Avenu Insights & Analytics Acquires Enterprise Content Management Firm
Centreville, Virginia – 13th May 2019 – Avenu Insights & Analytics, a Mill Point Capital portfolio company, has acquired the operations and assets of The Windward Group and GRIDS Information Technologies. With the Windward and GRIDS software, document digitization and storage capabilities, Avenu reinforces its commitment to supporting government customers with records management solutions. Over several decades, Louisiana-based Windward has built a business based on helping judicial systems and other organizations obtain, organize, store and deliver critical information. All the Windward operations, including the software for scanning, workflow, cloud file sharing and document management will become part of Avenu’s Records Solutions group. “The need for document creation, restoration, indexing and overall management continues to grow exponentially,” says Robert Rathe, Jr., owner of The Windward Group. “By joining Avenu we can add more capacity, skills and technology that clients will find valuable.”
https://www.avenuinsights.com/2019/05/13/avenu-insights-analytics-acquires-enterprise-content-management-firm/
Chinese AI start-up Megvii raises $750 million ahead of planned HK IPO
HONG KONG - Chinese artificial intelligence (AI) start up, Megvii Technology Ltd, (commonly known as Face++), has announced it has raised $750 million in its latest funding round. The funding has raised Megvii’s valuation to just over $4 billion as it prepares for its initial public offering (IPO) in Hong Kong, planned for later this year. According to sources close to the deal, Bank of China Group Investment (BOCGI) Ltd, the state bank’s private equity arm, led the fundraising with $200 million. Macquarie Group, ICBC Asset Management (Global) Co and a wholly-owned subsidiary of the Abu Dhabi Investment Authority, one of the world’s biggest sovereign wealth funds, also joined the new round, along with existing investor, Alibaba Group, Megvii said in a statement.
http://www.megvii.us/
KKR Completes Acquisition of MYOB
Sydney – 8th May 2019 - Global investment firm, KKR and Australian online business management company MYOB Group Limited, have announced the completion of the previously announced acquisition of MYOB by KKR. David Lang, Member at KKR, said, “MYOB is a true leader in the growing and innovative business solutions software segment. We are excited to partner with and support MYOB as it accelerates the company’s growth plans in Australia and New Zealand while also exploring the significant opportunities it has to offer its customers new products and solutions.” Tim Reed, CEO of MYOB, said, “The past year has been an eventful one for MYOB, in which we accelerated our investment in the MYOB Platform and fast-tracked its delivery to our customers. This rollout helped us to achieve even greater online subscriber growth and propelled us to a leading position in Australia and New Zealand’s online accounting market. Now, with KKR’s support and expertise, we are even better positioned for future growth. I am confident the business will continue to thrive well into the future and am excited to embark on MYOB’s next chapter.”
https://media.kkr.com/news-releases/news-release-details/kkr-completes-acquisition-myob
Zayo Announces Definitive Agreement to be Acquired by Digital Colony and EQT for $14.3 Billion
Boulder, Colorado – 8th May 2019 - Zayo Group Holdings, Inc, provider of mission-critical bandwidth to the world’s most impactful companies, has announced that it has signed a definitive merger agreement to be acquired by affiliates of Digital Colony Partners and the EQT Infrastructure IV fund. The transaction will mean Zayo transitioning from a public company to a private company. Under the new ownership, the Zayo team would continue to execute the Company’s strategy and remain headquartered in Boulder, Colorado. The agreement was unanimously approved by Zayo’s Board of Directors. Dan Caruso, Zayo’s Chairman and CEO, said, “Digital Colony and EQT share our vision that Zayo’s Fiber Fuels Global Innovation. Both are experienced global investors in the communications infrastructure space, and they appreciate our extraordinary fiber infrastructure assets, our highly talented team and our strong customer base. I am confident this partnership with EQT and Digital Colony will empower Zayo to accelerate its growth and strengthen its industry leadership.”
https://investors.zayo.com/news-and-events/press-releases/press-release-details/2019/Zayo-Announces-Definitive-Agreement-to-be-Acquired-by-Digital-Colony-and-EQT/default.aspx
Pendo buys British software firm, Receptive Software
Raleigh - 7th May 2019 - Tech start up, Pendo, has announced that it has acquired privateky held, British SaaS firm, Receptive Software, in a move intended to round out its own software platform. Pendo, which now employs around 225 people has acquired the Sheffield-based company for an undisclosed sum. Pendo’s cloud-based technology helps business customers improve their websites and products by providing behavioural analytics on what features their customers are using and which ones they’re ignoring. It also sends pop-up messages to software users notifying them of features they may not know about. In a statement, Todd Olson, co-founder and CEO of Pendo, said, “Receptive is a perfect complement to our vision and our company culture. By adding demand intelligence to the Pendo product cloud, product-led organizations will have a 360 degree view of the user, the account, and the revenue impact of product decisions. This is a game-changer for product teams.”
https://blog.pendo.io/2019/05/07/pendo-acquires-product-feedback-innovator-receptive/
Carta Raises $300 Million In Series E and Becomes San Francisco's Latest Unicorn
7th May 2019 - San Francisco-based equity management start up, Carta, has become the Bay Area's latest tech unicorn after it revealed that it had raised $300m in a Series E funding round, leading to a $1.7bn valuation. The seven-year-old company, whose platform aims to help organizations manage their cap tables, valuations, investments and equity plans, also announced that venture capital firm, Andreessen Horowitz led the funding round and that its co-founder, Marc Andreessen, is to join the Board. Carta, formally named eShares, was founded in 2012 by CEO Henry Ward with the aim of providing an electronic alternative to the paper securities that were previously given to investors and employees. It has since added several more equity management products for private, venture-backed companies such as cloud software tools for managing complex ownership stakes. Andreessen stated: "We believe Carta will change how Wall Street and the financial world operate by transforming private markets,". "Carta has created an extensive network of LPs, VCs and growing startups. That network effect is why I'm bullish on the future of this company – Carta is redefining business ownership as we know it."
https://carta.com/blog/seriese/
Square Acquires Conversational AI Start Up Eloquent Labs
San Francisco - 8th May 2019 - Square has acquired conversational artificial intelligence start up, Eloquent Labs, to help its merchants improve customer service. Eloquent Labs, which raised a $1.5 million seed round back in early 2017, offers a conversational assistant called Elle, who asisists merchants with common customer service-related issues such as returns, product tracking and FAQs. In a blog post, Square wrote: “Eloquent’s conversational AI services are exactly the kind of technology that can level the playing field for businesses of all sizes by providing sellers efficient ways to interact with their customers. The team will advance messaging across our entire ecosystem, and together we will build tools that leverage the latest in natural language processing research.”
https://squareup.com/us/en
Startup, VTS Raises $90M and Achieves Unicorn Status in Series D
New York – 8th May 2019 - VTS, a New York-based, commercial real estate (CRE) company which aims to “streamline leasing and asset management processes,” has raised a $90 million in a Series D funding round – believed to be the largest venture financing in the history of CRE software. It also takes the company to unicorn status, making it one of fewer than 24 unicorns in the “proptech” space. The seven-year-old company has raised a total of $187.4 million in its lifetime. According to the company’s press release, the fund raising round, led by Brookfield Ventures, is “believed to be the largest venture financing in the history of commercial real estate software”. The proceeds from the round will enable VTS to deepen its investment in its platform for leasing and asset management domestically and internationally, as well as accelerate the launch of the only end-to-end commercial real estate leasing marketplace – truva – which will be live later this year. Josh Raffaelli, Managing Director, Brookfield Ventures, who will also be joining VTS’ Board of Directors, said: “VTS’ market leading technology platform has transformed the way the industry operates, and we’re incredibly excited to partner with them in this new capacity,”
https://www.vts.com/news/vts-announces-90m-series-d-led-by-brookfield-ventures?_ga=2.74943570.1366380677.1557494097-654551184.1557494097
Zix Acquires the Assets of Email Security Provider DeliverySlip for $14 Million
Dallas – 8th May 2019-- Zix Corporation (Zix) a company specialising in email security, has acquired the assets of Cirius Messaging Inc. and wholly owned subsidiary, DeliverySlip Inc. related to the DeliverySlip product. DeliverySlip is a provider of email encryption, e-signatures and secure file sharing solutions. Total cash consideration for the transaction is $14 million, payable in various stages between closing and October 2020. The asset acquisition immediately improves the margin profie of the business by eliminating the third party royalty payable by AppRiver to DeliverySlip. In addition, it will add large file transfer capabilities to Zix’s email security suite, as well as additional customers, cost savings and cross-selling opportunities. Zix’s Chief Executive Officer, David Wagner, said: “In addition to the cost savings of eliminating third-party royalties for the DeliverySlip solutions, the acquisition will enable our partners and customers to move forward with one comprehensive suite of email security solutions that will be integrated over time. It further provides an opportunity to generate higher attach rates with the cross-sell of large file transfer and document signing solutions to Zix’s installed base. Not including potential cross-selling opportunities, we expect the transaction to add approximately $2 million of adjusted EBITDA in 2020.” http://investor.zixcorp.com/news-releases/news-release-details/zix-acquires-assets-email-security-provider-deliveryslip?field_nir_news_date_value[min]=2018
TPG Closes TPG Tech Adjacencies With More Than $1.5 Billion in Capital Commitments
San Francisco and Fort Worth, Texas – 6th May 2019 - TPG, a global alternative assets firm, has announced the closing of TPG Tech Adjacencies (TTAD), a new investment vehicle focused on capital solutions for the technology industry. TTAD aims to provide flexible capital for founders, employees, and early investors looking for liquidity, as well as primary structured equity solutions for companies looking for additional, creative capital for growth. The fund reached $1.6 billion in capital commitments, surpassing its hard cap of $1.5 billion. TTAD is led by David Trujillo, Managing Partner and Partner, Internet, Digital Media & Communications (IDMC), and Nehal Raj, Partner, Software & Enterprise Technology. “The firm has a history of building new, innovative products and strategies to address evolving market opportunities,” said Jon Winkelried, Co-CEO of TPG. “In developing TTAD, we’re combining our differentiated insight and sector expertise to bring a new capital solution to an emerging class of technology companies and entrepreneurs who are choosing to stay private longer. TTAD marks another step in the evolution of TPG’s platform as we continue to find differentiated ways to deliver value for our investors.”
https://press.tpg.com/news-releases/news-release-details/tpg-closes-tpg-tech-adjacencies-more-15-billion-capital
Lincoln Rackhouse and Principal Real Estate Investors Acquire Bytegrid’s Three-Market Portfolio of Data Center Facilities, Services and Operations
Dallas, TX – 7th May 2019 – Lincoln Rackhouse, the data center division of Lincoln Property Company, has announced that it has closed on its acquisition of Bytegrid, a compliant IT Infrastructure company, providing colocation, managed services and hosting solutions. The acquisition, in partnership with Principal Real Estate Investors, includes all Bytegrid assets: three data centers in the Washington D.C., Chicago and Seattle markets and the entirety of the company’s existing colocation, managed services, network and hosting business. This deal expands the Lincoln Rackhouse portfolio by 320,000 square feet and adds an additional 16MW of IT power load to achieve a total portfolio that spans 2.5 million square feet and well over 100MW across 16 locations in 14 strategic markets. Lincoln Rackhouse primarily serves as a real estate owner and property manager specializing in data centers. Ben Wobschall, Director of Acquisitions for Principal Real Estate Investors, said: “Together with the team at Lincoln Rackhouse, we’ve created a proven model of strategically acquiring premium-quality data center assets and securing leases with cloud and colocation operating partners.”
http://rackhouse.com/news/lincoln-rackhouse-and-principal-real-estate-investors-acquire-bytegrids-three-market-portfolio-of-data-center-facilities-services-and-operations
