA’s growth momentum in the Asia-Pacific region and reinforce the company’s mission of improving the health and wellness of individuals through its employer-driven population health platform

CXA Group, Asia’s one-stop, predictive and data intelligence platform for better health, wealth and wellness choices, announced today that it has raised US$25 million in its latest round of funding. CXA’s new group of strategic investors include HSBC, Singtel Innov8, Telkom Indonesia MDI Ventures, Sumitomo Corporation Equity Asia, Muang Thai Fuchsia Ventures, Humanica and Heritas Venture Fund, underscoring the company’s aim to be the leading health ecosystem platform addressing escalating healthcare costs across the region.

The investment by these leading global financial services institutions, telecommunications providers and payroll companies reflect their belief in CXA’s long-term growth opportunity, and the company’s unique ability to shift healthcare spend from treatment to prevention, without employers spending more.

Rosaline Chow Koo, Founder and Chief Executive Officer, CXA Group said: “We are honoured to welcome these top-tier corporations into our roster of strategic investors and partners. CXA is today the leading health ecosystem platform that enables individuals across Asia to make better choices for healthier living, starting from the workplace, thereby empowering a shift in spend from treatment to prevention. We have seen overwhelming interest from global strategic investors who are excited to work with us to advance our business and vision.”

“These latest investors will become strategic partners, and we will look to closely collaborate in designing customised platform-led solutions for their B2B enterprise customers, and as importantly, the employees of these enterprises,” said Koo.

With chronic diseases hitting people in Asia earlier than in the West and healthcare costs escalating1, the company found that the antiquated pen-and-paper, one-size-fits-all approach to managing these costs was systemically wrong. This situation, if left unaddressed, would only get worse and become economically unsustainable over time.

The company has pioneered a one-stop, self-service platform that allows employers to give their employees access to an ever-widening range of health, wealth and wellness offerings, personalised based on the individual’s health and life-stage data. Employees can purchase offerings by drawing down on existing insurance policies provided by their employers and using funds that are then released into the platform’s eWallet to make transactions cashless, fast and easy.

Through the aggregation, anonymisation and analysis of digitised health and life-stage data, CXA helps employers get to the root cause of their workforces’ health issues and design specific interventions – such as corporate wellness and disease management initiatives – that will have the greatest impact on cost and health improvement, for reductions in tomorrow’s chronic disease and healthcare spend, today.

Headquartered in Singapore, CXA achieved revenue growth of 65 percent in 2018 and is expected to double that in 2019. This latest funding round follows US$33 million in total funding from Series A and B in 2015 and 2017 respectively. Other investors in CXA include B Capital Group, Openspace Ventures, Government-linked strategic investor EDBI, BioVeda Capital, FengHe Asia, Philips and RGAx.

Supporting Quotes from New Investors:

Edgar Hardless, Chief Executive Officer of Singtel Innov8 said, “CXA’s innovative use of analytics helps its enterprise clients effectively manage their healthcare costs and promote their employees’ wellbeing. We are excited to be an investor in CXA and help with their expansion across Asia.”

“CXA is rapidly emerging as a leader in the Health and Insurtech space. It has an innovative platform-led approach to helping companies optimise their health spend through personalised engagement with employees about their physical and financial wellness. We are excited about this investment partnership and the disruptive opportunities it presents,” said Bryce Johns, Group Head of Insurance, HSBC.

“Heritas invests in high-growth companies that are tackling major healthcare challenges faced by Asian populations,” said Chik Wai Chiew, Executive Director and CEO, Heritas Capital Management. “We are pleased to support CXA in this financing round to scale its employer-driven population health platform, as the company continues to pioneer solutions that connect the whole healthcare continuum and shift employers’ healthcare spend from treatment to prevention.”

Supporting Quotes from Previous Investors:

“Strategic investment in CXA from HSBC, Singtel Innov8 and others reinforces our belief in technology enablement and value creation from high-growth companies partnering with larger organisations and transforming in collaborative fashion. With the collective support of banks, insurers, telcos and payroll companies as co-investors, CXA can now accelerate its expansion into new markets and bancassurance channels, while creating new revenue opportunities for these partners’ businesses,” said Eduardo Saverin, Co-Founder and Partner, B Capital Group, the lead investor in CXA’s previous Series B funding round.

About CXA Group:

CXA Group is Asia’s one-stop, predictive and data intelligence platform for better health, wealth and wellness choices. Through the CXA platform, employers can empower employees with access to personalised health and lifestyle offerings, with clear and quantifiable ROI for the business. Founded in 2013 with the mission of transforming the delivery of employee benefits from pen-and-paper and one-size-fits-all to a digitised and personalised platform, the company aims to shift healthcare spend from treatment to prevention, to improve workplace population health.

Driven by a team of industry veterans with extensive leadership experience across Asia’s human resource, insurance, finance, healthcare and technology industries, CXA serves more than 600 enterprises, including Fortune 500 companies, and more than 400,000 employees in 20 countries. CXA has received recognition as InsurTech of the Year from the Asia Insurance Industry Awards and was among the top three most impactful innovations at the Singapore Digital Techblazer Awards.

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New brand launches next generation payment solutions

ik-investment-partners

The well-known Nordic brands OpenSolution (Sw), KDR (No) and Finnpos (Fi) have joined forces under the new brand OPEN. “We wanted a brand that reflects our value proposition – delivering innovative and customized payment solutions, helping our customers to plan, perform and grow their businesses,” says CEO Mikael Hedlöf.

OPEN covers the entire value chain of payment solutions, making it a single point of contact for >13,000 customers throughout the Nordics and Baltics with 18,000 systems installed. In conjunction with the rebranding, OPEN will also launch the next generation of Point of Sale (POS) solutions to restaurants, convenience stores and the cruise ship segment.

“We know that an innovative payment solution can increase a company’s revenue by up to 30% as well as improve employee wellbeing in the workplace. With this in mind, we reinvented our POS experience to better suit the fast-paced business environment. We are proud to say that OPEN’s system is the market’s most complete cash register system with everything from hardware, payment solutions, reporting tools, integrations and support,” commented Mikael Hedlöf, CEO of OPEN.

Restaurant chain ‘The Barn’ is one of the clients who has tested OPEN’s new POS system.

“Having tested OPEN’s new POS offering, we are thoroughly impressed by its functionality and innovative features.  Our collaboration with OPEN helps us grow as a company,” said Marcus Martinsson, CEO at The Barn.

For more information, please contact:
Mikael Hedlöf, CEO
mikael.hedlof@openpos.tech
+46 (0)70-283 76 28

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Semantix acquires translation provider Teknotrans

Segula

Through the acquisition of Teknotrans AB, Semantix continues its acquisition drive, strengthening its offering in the global market and consolidating its position as the Nordic language technology leader.

– Teknotrans’ business structure and customer base offer us great opportunities to strengthen Semantix’ offering in the global market. They also have a long history of delivering high-quality translations with a strong footprint in the automotive and industrial sector, which makes the acquisition interesting for us. The acquisition further consolidates Semantix’ role as the Nordic leader in language technology and multilingual services, says Patrik Attemark, Group CEO of Semantix.

Teknotrans was founded in 1971 and has offices in Gothenburg, Sweden, and in Split, Croatia. The company is fully owned by CEO, Christian Hammer.

– The acquisition comes at a perfect time for us to give Teknotrans a platform for continued growth, ensuring our customers access to broader and more complete language technology offerings, which is something Semantix will enable, says Christian Hammer, CEO of Teknotrans.

 

For more information please contact:
Patrik Attemark, Group CEO, patrik.attemark@semantix.se, +46 8 506 225 50

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CycloMedia Acquires Floating Point FX to Fuel US and International Growth

Volpi Capital

Acquisition Strengthens CycloMedia’s US Presence, Enhances Data Analytics Capabilities

Zaltbommel, Netherlands: 7 March 2019 – CycloMedia, the leading provider of accurate geospatial imagery-data and data analytics, announced today that it has acquired Floating Point FX, a 3D geospatial modelling company based in Madison, Wisconsin.

Floating Point FX (FPFX) provides powerful data visualisation and analytic platforms as a service within multiple geospatial industries. Utilising mobile LiDAR and imaging techniques, Floating Point FX produces highly detailed 3D visualisations of street-level environments. The company has been successfully delivering highly accurate data analytics solutions within the transportation, utilities & communications and public works markets. Increasingly, these workflow-enhancing solutions have been derived from CycloMedia’s highly accurate 3D imagery and LiDAR data.

Together, CycloMedia and Floating Point FX provide a wide range of imagery data analytics services, including LiDAR scanning, 3D modeling and 3D real-time scene capture, offering organisations complete solutions for their visualisation, design and analysis needs.

The acquisition allows CycloMedia to rapidly grow its presence in North America and to provide highly accurate data sets and street-level imagery across a wide variety of government and commercial markets. The deal will also enable future expansion into additional customer markets globally.

CycloMedia and Floating Point FX’s customers will benefit from the combined offering, which seamlessly delivers an accurate digital representation of the outside world to allow them to assess, analyse and measure physical infrastructures remotely.

“This is a strategic acquisition for CycloMedia that strengthens our team, builds our resources and expands our offering to accelerate our growth. Bolstering our US presence is an essential part of CycloMedia’s growth strategy worldwide,” said Joe Astroth, CEO US of CycloMedia.

“As the external world becomes increasingly complex, the integration of our two companies’ data and data analytics capabilities will help us meet our joint customers’ growing demand for a highly accurate, real-time digital representation of their environments. As part of this acquisition, we are exploring options to also introduce Floating Point’s technology in Europe.” said Frank Pauli, CEO of CycloMedia.

The deal follows significant equity investment in CycloMedia in August 2018 by Volpi Capital, a specialist European lower mid-market private equity firm. The Floating Point FX acquisition is part of CycloMedia’s data analytics investment strategy announced last year.

Crevan O’Grady from Volpi Capital added: “This is a landmark deal for CycloMedia. The addition of Floating Point FX gives CycloMedia an excellent platform in North America from which to capture the significant market opportunities, whilst also building upon its US success to date. This is also a proof of concept for the international buy and build strategy that Volpi and CycloMedia’s management have jointly set out in order to expand and grow the business over the medium term.”

Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed.

About CycloMedia

Founded in 1980, CycloMedia is the leading international provider of data and software solutions visualising the outside world accurately on-screen. CycloMedia’s customers derive actionable insights from the geodata platform to power day-to-day decisions remotely and with more accuracy, delivering exceptional ROI. CycloMedia focuses its solutions on tax assessment, asset management, public safety, construction & engineering, utility & transportation and insurance & real estate. CycloMedia employs 200 people and is based in Zaltbommel, the Netherlands, with operations in the US, Germany, and Scandinavia. For more information, please visit www.cyclomedia.com.

About Volpi Capital

Volpi Capital is a specialist European lower mid-market private equity firm. Volpi has a thesis-driven approach targeting ambitious businesses using enabling technologies to disrupt traditional B2B value chains. Volpi typically invests €25-75 million of equity in businesses with enterprise values between €50 million and €200 million and seeks to drive trans-formative growth through international expansion and consolidation. The firm, which was founded in 2016 by Crevan O’Grady and Marco Sodi, closed its first fund (Volpi Capital Fund I) in April 2018 with commitments of €185 million.

http://www.volpicapital.com

For all media enquiries, please contact:

Instinctif Partners

Ross Gillam/Justine Crestois

+44 20 7457 2020

volpi@instinctif.com

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Bluebee receives Health Data Hosting (HDS) accreditation

Rijswijk, The Netherlands: 6 March 2019 – Bluebee, a global bioinformatics solutions provider, has been awarded the HDS:2018 certification for its Information Security Management System (ISMS). The Hébergeurs de Données de Santé or Health Data Hosting (HDS) accreditation is required for entities hosting personal health data governed by French laws. The British Standards Institution (BSI) conducted the audit and confirmed Bluebee’s compliance with all requirements and controls defined by the French Agency, Agence des Systèmes d’Information Partagés de Santé (ASIP).

Bluebee’s ISMS governs HDS outsourcer host activities, including development, management, support and maintenance of cloud infrastructure and cloud-based information systems that process large volumes of omics and health data. The achievement of this accreditation reaffirms Bluebee’s continued commitment to providing the most secure and reliable data management solutions to clinical laboratories, diagnostic assay manufacturers and population genomics initiatives.

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ARI Announces Strategic Growth Investment from TA Associates

TA associates

MILWAUKEE – ARI Network Services, Inc. (“ARI”), a provider of software and marketing solutions to dealers, equipment manufacturers and distributors in select vertical markets, today announced it has received a strategic growth investment from TA Associates, a leading global growth private equity firm.

True Wind Capital, a San Francisco-based private equity firm that completed a take-private transaction of ARI in August 2017, will remain the largest shareholder in the company. Financial terms of the transaction were not disclosed.

Founded in 1981, ARI provides lead-generation, e-commerce, digital marketing, electronic catalog and dealer management solutions to dealers in end markets such as power sports, outdoor power equipment, marine, recreational vehicle, tire and wheel, aftermarket auto service, appliances and home medical equipment. The company’s suite of products are mission critical in helping dealers drive sales and manage operations. ARI has offices throughout the United States and around the globe.

“We are thrilled to complete an investment in ARI and help build upon the company’s outstanding record of supporting dealerships’ end-to-end technology needs,” said Ashutosh Agrawal, a Managing Director at TA Associates who will join the ARI Board of Directors. “We are confident that ARI is well positioned to continue to grow organically and through strategic add-on acquisitions, and look forward to contributing additional resources to support the ongoing momentum of the company.”

“ARI was built on the basis that manufacturers, distributors, dealers and service providers deserve premier solutions to automate and enhance their businesses,” said Roy W. Olivier, President and Chief Executive Officer of ARI. “In keeping with our roots, we believe it is critical to have value-add partners in place who are aligned with and supportive of our mission and goals. With True Wind retaining a significant stake in the business and TA Associates coming on board as a new partner, we feel fortunate to have two highly regarded investors at our side as we seek to continuously innovate and improve our suite of data-powered technology tools to enable our customers to drive sales. It is a pleasure to welcome TA to the ARI family.”

“We have thoroughly enjoyed our relationship with the entire ARI team since we successfully took the company private 18 months ago,” said Adam Clammer, a Founding Partner of True Wind Capital. “We are delighted to continue our relationship with ARI and are eager to begin working collaboratively with TA to help the company in its next phase of growth.”

In addition to Ashutosh Agrawal, Nicholas D. Leppla, a Vice President at TA Associates, will join the ARI Network Services Board of Directors.

About ARI Network Services
ARI Network Services, Inc. (ARI) offers an award-winning suite of SaaS, software tools and marketing services to help dealers, equipment manufacturers and distributors in selected vertical markets Sell More Stuff!™ – online and in-store. Our innovative products are powered by a proprietary data repository of enriched original equipment and aftermarket electronic content spanning more than 17 million active part and accessory SKUs and 750,000 equipment models. Business is complicated, but we believe our customers’ technology tools don’t have to be. We remove the complexity of selling and servicing new and used vehicle inventory, parts, garments and accessories (PG&A) for customers in the automotive tire and wheel aftermarket, power sports, outdoor power equipment, marine, home medical equipment, recreational vehicles and appliance industries. More than 23,500 equipment dealers, 195 distributors and 3,360 brands worldwide leverage our web and eCatalog platforms to Sell More Stuff!™ For more information on ARI, visit arinet.com.

About TA Associates
TA Associates is one of the largest and most experienced global growth private equity firms. Focused on five target industries – technology, healthcare, financial services, consumer and business services – TA invests in profitable, growing companies with opportunities for sustained growth, and has invested in more than 500 companies around the world. Investing as either a majority or minority investor, TA employs a long-term approach, utilizing its strategic resources to help management teams build lasting value in growth companies. TA has raised $24 billion in capital since its founding in 1968 and is committing to new investments at the pace of $2 billion per year. The firm’s more than 85 investment professionals are based in Boston, Menlo Park, London, Mumbai and Hong Kong. More information about TA Associates can be found at www.ta.com.

About True Wind Capital
True Wind Capital is a San Francisco-based private equity firm focused on investing in leading technology companies. True Wind is a value-added partner, providing support and expertise that is rooted in 75+ years of collective investing experience. True Wind’s founding partners have successfully invested more than $15 billion of equity in transactions with over $75 billion of value across a variety of industries, geographies, economic cycles and transaction types. True Wind targets investments in which they partner directly with management teams to support their pursuit of market leadership and its investment professionals have completed more than 50 platform investments. Visit www.truewindcapital.com for more information.

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KnowBe4 to Receive Significant Investment from KKR

KKR

Leading Security Awareness Training Platform Valued at More than $800 Million
 

TAMPA BAY, Fla., March 1, 2019 /PRNewswire/ — KnowBe4, the provider of the world’s largest security awareness training and simulated phishing platform, today announced that it has entered into an agreement to receive a sizable minority investment from leading global investment firm KKR, with participation from Ten Eleven Ventures.  The investment, which values the company at over $800 million, comes off the back of an exceptional 2018 for KnowBe4, which reached $120 million of bookings and revenue growth of 110 percent.

“KKR is an important strategic partner for KnowBe4 as we continue to grow worldwide and bring new-school security awareness training to new markets,” said Stu Sjouwerman, CEO of KnowBe4. “We have had 23 straight quarters of explosive growth and there is no slowing down. All organizations need to invest in the human side of their security defenses and there is no better way to build their capabilities than to continually train and test them on the constantly evolving threats that they will be exposed to.”

According to the 2018 Verizon Data Breach Report, phishing and pretexting represent 98 percent of social incidents and 93 percent of breaches. KnowBe4 helps organizations reduce their risk of an attack by educating users to recognize, report and avoid threats. KnowBe4’s market-leading approach to security awareness training and simulated phishing tests is designed to help employees make smarter security decisions. By building a ‘human firewall’ of users, KnowBe4 customers have an added line of defense on top of security technologies that cannot protect organizations by themselves. KnowBe4 continually produces fresh content, combined with simulated phishing tests, to continually educate users about threats such as phishing, malware and social engineering. KnowBe4’s platform is used by more than 23,000 organizations across a variety of industries, including highly regulated fields such as finance, healthcare, energy, government and insurance.

“We’ve seen global spending on cyber security solutions grow to $48 billion, yet despite this investment, breaches, and the severity of these breaches, continue to be on the rise – over 90 percent of which involve inadvertent human error. We believe employees represent an organization’s first and last line of defense. That is exactly why we are so excited to be investing in KnowBe4, the leading cyber security solution that goes beyond the infrastructure and prioritizes empowering employees to make smarter security decisions,” said Stephen Shanley, Director at KKR.

“We are thrilled to be working with a world-class management team who has consistently over-delivered and with the company’s existing investors, Elephant and Goldman Sachs, who have done a great job positioning the business for scale,” added Patrick Devine, Principal at KKR.

KKR will be making its investment through its Next Generation Technology Fund, which focuses on investments in software, security, Internet, digital media, and information services. KnowBe4 expects to use the funds to strengthen the company’s international expansion and to further invest in adding to their suite of highly innovative security training modules.

“Cyber security training that helps every employee do his or her part to defend against attacks, especially as related to preventing the sophisticated spear phishing attacks we’re currently seeing, is more critical than ever. For the multitude of companies grappling with how to educate their workforce on how to best identify and protect against persistent threats, KnowBe4 offers an effective solution that results in dramatic risk reduction and ROI,” said Mark Hatfield, Founder and General Partner at Ten Eleven Ventures.

About KnowBe4
KnowBe4, the provider of the world’s largest integrated security awareness training and simulated phishing platform, is used by more than 23,000 organizations worldwide. Founded by data and IT security expert Stu Sjouwerman, KnowBe4 helps organizations address the human element of security by raising awareness of ransomware, CEO fraud and other social engineering tactics through a new-school approach to security awareness training. Kevin Mitnick, internationally recognized computer security expert and KnowBe4’s Chief Hacking Officer, helped design KnowBe4’s training based on his well-documented social engineering tactics. Tens of thousands of organizations worldwide trust KnowBe4 to mobilize their employees as their last line of defense.

Number 96 on the 2018 Inc. 500 list, #34 on 2018 Deloitte’s Technology Fast 500 and #2 in Cybersecurity Ventures Cybersecurity 500. KnowBe4 is headquartered in Tampa Bay, Florida with European offices in England, the Netherlands, Germany and offices in South Africa and Singapore.

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 @KKRCo.

About Ten Eleven Ventures
Ten Eleven Ventures is the original venture capital firm focused solely on investing in digital security. The firm invests globally and benefits from its full investment spectrum view of digital security from seed to growth (via its Joint Investment Alliance with KKR Technology Group.) Since its founding in 2015, Ten Eleven Ventures has raised nearly $500m and invested in over fifteen leading cybersecurity companies including Cylance, DarkTrace, Optiv, Ping Identity, Twistlock, and Verodin. For more information, visit http://www.1011vc.com.

Contacts

For KnowBe4:
Sarah Hawley
(480) 292 4640
sarah@mockingbirdcomms.com

For KKR:
Kristi Huller or Cara Major
(212) 750 8300
media@kkr.com

For Ten Eleven Ventures:
Megan Dubofsky
mdubofsky@1011vc.com

 

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