LONDON, England — March 16 2021
LoyaltyLion, a leading loyalty and engagement platform for fast-growth ecommerce brands, today announced the closing of $12.5 million in Series A funding with an investment from Kennet Partners, an international growth equity firm whose portfolio includes high-growth companies in Europe and North America. This growth investment supports LoyaltyLion’s mission to help ecommerce brands build a better understanding of what will drive long lasting customer relationships and use those insights to create unique and rewarding loyalty programs.
This funding round takes place on the back of a number of years of significant growth for LoyaltyLion which it has achieved in a very capital efficient manner. In 2020, LoyaltyLion experienced triple digital revenue growth and doubled its headcount. With the new funding, LoyaltyLion plans to invest in growing its Development and Customer Success teams and further evolving its loyalty and engagement platform. This will give customers greater access to the loyalty expertise, features and integrations they need to build successful loyalty programs that connect and accelerate their ecommerce marketing efforts. They will also continue with global expansion plans and set up a physical office in North America.
As part of this investment for expansion, Michael Elias, managing director and founder of Kennet Partners, will join the LoyaltyLion board of directors.
About LoyaltyLion
LoyaltyLion is a data-driven loyalty and engagement platform, powering growth for thousands of ecommerce brands worldwide. LoyaltyLion helps merchants build a better understanding of what drives longer-lasting customer relationships and provides the platform needed to create a unique loyalty program that increases retention and spend. Founded in 2012, LoyaltyLion is headquartered in London. Learn more at https://loyaltylion.com/.
About Kennet Partners
Founded in 1997, Kennet Partners is a Silicon Valley and London-based growth equity investor with $900 million under management. Kennet focuses on partnering with bootstrapped and fast-growing SaaS and tech-enabled services businesses with a focus on predictive analytics and AI and has a track record of building global market leaders and achieving high-value exits. For more information, visit kennet.com.
Investors exit as Nuxeo secures half of Fortune 10 companies as customers
March 4, 2021: Kennet Partners Limited (“Kennet”), a leading European technology growth equity investor focused on bootstrapped and capital efficient companies, and Goldman Sachs Growth Equity ("Goldman Sachs"), a leading global growth equity investor, have entered into an agreement to sell co-owned portfolio company, Nuxeo, a content services platform and digital asset management (DAM) provider. Kennet and Goldman Sachs are expected to make a 5x return on their investment in Nuxeo.
Kennet and Goldman Sachs acquired Nuxeo in 2016. Nuxeo’s platform focuses on Digital Asset Management for companies with fast product life cycles such as media, fashion and consumer electronics, and Enterprise Content Management for financial institutions. Nuxeo has a range of global customers across its target sectors such as ABN-AMRO, Fox, Electronic Arts, CVS, and Siemens.
Over the last five years, Goldman Sachs and Kennet have worked to build Nuxeo’s world-class management team and to accelerate the company’s growth as it secured half of the Fortune 10 companies as customers. Goldman Sachs helped Nuxeo achieve broader market visibility and win several new key customers in financial services as well as other sectors. In support of Nuxeo’s CEO, Eric Barroca and CMO Chris McLaughlin, Kennet introduced the current CFO, James Colquhoun and Executive Chairman, Steve King.
Michael Elias, Managing Director, Kennet Partners, said:
“Nuxeo is a prime example of the type of company in which we seek to invest. When we first invested, it was clear that the business had solid foundations but lacked the resources and broader team to take it to the next level of growth. We were able to support Eric and the team to accelerate Nuxeo’s growth trajectory and are proud of what we have collectively achieved. We wish the company all the best as it moves to the next chapter in its exciting development.”
Christian Resch, Managing Director, Goldman Sachs Growth Equity, said:
“Back in 2016 we quickly recognized Nuxeo’s strong technology differentiation in the ever-evolving content management software space. Over the last five years we helped Nuxeo grow its organisation, software products and market presence and we are delighted with its performance. We wish Eric and his team all the best in continuing to further build Nuxeo’s unique platform.”
Eric Barroca, CEO, Nuxeo, said: “The offer from Hyland is a strong endorsement of the vision and market position we’ve achieved so far, particularly in recent years. Thanks to the support and investment by Goldman Sachs and Kennet we have been able to become a global leader in enterprise content services. We look forward to working with the team at Hyland.”
Media Enquiries
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Tali Robinson, Jessica Hodson Walker and Jamie Williams
KennetPartners@secnewgate.co.uk
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Notes to Editor:
About Kennet Partners
Kennet is a leading international growth equity firm that invests in high-growth companies in Europe and North America. The firm supports entrepreneurial technology businesses with expansion capital to accelerate growth and build exceptional shareholder value. Kennet is an experienced investor with approximately $1 billion of cumulative funds under management. For more information: www.kennet.com.
Kennet’s successful investment model focuses on bootstrapped companies which are often founder-managed and have previously received little external investment. Kennet provides knowledge, contacts and investment to SaaS companies where there is significant potential for growth. Other recent investments by Kennet include Onfleet, Grip, and Provar Testing.
Kennet Partners Limited is authorized and regulated in the United Kingdom by the Financial Conduct Authority.
About Goldman Sachs
Founded in 1869, The Goldman Sachs Group, Inc. is a leading global investment banking, securities and investment management firm. Goldman Sachs Asset Management is the primary center for the firm’s long-term principal investing activity. Goldman Sachs Asset Management is one of the leading private capital investors in the world with investments across private equity, infrastructure, private debt, growth equity and real estate.
About Nuxeo
Founded in 2000 and with offices in New York City, Paris, and London, Nuxeo offers a cloud-native, open-source, low-code platform with content services and DAM capabilities, among others.
LONDON, England — February 3, 2021
Provar, the leading test automation platform for Salesforce worldwide, today announced the closing of $17 million in Series A funding led with an investment from Kennet Partners, an international growth equity firm whose portfolio includes high-growth companies in Europe and North America. This growth investment supports Provar’s ongoing mission to help teams capitalize on their Salesforce investment with a robust and scalable solution designed to improve release agility, drive down system errors and advance innovation.
As part of this investment for expansion, Michael Elias, managing director and founder of Kennet Partners, will join the Provar board of directors. In addition, Bob DeSantis, a current board member with extensive experience steering high-growth companies within the Salesforce ecosystem, will now serve as the chairman.
“At Kennet, we focus on bootstrapped B2B SaaS companies with a strong and satisfied customer base,” said Michael Elias, managing director at Kennet Partners. “In addition to fitting this criteria, Provar has a culture of integrity and customer focus that makes them especially appealing to us. The demand for software-driven automation has increased dramatically as part of the broader digital transformation that is being accelerated by the Covid-19 pandemic and our funding will allow Provar to continue to scale and innovate.”
Companies are increasingly investing in their approach to customer relationship management globally and leaning heavily into platforms like Salesforce to make data-driven decisions, operationalize best practices, unite distributed teams and forge deeper connections with customers to help facilitate growth. This shift has rapidly accelerated the need for teams to build, test and deploy customized Salesforce enhancements and functionality exponentially faster while eliminating risk.
“Customers are hungry for a Salesforce-centric test automation solution that can create break-resistant tests, release after release, while also extending into integrated systems when needed,” said Geraint Waters, co-founder and chief executive officer at Provar. “Given the accelerated demand for Salesforce release deployments and the tools connected to them, traditional methods that require an excruciating amount of test maintenance just aren’t feasible anymore. That’s why Provar is designed to fill that gap using an intelligent metadata-driven model.”
Since launching Provar seven years ago, the company has organically grown its customer base worldwide and opened offices in the U.K., North America and India. With the new funding, Provar plans to invest further in its test automation platform, expand operations, scale the team globally and broaden the virtually limitless possibilities of Salesforce test automation.
Oct. 30, 2020 - Onfleet, the fastest-growing provider of last mile delivery management software, announced it has raised $14 million in Series A funding to meet surging customer demand. The round was led by Kennet Partners and will allow Onfleet to continue broadening its product offerings and expanding its global footprint.
This funding round takes place on the heels of massive momentum for Onfleet, which has sustained profitability for several years and has experienced triple-digit revenue growth year-over-year. The company added hundreds of new customers this year and has doubled its year-over-year overall delivery volume as COVID-19 has rapidly accelerated retail’s transition to online, delivery-centric models. Onfleet has powered more than 80 million deliveries in more than 90 countries for thousands of clients including Kroger, Sweetgreen, Drizly, Imperfect Foods, Alto Pharmacy, and Gap, among others. This investment round was oversubscribed, and brings Onfleet’s total funding raised to $20 million since inception.
“We are living in a time of never-before-seen global economic uncertainty, which has turned the need for fast, reliable delivery services from a luxury to a basic necessity,” said Khaled Naim, Co-Founder and CEO of Onfleet. “In a few short months, the importance of our work has become even more pronounced and we are doing everything that we can to help our clients quickly and efficiently deliver goods to their customers. We’re excited to partner with Kennet so we can double-down on our commitment to help companies adapt, evolve and scale in this challenging environment.”
Onfleet’s intuitive routing and dispatch platform enables real-time communications and proactive delivery management, guaranteeing fast, seamlessly executed deliveries, taking the hassle out of the delivery process and ensuring elated and loyal delivery recipients. Any industry that requires last mile delivery — from grocery stores, pharmacies and restaurants to beverage companies, retailers, ecommerce businesses and more — can leverage Onfleet to power more efficient deliveries to save valuable time, money and resources. Onfleet can scale with any company’s delivery operations, giving businesses of all sizes the confidence that the solution will grow with them as their operations expand.
“Online delivery is a long-term growth industry, and the COVID-19 pandemic has only accelerated its explosive adoption. In order to compete, brands will need to extend their customer relationship and service experience to the doorstep, which creates a large market need that Onfleet is well-positioned to solve,” said Javier Rojas, Managing Director at Kennet Partners. “Onfleet’s proficiency in building such a capital-efficient, product-led sales growth model, all while being self-funded, is no small feat. With this additional funding, we are confident Onfleet will continue to expand and scale rapidly to become a market-leading company.”
To learn more, please visit Onfleet.
About Onfleet
Onfleet is the fastest-growing provider of last mile delivery management software. The company powers hundreds of thousands of deliveries per day in more than 90 countries. Onfleet connects businesses, dispatchers and recipients in real time to simplify the last mile experience, resulting in increased operational efficiencies and consistent cost savings of 50% for customers. Launched in 2015, Onfleet is headquartered in San Francisco. Learn more at https://onfleet.com/.
About Kennet Partners
Founded in 1997, Kennet Partners is a Silicon Valley and London-based growth equity investor with $900 million under management. Kennet focuses on partnering with bootstrapped and fast-growing SaaS and tech-enabled services businesses with a focus on predictive analytics and AI and has a track record of building global market leaders and achieving high-value exits. For more information, visit kennet.com.
LOS ANGELES and LONDON, Oct. 2, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- BlackLine, Inc. (Nasdaq: BL), a leader in accounting automation software, announced today that it has completed the acquisition of Rimilia, an AI-powered cloud-based platform that enables accounts receivable (AR) automation and digital transformation. With Rimilia, BlackLine strengthens its position with the Office of the Controller by driving end-to-end automation of the cash lifecycle and ensuring greater data integrity. The acquisition expands BlackLine's capabilities into an adjacent area, adding AR automation to financial close automation and accelerating BlackLine's larger, long-term plan for transforming and modernizing Finance & Accounting.
Headquartered in the United Kingdom, Rimilia is a leading provider of accounts receivable automation solutions that enable organizations to control cash flow and cash collection in real time. Using artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning, the SaaS (Software-as-a-Service) platform simplifies the order-to-cash process by automating both the collection and allocation of customer cash. Same-day cash allocation results in an unrivaled reduction in the number of days of sales outstanding, improves working capital and drives significant cost savings. Built for large and medium-sized enterprises and capable of integrating with nearly all ERP, bank and currency platforms, Rimilia is used by leading companies in major verticals.
"With most companies using legacy, repetitive and manual processes to manage their order-to-cash, our customers and partners have long been asking for a solution that will enable better cash and liquidity management. This is especially critical now in these difficult economic times," said Marc Huffman, president & COO of BlackLine. "This acquisition addresses that need and further expands BlackLine's position as an indispensable platform for the Office of the Controller. Rimilia has created great value for its customers, and we are thrilled to build on the momentum the company has established to date while entering a new market and expanding our total addressable market opportunity."
The AR market is a natural adjacency to the financial close with a shared buyer and similar pain points. In addition, cash flow optimization has become increasingly relevant following the onset of the pandemic.
"With accounts receivables serving as the single largest asset for most businesses, Rimilia's ability to unlock working capital and reduce risk is top of mind for today's controllers and CFOs," added Mr. Huffman, who will assume the BlackLine CEO title on Jan. 1, 2021.
"Rimilia and BlackLine share a vision to drive digital transformation for Finance & Accounting with intelligent automation. BlackLine will provide the scale to further drive adoption of Rimilia's platform and deliver additional value to our customers," said Kevin Kimber, CEO of Rimilia. "At the same time, Rimilia meets a need in the Office of the Controller that is highly complementary to BlackLine. Our AR automation platform enables organizations to make faster and more accurate decisions, and I look forward to helping the thousands of BlackLine customers that are already enjoying the benefits of modern accounting."
BlackLine completed the acquisition of Rimilia on Oct. 2, 2020. In accordance with the terms and conditions of the transaction, BlackLine will acquire Rimilia for $150 million in cash, of which $120 million was payable at close with additional cash payments of up to $30 million upon certain earnout conditions being met. BlackLine funded the transaction with existing cash on-hand. There is no material impact to third quarter results. Additional details regarding the anticipated financial impact of the acquisition will be provided in conjunction with BlackLine's third quarter earnings conference call on Thursday, Oct. 29, 2020. In addition, BlackLine will introduce Rimilia to the broader BlackLine community at the company's annual user conference BeyondTheBlack™ 2020: The Modern Accounting Virtual Experience which will take place Tuesday to Thursday, Nov. 17th to 19th.
About BlackLine
Companies come to BlackLine (Nasdaq: BL) because their traditional manual accounting processes are not sustainable. BlackLine's cloud-based solutions and market-leading customer service help companies move to modern accounting by unifying their data and processes, automating repetitive work, and driving accountability through visibility. BlackLine provides solutions for financial close management, accounting automation, and intercompany governance, helping large enterprises and midsize companies across all industries do accounting work better, faster, and with more control.
More than 3,100 customers trust BlackLine to help them close faster with complete and accurate results. The company is the pioneer and recognized Leader in Gartner's 2019 Magic Quadrant for Cloud Financial Close Solutions. Based in Los Angeles, BlackLine also has regional headquarters in London, Singapore and Sydney. For more information, please visit blackline.com.
BlackLine Forward-looking Statements
This release may contain forward-looking statements within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. In some cases, you can identify forward-looking statements by terminology such as "may," "will," "should," "could," "expect," "plan," anticipate," "believe," "estimate," "predict," "intend," "potential," "would," "continue," "ongoing" or the negative of these terms or other comparable terminology. Forward-looking statements in this release include statements regarding our growth plans and opportunities.
Any forward-looking statements contained in this press release are based upon BlackLine's current plans, estimates and expectations and are not a representation that such plans, estimates, or expectations will be achieved. Forward-looking statements are based on information available at the time those statements are made and/or management's good faith beliefs and assumptions as of that time with respect to future events and are subject to risks and uncertainties. If any of these risks or uncertainties materialize or if any assumptions prove incorrect, actual performance or results may differ materially from those expressed in or suggested by the forward-looking statements. These risks and uncertainties include, but are not limited to, risks related to the Company's ability to execute on its strategies, attract new customers, enter new geographies and develop, release and sell new features and solutions; and other risks and uncertainties described in the other filings we make with the Securities and Exchange Commission from time to time, including the risks described under the heading "Risk Factors" in our Annual Report on Form 10-K. Additional information will also be set forth in our Quarterly Reports on Form 10-Q.
Forward-looking statements should not be read as a guarantee of future performance or results, and you should not place undue reliance on such statements. Except as required by law, we do not undertake any obligation to publicly update or revise any forward-looking statement, whether as a result of new information, future developments or otherwise.
London, 2nd July 2020: Kennet Partners Limited (“Kennet”), a leading European technology growth equity investor focused on bootstrapped and capital efficient companies, has raised $250m (€223m) for its fifth fund, Kennet V* in partnership with Edmond de Rothschild. The Fund exceeded its target and secured new investors from across Europe and Asia.
Kennet V has already started to deploy the capital into new investments in Business to Business (B2B) Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) companies. The Fund has made investments in four companies in the UK, Europe and the US and has a strong pipeline for further investments.
Kennet specialises in investing in established, high growth technology companies which are founder-owned and ‘bootstrapped’ – built without significant external capital. Typically, the investment from Kennet is the first external funding that companies receive and is used to finance sales and marketing expansion, particularly internationally.
Kennet is one of the longest established technology growth investors in Europe with over 20 years of experience and a proven track record across multiple technology cycles. Kennet’s cumulative assets managed are approximately $1 billion.
Kennet V’s investments include companies such as Eloomi, a fast growth cloud-based Performance Management and Learning Management System and Codility, a remote-first platform for hiring software engineers. Investments from previous funds include Receipt Bank, the leading pre-accounting tool for accountants and bookkeepers, Nuxeo, a leading content services platform, Rimilia, a financial automation software platform as well as numerous exited companies.
Michael Elias, Managing Director, Kennet Partners, said, “This fund raise is an important milestone for Kennet and demonstrates the success of our partnership with Edmond de Rothschild, which has provided us access to a range of new investors. Our experience investing in technology companies through multiple market cycles, has shown that it is a good time to invest during times of profound change. We therefore believe that the coming 2-3 years will be a very interesting time to deploy a fund.”
Hillel Zidel, Managing Director, Kennet Partners, said “The current pandemic has significantly accelerated the move to digitisation. COVID has required that people around the world change the way that they live and work. These changes are creating a structural shift that is forcing companies to turn to technological solutions. This has created strong longer-term opportunities for software businesses.”
Johnny El-Hachem, CEO, Edmond de Rothschild Private Equity1, said “Convinced that technology plays a critical role in the transformation of our economies and societies, our group has always been committed to promoting the emergence of innovative and value-creating companies. We partnered with Kennet, because we liked the dynamism of the team coupled with their strategy of financing businesses providing mission critical technology solutions. The COVID crisis has underscored the importance of many of these tools to business continuity.”
1Edmond de Rothschild Private Equity» refers to the Private Equity division of the Edmond de Rothschild Group. In addition, it is the commercial name of some of the asset management entities dedicated to Private Equity (including branches and subsidiaries) of the Edmond de Rothschild Group.
Media enquiries to:
Newgate Communications
Alistair Kellie, Tali Robinson, Jessica Hodson Walker and Jamie Williams
KennetPartners@newgatecomms.com
+44 (0) 20 3757 6865
Notes to Editor:
About Kennet Partners
Kennet is a leading international growth equity firm that invests in high-growth companies in Europe and North America. With offices in London and Silicon Valley, the firm supports entrepreneurial technology businesses with expansion capital to accelerate growth and build exceptional shareholder value. Kennet is an experienced investor with approximately $1 billion of cumulative funds under management. For more information: www.kennet.com.
Kennet Partners Limited is authorized and regulated in the United Kingdom by the Financial Conduct Authority.
*About Kennet V
Kennet V is composed of Kennet V SCSp and Kennet V FPCI, unregulated alternative investment funds formed under Luxembourg (SCSp – société en commandite spéciale) and French (FPCI – fonds professionnel de capital investissement) laws. Kennet V is primarily invested in companies providing technology products and/or technology services, and presents specific risks including capital loss risks, liquidity, the risks of the relevance of an investment in the Fund, the risks inherent in investments in development capital and the lack of performance (ROI) insurance. Kennet V SCSp and Kennet FPCI and the funds of previous vintages are closed to new investors.
About Edmond de Rothschild
As a conviction-driven investment house founded in the belief that wealth should be used to build the world of tomorrow, Edmond de Rothschild specialises in Private Banking and Asset Management and serves an international clientele of families, entrepreneurs and institutional investors. The group is also active in Corporate Finance, Private Equity, Real Estate and Fund Services.
Its resolutely family-run nature gives Edmond de Rothschild the independence necessary to propose bold strategies and long-term investments, rooted in the real economy.
Created in 1953, the Group now has CHF 173 billion (€160 billion) in assets under management, 2,600 employees and 32 locations worldwide.