Tag Archives: Software

Quality Guard strengthens its European position with the acquisition of Kooklin.

GIMV

Roeselare, 2 June 2026 – Quality Guard announces the acquisition of French software company Kooklin, a leading provider of digital solutions for food safety and HACCP management. With this acquisition, Quality Guard accelerates its international growth strategy and reinforces its position as one of Europe’s leading players in the food safety sector.

Kooklin is one of the leading players in the French market and benefits from a strong and loyal customer base across the country. Through this acquisition, Quality Guard strengthens its presence in France, one of Europe’s largest foodservice and hospitality markets. The transaction forms part of the company’s broader growth strategy, in which targeted acquisitions complement and accelerate the company’s strong organic growth. It is the second acquisition since investment company Gimv joined Quality Guard as a strategic partner in November 2025.

Quality Guard develops software that digitalises and automates food safety, allergen management, traceability and HACCP processes for more than 9,000 customers across Europe. Its clients include hospitality businesses, supermarkets, bakeries, butcher shops, catering companies, food producers, healthcare institutions and hospitals. By combining intelligent automation with human expertise, the company helps organisations efficiently comply with increasingly stringent European food safety and compliance regulations.

“With Kooklin, we are taking an important step in our European growth strategy,”says Achile Van Gierdegom, CEO of Quality Guard.“France is a key market for us. We share the same vision as Kooklin: making food safety simpler, more efficient and scalable through technology. Together, we will be able to support customers even better in a sector that is rapidly digitising.”

The European market for food compliance and food safety software is growing strongly due to stricter regulations, increasing complexity and the need for digital monitoring. A large part of the sector still relies on paper-based processes. As a result, demand for automated solutions continues to grow structurally.

The acquisition aligns with the shared ambition of Quality Guard and Gimv to further grow into the European market leader in food safety software. In line with this vision, the company intends to continue consolidating a fragmented European market and to develop additional technological innovations.

Categories: News

Tags:

Rightsline announces $500 million strategic growth investment from Hg to accelerate AI innovation and global expansion

No Comments
HG Capital

Los Angeles, CA – May 27, 2026: Rightsline, a leading provider of rights and royalties management software for IP-intensive industries, today announced a $500 million strategic growth investment from Hg, a leading investor in transatlantic technology businesses.

Klass Capital, Rightsline’s majority owner since 2020, Salem Partners, and the broader management team will invest meaningfully alongside Hg, reflecting their continued confidence in the business.

The global proliferation of streaming platforms, cross-border content licensing, and IP-intensive business models has created a growing operational challenge for rights holders, who need to track who owns what, where, and ensure the right parties get paid. Rightsline provides the software that major studios, publishers, consumer brands, and life sciences firms use to manage that complexity at scale.

Originally established as a leader in media and entertainment rights management, Rightsline now operates across eight IP-intensive verticals and serves more than 300 of the largest organisations worldwide, across media and entertainment, publishing, consumer products, life sciences, technology, gaming, music and franchising. The company offers a truly unified rights and royalties platform, with a single system spanning rights management, royalty calculation, financials, and accounting, delivering audit-grade outputs. The platform processes more than $40 billion of royalties annually and manages over 150 million IP assets across 28 countries.

 

2025 was a year of record growth for Rightsline across bookings, revenue and retention, reflecting the mission-critical role the platform plays in its customers’ day-to-day operations. This momentum continued into 2026 with another record quarter in Q1.

The company has already launched a suite of AI-powered products for its customers, including an AI contract ingestion assistant that automates extraction of key terms from complex legal agreements, and a natural-language rights and availabilities assistant that enables users to interrogate their rights libraries in plain English.

Hg’s investment will accelerate Rightsline’s product and AI roadmap and support the company’s international expansion, drawing on Hg’s transatlantic network and its team of more than 100 AI specialists. This includes Hg Catalyst, its dedicated AI product incubator, which has supported the launch of more than 30 AI products across its portfolio to date.

Patrick Arkeveld, CEO of Rightsline, said: “The IP landscape has become increasingly complex, with more platforms, territories, and contractual complexity than ever. That creates a clear opportunity for us to innovate on behalf of our customers and make their lives meaningfully easier, but more crucially to drive better business outcomes. Farouk and the Hg team are the ideal partner to help us deliver on that ambition, combining deep AI and operational expertise to accelerate our product roadmap and a transatlantic network to support our expansion into new geographies and verticals. We’re also grateful for the continued support of Daniel and Klass Capital, whose reinvestment reflects the shared conviction we all have in what lies ahead.”

Farouk Hussein, Partner at Hg, said: “Patrick, Daniel, and the Rightsline team have built something genuinely exceptional. Rightsline provides a truly unified rights and royalties platform, bolstered by proprietary calculation engines, data, and algorithms, enriched with decades of domain experience. The company boasts an impressive roster of blue-chip customers and a consistent track record of sustained growth and retention that speaks to how deeply embedded the product is in its customers’ legal, sales, finance and operations workflows. Rightsline is incredibly well-positioned to expands its presence across its core verticals with this growth investment, and we’re excited to work hand-in-hand with management and our Hg Catalyst team to build the next generation of agentic AI products for IP lifecycle management.”

Daniel Klass, Founder of Klass Capital, said: “Patrick and the team have built Rightsline into a clear global leader in rights and royalties software. When we set out to find our next partner, we wanted a firm that shares our growth ambitions and has the operational depth – particularly in AI and international scaling – to help take the company to the next level. Hg was the clear choice, and our decision to reinvest meaningfully alongside them reflects our strong conviction that the best chapter for Rightsline is still ahead.”

Donna Laing, Vice President, Royalty Accounting & Rights Data Management, Scholastic, said: “In publishing, royalties vary by channel, format, territory and more, and simply knowing what we have the right to sell in each market can be incredibly complex. Keeping track of all that, and making sure the right people get paid accurately, is a real operational challenge. Rightsline handles that complexity for us and, as the publishing world continues to grow more complex, we’re excited to see Hg’s investment accelerate what’s already an industry-leading platform.”

As part of the investment, Farouk Hussein and Annie Wei from Hg will join the Rightsline board alongside Daniel Klass and Patrick Arkeveld. Ron Kasner will join as independent Chair given his multi-decade experience in scaling technology companies.

Categories: News

Tags:

Oakley Capital invests in enterprise software platform XTEL

BainCapital

LONDON – May 26, 2026: Oakley Capital, a leading mid-market, pan-European private equity investor, is pleased to announce it is acquiring a majority stake in XTEL, a leading provider of revenue management and trade promotion software for consumer packaged goods companies, from existing shareholders Bain Capital and SilverTree Equity.

XTEL’s software platform enables consumer packaged goods companies, including food, beverage and household brands, to plan, manage and optimise the trade promotions they run with retailers. The platform analyses large amounts of sales, pricing, customer and financial data to help businesses manage and optimise promotions in order to improve
profitability and drive revenue growth.

The Company serves more than 400 global mega-brands, including Unilever, PepsiCo and Johnson & Johnson, and supports over €350 billion in annual trade spend.

XTEL operates in an $11 billion CPG software market underpinned by structural tailwinds, including sustained pressure on CPG margins, retailer consolidation, improved access to consumer data, and growing omni-channel complexity. At the same time, rapid adoption of AI and data-driven decision-making is accelerating demand for best-in-class platforms such as XTEL.

XTEL’s software brings together large amounts of complex sales and commercial data into one system that customers rely on as a core system of record. Combined with the Company’s deep industry expertise, this creates a highly embedded and mission-critical solution. AI is expected to further enhance the platform’s capabilities, enabling customers to make faster and better decisions using the data already managed within XTEL.

XTEL has consistently generated strong, profitable growth including ARR growth of c.40% CAGR over the last three years. Oakley Capital will leverage its extensive track record of supporting European software businesses to drive growth through international expansion and M&A. This investment will support XTEL in accelerating its presence in key growth markets such as Latin America and Asia-Pacific, while also expanding into adjacent geographies, brands and product categories, and further strengthening its AI tech stack, sales capabilities and go-to-market strategy.

XTEL will continue to be led by Rob Mullen, a highly experienced enterprise software CEO who has transitioned XTEL to a system-of-records SaaS platform, while successfully pursuing organic and M&A growth.

Oakley Capital co-Founder and Managing Partner Peter Dubens said: “XTEL’s software is trusted by the world’s leading consumer brands to power essential workflows, while its deep expertise in complex data underpins its role as a critical system of record. We believe the Company is well-positioned to harness AI to enhance its product offering and further strengthen its market position. We look forward to working with CEO Rob Mullen to support the next stage of XTEL’s growth.”

Bain Capital’s Giovanni Camera, Alberto De Antoni and Paolo Vismara said: “From the outset of our investment in Kantar, we identified XTEL as a high-potential software business with the ability to become a focused, independent leader in its market. Since then, we have supported the Company’s carve-out and invested behind its growth, and it has been exciting to see XTEL evolve into a leading high growth global software platform for revenue growth management in the CPG industry. We are proud of what Rob and the entire XTEL team have achieved, and confident the business is well placed to continue its growth journey with Oakley Capital.”

SilverTree Equity Partners John Messamore and Nicholas Theuerkauf, added: “We are proud to have backed XTEL through its separation from Kantar. In the past four years XTEL has tripled its ARR and has been transformed into the leading independent AI-enabled revenue growth management platform serving global CPG companies. It has been a pleasure working with Rob and the team and we are delighted to be remaining invested to support XTEL’s next phase of growth.”

XTEL CEO Rob Mullen said: “I’m very pleased to welcome Oakley Capital as our new investor after a successful partnership with Bain Capital and SilverTree Equity.  Their combined expertise in building European technology champions is highly relevant for XTEL as we look to accelerate our growth by expanding into new regions, products and industry verticals.”

Evercore served as exclusive financial advisor to XTEL, Bain Capital and SilverTree Equity.

ENDS

About Oakley Capital 
Founded over 20 years ago, Oakley Capital was established to be the partner of choice for exceptional founders and entrepreneurs. We invest in private, pan-European businesses with enterprise values ranging from €100 million to over €1 billion. Our team comprises more than 250 professionals across our offices in London, Munich, Milan, Madrid, and Luxembourg, providing genuine European reach combined with deep local expertise and cultural insight. Through our differentiated origination capabilities, we uncover attractive investment opportunities across four core sectors: Technology, Consumer, Education, and Business Services. We prioritise long-term, repeat partnerships with outstanding founders, many of whom choose to reinvest in our funds. To date, we have raised nine funds, including Fund VI, which closed at its €4.5 billion hard cap in 2025. Across the Group, Oakley manages in excess of c.€16 billion on behalf of our investors, generating consistently strong returns for all our stakeholders. www.oakleycapital.com

About Bain Capital
Founded in 1984, Bain Capital is one of the world’s leading private investment firms. We create lasting impact for our investors, teams, businesses, and the communities in which we live. As a private partnership, we lead with conviction and a collaborative culture that enables us to innovate, unlock opportunity, and deliver strong outcomes. Our global platform invests across Private Equity, Growth & Venture, Capital Solutions, Credit & Capital Markets, and Real Assets. Across these focus areas, we bring deep sector expertise and broad capabilities. We have 24 offices on four continents, more than 1,850 employees, and approximately $225 billion in assets under management. To learn more, visit www.baincapital.com. Follow @BainCapital on LinkedIn and X.

About SilverTree Equity
SilverTree Equity is a private equity firm, with ~$1bn AUM, focused on control buyouts of middle market software and tech-enabled services companies run by an experienced team of investment and operating professionals with backgrounds at leading global private equity firms including Hg Capital, Marlin Equity Partners and Advent International. SilverTree has completed 30 transactions since late 2019. For more information, please visit www.silvertree-equity.com.

Categories: News

Tags:

Sociabble joins forces with Poppulo to accelerate the future of employee experience

Ardian

Ardian, a global private investment firm, announces that its portfolio company Sociabble will join Poppulo, a Vista Equity Partners backed global leader in software for employee experience and digital signage, with a presence in Europe and the US. Trusted by large global enterprises, it serves more than 10,000 customers reaching over 50 million employees worldwide, supported by communications and digital signage software that powers more than 600,000 screens, globally.

During its partnership with Ardian, Sociabble has confirmed itself as a leading employee communication and engagement SaaS platform, recognized for its strong product innovation and customer proximity. Its solution combines intranet, mobile-first frontline communication, knowledge management, employee engagement, advocacy, and advanced AI-powered capabilities, enabling organizations to better connect and engage their workforce.

The combination with Poppulo creates significant opportunities for Sociabble to accelerate its growth. Together, Sociabble and Poppulo will help organizations reach, inform, engage, and activate more than 50 million employees worldwide through a broader, AI-powered Employee Experience platform. This operation will also give Sociabble more visibility and more resources to continue investing in the areas that have always been central to its DNA: innovation, AI, customer success, enterprise-grade security, and measurable business value.

“This new chapter for Sociabble is a strong recognition of the excellence of our team and the quality of our platform. I would like to sincerely thank Ardian for their unwavering support and for consistently demonstrating a true entrepreneurial mindset alongside us throughout our growth journey. Their partnership has fully met our expectations, and their guidance and commitment have been instrumental in making this transaction a success.” Jean-Louis Benard, CEO, Sociabble

“I would like to thank Jean-Louis for the trust he has placed in Ardian, and to congratulate him and his team on this exceptional journey. It has been a true pleasure working alongside such an ambitious and talented team. Our collaboration is a strong illustration of Ardian’s commitment to supporting management teams in their development projects, helping transform European category champions into global leaders. I wish Sociabble and Poppulo continued success in this exciting new chapter. ” Geoffroy de la Grandière, Managing Director, Ardian

List of participants

  • Ardian

    • Growth investment team: Geoffroy de la Grandière, Léa Wolff, Michelle Stitz

  • Poppulo

    • Management: Ruth Fornell, Alejandro Wyszkowski, Caroline Daly, Nick Reising
    • Corporate lawyers: Vinson & Elkins (Tim Johnston, Hannah Thai, Milam Newby, Katie Holmes)
    • M&A advisor: District Capital Partners (Caitlin Currier, Steven Grillo, Tom Manning, Andy Wang)
    • French legal counsel: Archers (Moïra Boublil, Emily Pabot du Chatelard, Louise Martin, Aurélien Franco)

  • Sociabble

    • Management: Jean-Louis Benard, Laurent Gauthier, Christophe Berly
    • Corporate lawyers: Bird & Bird (Flavie Malval Le Roux, David Malcoiffe, Alban Pontari)
    • M&A advisor: AGC Partners (Sean Tucker, Fred Joseph, Duncan MacGillivray, Killian Campion)

About Ardian

In a world of constant evolution, Ardian stands out for its ability to anticipate, adapt, and turn challenges into opportunities. As a global, diversified private markets firm with 22 offices and more than 350 investment professionals worldwide, we provide investment and customized solutions that reflect new economic dynamics and help our clients remain resilient in a changing world.
We deliver multi-local expertise and long-term performance for our investors and partners as well as shared value for the broader society. Since Ardian’s inception in 1996, our pioneering approach to diversification and our ability to offer tailor-made solutions at scale have remained the heart of our strategy.
Through commitment, knowledge and technology, we bring lasting value to our companies and contribute positively to the whole industry.
Ardian currently manages or advises $200bn for more than 1,920 clients worldwide across Private Equity, Real Assets, and Credit.
Ardian. Mastering change for lasting value.

ardian.com

About Poppulo

Poppulo is a global leader in AI-powered employee experience and enterprise digital signage, helping organizations connect with their workforce and customers through intelligent, real-time messaging across every channel. The first company in its category to deploy agentic AI—and the first to achieve ISO/IEC 42001 certification, the world’s benchmark for secure, trustworthy AI—Poppulo has defined what it means to bring enterprise-grade artificial intelligence to communications.
Trusted by over 10,000 organizations—including more than 40 of the Fortune 100—Poppulo’s solutions reach more than 50 million employees worldwide. Its digital signage network spans over 600,000 screens globally. By combining certified agentic AI with scalable communications technology, Poppulo helps enterprises boost employee engagement, enhance customer experience, and improve operational efficiency.

poppulo.com

About Sociabble

Founded in 2014, Sociabble is a French SaaS company specialized in Employee Experience. Its unified platform helps organizations inform, engage, and mobilize their employees through a digital experience combining internal communication, modern intranet, knowledge management, employee engagement, and employee advocacy, with AI at the heart of its use cases. With an international presence and teams in Paris, Lyon, Boston, and Mumbai, Sociabble supports major organizations such as AXA, Coca-Cola Europacific Partners, and Primark.

sociabble.com

Press contacts

Ardian

HEADLAND

ardian@headlandconsultancy.com 

POPPULO

tvaughan@poppulo.com 

SOCIABBLE

Barbara Marzari Wibaux

barbara.marzani@sociabble.com 

Categories: News

Tags:

Ennov Announces Strategic Growth Investment from Bregal Sagemount and Ardian

No Comments
Ardian

Ennov (the “Company”), a global provider of end-to-end regulatory, quality, and clinical software solutions for life sciences and healthcare companies, today announced a strategic growth investment led by Bregal Sagemount (“Sagemount”), a leading growth-focused private equity firm, with participation from Ardian, a global private investment firm. The investment will support the Company’s continued expansion, with a focus on AI innovation, global go-to-market acceleration, and scaling its product offering.

Founded and headquartered in Paris, Ennov provides a unified compliance platform that serves as a centralized system of record for global life sciences organizations. The platform supports the management of content and data across key domains, including Regulatory, Quality, Commercial, Clinical, and Pharmacovigilance. Its integrated architecture and unified data model enable faster deployment, improved user adoption, consistent compliance, and AI-driven efficiency across global operations.

Developed over more than 25 years, Ennov’s software replaces fragmented point solutions and legacy infrastructure, enabling customers to manage complex regulatory requirements across global authorities such as the FDA and EMA within a single system. Today, the Company serves approximately 650 customers and over 500,000 users across 30 countries.

“We were looking for partners who understand the complexity of our customers’ environments and the opportunity ahead for integrated and AI-enabled software in life sciences. Sagemount and Ardian bring that perspective, and we look forward to continuing to build innovative solutions that support our customers’ most critical processes.” Olivier Pâris, Founder and CEO of Ennov

“Regulatory and quality workflows in life sciences are becoming increasingly complex, while the cost of managing them across disconnected systems continues to rise. Olivier and his team have spent more than two decades building a mission-critical solution that enables customers to not only manage but optimize their processes to achieve better business outcomes. We believe this opportunity is only accelerating with Ennov’s new AI products and we’re excited to support the Company in its next phase of growth.” Gene Yoon, Managing Partners at Sagemount

“Ennov represents exactly the kind of technology company we seek to support at Ardian Growth. We are excited to join forces with Bregal Sagemount, bringing together two leading US and European investment firms behind an exceptional management team. With its strong international footprint and rapidly expanding AI capabilities, Ennov is uniquely positioned to shape the future of regulatory, quality, and clinical software in life sciences worldwide.” Alexis Saada, Head of Growth at Ardian

With this growth investment, Gene Yoon, Curt Witte, and Harrison Brunelli from Sagemount and Alexis Saada from Ardian will be joining Ennov’s board of directors.

Ennov was advised by Veil Jourde. Sagemount was advised by Goodwin Procter LLP. Ardian was advised by Proskauer Rose LLP.

The transaction is expected to close in late Q2 2026, subject to regulatory approvals and customary closing conditions.

Ardian investment team: Alexis Saada, Olivier Roy, Alexandra Da Silva, Michelle Stitz

 

ABOUT ENNOV

Ennov provides a comprehensive software platform to manage the most demanding processes of life sciences organizations in a compliant and efficient way. With over 25 years of experience, Ennov’s cloud-based solutions cover Regulatory Affairs, Pharmacovigilance, Quality, Clinical, and Commercial. Dedicated to innovation and excellence, Ennov’s solutions are used by more than 650 companies and 500,000 users worldwide, helping them to bring their products to market faster while maintaining compliance with regulatory requirements. For more information, visit en.ennov.com or follow us on LinkedIn.

ennov.com

ABOUT BREGAL SAGEMOUNT

Bregal Sagemount is a leading growth-focused private capital firm with $11 billion of cumulative capital raised. The firm provides flexible capital and strategic assistance to market-leading companies in high-growth sectors across a wide variety of transaction situations. Bregal Sagemount has invested in over 90 companies in a variety of sectors, including software, data & information services, financial technology & services, digital infrastructure, healthcare IT, and business & consumer services. The firm has offices in New York and Palo Alto. For more information, visit www.sagemount.com or follow us on LinkedIn.

sagemount.com

ABOUT ARDIAN

In a world of constant evolution, Ardian stands out for its ability to anticipate, adapt, and turn challenges into opportunities. As a global, diversified private markets firm with 22 offices and more than 350 investment professionals worldwide, we provide investment and customized solutions that reflect new economic dynamics and help our clients remain resilient in a changing world.
We deliver multi-local expertise and long-term performance for our investors and partners as well as shared value for the broader society. Since Ardian’s inception in 1996, our pioneering approach to diversification and our ability to offer tailor-made solutions at scale have remained the heart of our strategy.
Through commitment, knowledge and technology, we bring lasting value to our companies and contribute positively to the whole industry.
Ardian currently manages or advises $200bn for more than 1,920 clients worldwide across Private Equity, Real Assets, and Credit.
Ardian. Mastering change for lasting value.

ardian.com

Media contacts

Chief Sales and Marketing Officer at Ennov

Laure Bros

lbros@ennov.com 

Marketing & Communications Manager at Bregal Sagemount

Siqi Wu

siqi.wu@bregal.com 

ARDIAN

HEADLAND

ardian@headlandconsultancy.com 

Categories: News

Tags:

La Caisse partners with Novisto to help organizations prepare for their sustainability transition

LaCaisse

Novisto, a leading corporate sustainability management platform, and La Caisse, a global investment group, announce the conclusion of an agreement and an investment by La Caisse in Novisto. This transaction aims to accelerate the company’s growth and strengthen organizations’ access to technological solutions that facilitate the management of sustainability-related information within the context of the transition to a low-carbon economy.

Over the past few years, Novisto has established itself as a key player in its sector by helping companies better manage the quality, traceability, and comparability of sustainability data amid rapidly evolving global disclosure requirements.

La Caisse’s entry into Novisto’s capital occurs during a phase of strong international growth and is based on a shared vision: data technologies are essential for integrating climate and extra-financial issues into business and investment practices. This collaboration will support the continued evolution of Novisto’s platform and its offerings.

The transaction aligns with La Caisse’s 2025‑2030 climate strategy, which focuses on supporting companies through the energy transition. Several of La Caisse’s portfolio companies—including CAE, Boralex et Couche‑Tard—already utilize the Novisto platform.

“Our commitment to Novisto, a Québec-based company with a strong presence both locally and abroad, reflects our desire to support companies offering concrete solutions to the major challenges of our time and to turn them into champions of their sector. By helping organizations better structure their sustainability data, Novisto contributes to accelerating the transition to a greener economy. This investment also enhances our portfolio while fostering greater synergies and the sharing of expertise,” said Kim Thomassin, Executive Vice-President and Head of Québec, La Caisse.

This partnership comes at a time when companies face increasing pressure from regulations, such as the European CSRD and climate disclosure laws in California. Novisto has become a benchmark solution for organizations that view sustainability not merely as a compliance exercise, but as a central element of corporate governance.

“The management and reporting of sustainability data have become a pillar of corporate resilience,” said Charles Assaf, CEO and co-founder of Novisto. “La Caisse is a global leader in sustainable investment, and this partnership confirms Novisto’s role in the transition. Together, we provide the world’s largest organizations with the auditable data necessary to move from climate commitments to verifiable climate action.”

ABOUT LA CAISSE

For more than 60 years, La Caisse has invested with a dual mandate: generate optimal long-term returns for its 48 depositors, who represent over six million Quebecers, while contributing to Québec’s economic development.

As a global investment group, La Caisse is active in major financial markets, private equity, infrastructure, real estate and private credit. As at December 31, 2025, its net assets totalled CAD 517 billion. Learn more at lacaisse.com, LinkedIn and Instagram.

La Caisse is a registered trademark of Caisse de dépôt et placement du Québec that is protected in Canada and other jurisdictions and licensed for use by its subsidiaries.

ABOUT NOVISTO

Novisto is the enterprise system of intelligence for sustainability management. By integrating ESG, carbon, and risk data into a single, audit-ready architecture, Novisto provides global organizations with the transparency required for modern regulatory environments. The platform serves a premier list of Global 2000 companies including Sanofi, Alimentation Couche‑Tard (Circle K), and Synopsys. Across 12+ critical industry segments—from Finance and Energy to Mining and Deep Tech—Novisto powers the ESG excellence of the world’s most complex enterprises. To learn more visit www.novisto.com, LinkedIn.

– 30 –

For more information

Categories: News

Tags:

SDB Groep partners with buchner, entering the DACH-region with its comprehensive suite of innovative healthcare and childcare software solutions

Main Capital Partners

SDB Groep (“SDB”) today announces its strategic combination with buchner to further expand its presence across European healthcare and childcare software markets.

Supported by Main Capital Partners, the partnership marks SDB’s entry into the German market and represents the company’s second step in its international expansion strategy following last year’s acquisition of Nordics-based Alfa eCare.

By bringing together complementary solutions within an integrated best-of-suite platform, SDB and buchner aim to deliver enhanced value to healthcare providers in the DACH region and further increase satisfaction across its customer bases.

SDB is a Dutch provider of software for healthcare and childcare organizations, serving segments including elderly care, disability care, mental health, rehabilitation, youth care, childcare, and independent treatment centers across the Netherlands and the Nordics. SDB’s offering combines core electronic medical and health record solutions (EMR/EHR) with a wide suite of secondary (AI-enabled) applications such as workforce planning, HR, payroll, learning, digital health, and analytics. Main has been a strategic partner to SDB since 2018.

buchner is a German provider of software solutions for healthcare professionals, with a strong footprint in therapeutic and ambulatory care, serving a customer base of over 8,000 healthcare institutions. buchner helps therapists in digitizing key processes in their practice management. buchner’s software solutions thereby help improve efficiency and decrease the complexity of managing therapists’ day-to-day operations. Key functionalities include patient and prescription management, invoicing, BI, calendar and workforce management.

The combination of SDB and buchner brings together two highly complementary platforms, creating a prominent player in the Dutch, Nordic and German healthcare and childcare markets. By combining their product portfolios, both companies will unlock significant cross-sell opportunities and further enhance their integrated offering. For SDB, the transaction represents a key milestone in its international growth strategy. Following the acquisition of Alfa eCare in the Nordics, buchner marks SDB’s second international acquisition and its entry into the German healthcare software market.

With the acquisition of buchner, we achieve a new milestone in SDB’s pan-European growth ambitions: entering the German healthcare market.”

– Sjoerd Aarts, Managing Partner at Main and Supervisory Board member at SDB

Sjoerd Aarts, Managing Partner at Main and Supervisory Board member at SDB: ”With the acquisition of buchner, we achieve a new milestone in SDB’s pan-European growth ambitions: entering the German healthcare market. We see strong opportunities for SDB to further expand its presence across German healthcare and childcare software segments with its differentiated suite of best-of-breed solutions. We look forward to supporting the combined group to further build its position as an innovative healthcare solutions provider across Western-European care and cure markets.”

Vincent van Staalduinen, COO of SDB Groep: ”This partnership with buchner marks another major milestone in our strategy towards establishing the most innovative software supplier to healthcare and childcare institutions across Western-Europe. This acquisition will allow us to accelerate our strategic roadmap to expand into the German healthcare market.”

Ralf Buchner, CEO of buchner: “We are excited to be joining SDB as we continue our already 35-year journey as an innovative software provider to therapists across Germany. By joining SDB, we will establish additional size and scale, enabling further growth of our business in Germany and expanding further into the DACH-region.”

About SDB Groep

SDB Groep is a SaaS Software and Services company that develops innovative, user-friendly and fully integrated (AI-enabled) software solutions for healthcare and childcare. This is achieved by putting the customer and the employee at the center of the development of software designed to optimize work processes and minimize administrative burdens. Thanks to this approach, SDB Groep brings joy and effectiveness back to the professionals, giving them more time to do what they love: providing the best care. SDB is headquartered in the Netherlands with a dedicated team of c. 400 healthcare software professionals across the Netherlands, Sweden, Denmark, and Finland.

About buchner

buchner & Partner GmbH was founded in 1991 as a pure form mailing service for therapeutic practices by Ralf buchner in Kiel, Germany. buchner serves over 45,000 customers, which are comprised of healthcare therapists, physiotherapy-, ergotherapy-, logopedic practices and other cure providers. buchner’s software includes practice management functionalities like invoicing, patient documentation, calendars, and workforce management.

Categories: News

Tags:

Main Capital Partners expands into the US insurance software market with a majority investment in Agenium

No Comments
Main Capital Partners

Main Capital Partners announces a majority investment in Agenium, an insurance technology platform focused on digitizing and optimizing the end-to-end application, underwriting, and new business journey.

hrough configurable automation and embedded decision support, Agenium helps insurers speed up processing, strengthen risk evaluation, and lower operating complexity.

Headquartered in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, Agenium provides a cloud-based, no-code platform used by life, supplemental health, and annuity carriers, among others. The solution enables insurers to design and manage underwriting workflows in a flexible, scalable environment, supporting more consistent execution across the policy lifecycle.

The Company serves over 20 leading insurance carriers globally, representing over 50,000 active platform users. Agenium’s offering spans key underwriting functions, including digital application handling, case management tooling, and a reflexive decision engine. Designed to easily integrate with existing and legacy systems, the platform reduces manual touch points and creates compliant, maintainable processes.

In partnership with Main Capital Partners, Agenium will focus on scaling its commercial organization, accelerating customer acquisition, and further developing its platform through additional modules and integrations. In addition, Agenium will pursue a targeted buy-and-build strategy to broaden its product suite and further support insurance carriers across the insurance policy lifecycle. Supported by Main’s experience in international expansion, this partnership will help Agenium strengthen its position in North America and selectively expand into new geographies.

Agenium represents a compelling opportunity to invest in a high-growth, mission-critical software platform within the attractive insurance ecosystem.”

– Daan Visscher, Partner & Co-Head North America at Main

Daan Visscher, Partner & Co-Head North America at Main, said: “Agenium represents a compelling opportunity to invest in a high-growth, mission-critical software platform within the attractive insurance ecosystem. The company combines strong recurring revenues with deep customer relationships and clear expansion potential. We see significant opportunities to support growth by further professionalizing the go-to-market strategy and complementing the platform with targeted add-on acquisitions.”

Mike Risley, CEO of Agenium, added: “Main Capital Partners brings valuable experience in scaling software businesses like ours, and we’re excited to benefit from their strategic and operational support. This partnership enables us to further invest in our platform, enhance our product capabilities, and better serve both existing and new customers. We see strong demand for modern new business and underwriting solutions, and together we are well positioned to capitalize on that momentum.”

About Agenium

Agenium is an insurance technology platform focused on modernizing the insurance application and underwriting process. Its cloud-based, no-code solution enables insurers to streamline workflows, integrate data sources, and support more efficient and consistent underwriting decisions. Built on a scalable and flexible architecture, the platform integrates with carriers’ existing systems and supports the full new business and underwriting lifecycle across life, health, and annuity products. By automating key processes and reducing manual intervention, Agenium helps insurers improve processing speed, enhance operational efficiency, and bring new products to market more effectively.

Nothing contained in this Press Release is intended to project, predict, guarantee, or forecast the future performance of any investment. This Press Release is for information purposes only and is not investment advice or an offer to buy or sell any securities or to invest in any funds or other investment vehicles managed by Main Capital Partners or any other person.

Categories: News

Tags:

Partnering with Blitzy to Scale Autonomous Software Development for the Enterprise

Northzone

Engineering teams at the world’s largest companies are under mounting pressure to ship faster, modernise aging systems, and deliver more than their headcount allows. Development backlogs accumulate faster than teams can clear them. And the gap between what enterprises need to build and what their teams can realistically deliver keeps widening.

AI coding copilots and single-agent tools were meant to close that gap. But they help individual developers move faster at the margin — they can’t operate at the scale enterprise codebases demand. They lack the contextual understanding needed to reason across millions of lines of code, and they require constant human guidance. For enterprises, the bottleneck hasn’t moved.

Blitzy was built on the conviction that frontier models alone would never solve this problem. What’s required is something fundamentally different: a platform that builds a deep, persistent understanding of an enterprise codebase and orchestrates thousands of agents in parallel to execute development work autonomously — not just suggesting the next line, but completing months of development work end to end.

Blitzy’s platform autonomously builds a dynamic knowledge graph of the enterprise codebase and maintains a persistent understanding of the environment. Grounded in that knowledge graph, its orchestration layer coordinates thousands of agents in parallel across days to weeks of uninterrupted inference. The result is autonomous development of entire software projects, not just individual tasks.

Blitzy was founded by serial entrepreneur and former Army Ranger Brian Elliott and NVIDIA Master Inventor Sid Pardeshi, who holds 27+ patents related to neural networks, image generation, and AI-driven interface translation. Brian and Sid met while building and scaling advanced software systems at Harvard. Having more than doubled headcount in the past six months, they’ve assembled a world-class team and become the platform of choice for dozens of Global 2000 enterprises tackling their most demanding software development challenges.

As our Partner Sanjot Malhi puts it:

“Blitzy has created a truly paradigm-shifting product in one of the largest markets in the world: Autonomous AI Coding. They have meaningfully shifted outcomes for several Fortune 500 enterprises, and are well on their way to creating a category-defining platform. We are excited and privileged to partner with Brian and Sid in this journey.”

The next wave of enterprise software won’t be built by developers with better copilots. It will be built by platforms that can understand, reason across, and autonomously execute development work at the scale the world’s largest companies require. Blitzy is that platform — and we’re proud to lead their $200M growth round alongside new investors PSG, Battery Ventures, Jump Capital, Defiant, continued participation from existing investors including  Flybridge, Link Ventures, NFX, Picus Capital, and Venture Guides, and strategic investments from Liberty Mutual Strategic Ventures and BAL Ventures.

‍

Categories: News

Tags:

Axcel agrees to acquire Geomatikk from Hg with plans to accelerate European expansion

HG Capital

Geomatikk, a leading provider of tech-enabled services and software that help safeguard and manage critical underground infrastructure, today announced it has entered into an agreement to be acquired by Axcel, a leading private equity firm investing across Northern Europe.

Hg, a leading investor in European and transatlantic technology and services businesses, is the current majority owner and will fully exit its investment in Geomatikk upon completion of the transaction. Management as well as the Norwegian investment company KKA Invest will reinvest and remain shareholders alongside Axcel.

Founded in 2005 and headquartered in Norway, Geomatikk combines tech-enabled detection services and proprietary software to help prevent damage to underground infrastructure, including power cables, fibre networks and water pipes, during excavation and construction work. The company employs approximately 630 people and serves 13,000 asset owners, municipalities, and contractors each year across Norway, Sweden, Finland, Denmark and Spain.

Over the five years of ownership, Hg supported Geomatikk’s transformation from a regionally focused infrastructure protection services business into a pan-European critical infrastructure management platform. This was driven by Hg’s significant investment in the management team, nine strategic acquisitions to build out the company’s software offering, and continued improvements to operational efficiencies including increased AI automation.

Geir Hansen, CEO of Geomatikk, said: “Our partnership with Axcel marks an exciting new chapter for Geomatikk. We have built a strong technology platform for infrastructure protection across Europe, and Axcel’s deep regional expertise and track record of scaling businesses will be invaluable as we pursue further European expansion. I want to thank Hg for their partnership over the past five years. Their expertise has been instrumental in helping us reach this next phase of growth, particularly in building out our software offering and expanding across new geographies.”

Christoffer Müller, Partner at Axcel, said: “Geomatikk is a true Nordic pioneer in its industry, having built a strong and unique position within both infrastructure protection services and network information systems over the past two decades. We’re excited to partner with the management team and founders to continue developing a world-class services and software business, building on the strong progress under Hg’s ownership.”

David Issott and Rob Hallot at Hg, said: “It has been a privilege to partner with Geir and the Geomatikk team. Together, we have transformed the business from a regional services provider into a leading Pan-European platform tackling some of the most pressing infrastructure challenges. This was supported by some excellent hires into the management team, nine strategic acquisitions to build out the software offering, alongside significant operational improvements. The company is exceptionally well positioned for continued growth under Axcel’s ownership, and we wish the team every success.”

Terms of the transaction are not disclosed.

For further information, please contact:

Geomatikk

Geir Hansen, Group CEO geir.hansen@geomatikk.com
Siri Schmidt-Horix, CHRO, Siri.Schmidt-Horix@geomatikk.no
Geir Hansen, Group CEO

Axcel

Christoffer Müller, Partner, cm@axcel.com
Maria Fiorini Lorenzen, Head of Communications, mfl@axcel.com

Hg

Tom Eckersley, tom.eckersley@hgcapital.com
Sam Ferris, sam.ferris@hgcapital.com

About Geomatikk

Geomatikk Group is a leading Nordic technology and services company dedicated to protecting and managing critical underground infrastructure, ensuring undisrupted access to the critical infrastructure society depends on.

Operating across Norway, Sweden, Finland, Denmark, and Spain, with approximately 630 employees, Geomatikk connects infrastructure owners, contractors, and public authorities through advanced digital platforms and specialised field services.

Every day, essential networks for electricity, fibre, water, and gas are at risk of accidental damage during excavation. Geomatikk ensures these networks are accurately identified, mapped, and protected before digging begins, safeguarding critical societal functions and enabling safer, more efficient construction, maintenance, and development activities.

Geomatikk holds ISO certifications across quality, environment, health & safety, and information security, and is committed to science-based climate targets validated by the SBTi.For more information, visit geomatikk.com

About Hg

Hg is an investor in European and transatlantic technology and services businesses. We are an AI leader in private equity, helping to build sector-leading enterprises that supply critical applications or workflow services to deliver intelligent automation for their customers.

Categories: News

Tags: