LONDON, England - August 2022
Jiminny, a UK headquartered conversation intelligence provider supporting sales teams across the world, has closed a $16.5 million series A funding round. The round was led by Kennet Partners, a transatlantic growth equity firm, adding to its targeted portfolio of technology growth stage investments.
Sales teams use Jiminny’s platform to record and analyse new and existing customer conversations in real-time. These insights are used by the business to improve performance and ultimately drive revenue and growth. A range of organisations, from FTSE 100 constituent Informa to Europe's leading expense management solution, Pleo, are using the platform.
Jiminny is a market leader in the rapidly growing conversation intelligence market for B2B teams. Demand for conversation intelligence solutions has increased in recent years with more sales teams looking to utilise tools suited to hybrid working, scale up operations and professionalise sales team coaching. In parallel, senior business leaders are looking to use technology to upskill current sales teams against the backdrop of challenging job markets and narrowing budgets.
The funding round will accelerate Jiminny’s recruitment, including its expansion in international markets, and ambitious product development plans. The company will double its R&D budget to continue driving innovation in the nascent conversation intelligence market. Key areas marked for development include solutions to analyse emotion in video, automated scoring of call interactions and real time insights generated from live transcriptions to drive true visibility of performance.
Tom Lavery, CEO and Founder, Jiminny said:
“I’m delighted to announce details of today’s funding round which will further propel Jiminny’s growth and enable us to keep supporting and serving our customers to the high standards we set."
“The pandemic saw a big uptick of interest in solutions that draw insights and analytics from customer conversations to enhance the productivity and internal cultures of hybrid sales teams. Our platform gives the whole revenue team visibility of performance like never before and helps them to collaborate and coach to drive tangible improvements across the team. "
“Kennet’s investment is a resounding vote of confidence in a rapidly growing company and one of the fastest growing verticals in sales technology, despite current global economic headwinds."
Hillel Zidel, Managing Director, Kennet Partners said:
“We believe that conversational intelligence is a long term growth industry and view Jiminny’s value proposition as unique and potentially transformational. The company is a great example of the kind of founder-led, customer centric, capital efficient business that we love to invest in”
“We are hugely excited to be partnering with Jiminny on the next stage of its development.”
Jiminny currently employs 60+ people split across London, UK and Sofia, Bulgaria. Post investment round, the company is aiming to add a further 30+ people to its headcount with plans to establish a larger presence in international markets.
LONDON, England — April 2022
Kennet and Goldman Sachs were recognised as the winners of the ‘France and Benelux Deal of the Year’ Award at the 2022 Private Equity Awards for their investment and exit of Nuxeo. The Private Equity Awards are the longest running and most prestigious Private Equity awards in Europe. Finalists are established through research undertaken by Real Deals. Following this, a panel of expert judges meet to deliberate and select the winner.
Nuxeo is an open source provider of extremely high performance Digital Asset Management and Enterprise Content Management software.
In May 2016, Kennet proactively sourced the opportunity and backed the CEO, Eric Barroca, with an initial direct investment into Nuxeo. Kennet subsequently introduced Goldman Sachs to co-invest as part of a majority buyout transaction. Both Kennet and Goldman Sachs 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. In March 2021, Hyland Software acquired Nuxeo, generating in excess of a 5x return for its investors.
Nuxeo’s CEO, Eric Barocca, has subsequently joined the Executive Advisory Board of Kennet.
COPENHAGEN, Denmark & BOSTON — June 2021
eloomi A/S (“eloomi” or the “Company”), a global cloud-based people development software company, today announced a $55 million strategic investment from Great Hill Partners, a private equity firm that invests in high-growth, disruptive businesses. eloomi offers a leading SaaS corporate learning and performance management platform that enables HR Directors to easily distribute training content to internal and external users, while monitoring their progress and streamlining coaching, reviews, and 360 feedback. Great Hill’s investment is expected to accelerate eloomi’s growth in the United States and support further expansion of the Company’s go-to-market and product development efforts.
eloomi's unique people solution helps businesses develop their employees and leaders with ease and simplicity throughout the entire employee journey. The software is easy to deploy, and ensures that organizations can efficiently onboard new employees, strengthen productivity and performance, and continuously deliver relevant content that accelerates employee development and growth. eloomi has experienced significant growth historically with uninterrupted revenue increases month-after-month since it was founded in 2015. Today, eloomi has more than 500 customers in over 25 countries, with strong demand across all geographies and market segments.
“In just a few years, eloomi has shown how a quality product and skilled leadership team can build a market-leading business,” said Chris Busby, Partner at Great Hill Partners. “The Company has differentiated itself from others in their space and we look forward to partnering with Claus and the entire team to help eloomi scale to its next level of growth, particularly in the U.S. market.”
Claus Johansen, Founder and CEO of eloomi, stated, “We have succeeded in positioning eloomi for success in a highly competitive market where our solutions deliver immediate value for our customers. We have a strong product that is user-friendly and solves the challenges of many businesses seeking to acquire, develop, and retain their employees. Through upskilling and development of their people, our customers achieve substantial benefits with eloomi, such as increased motivation, engagement, and productivity, often resulting in increased employee retention rates. Great Hill has an established and proven track record of partnering with companies like ours, specifically within the HR software space, and we’re pleased to have them as strategic investors to support our continued growth.”
Great Hill Partners joins the group of existing investors in eloomi, including Claus Johansen, Kennet Partners, and VF Ventures.
Nielsen Nørager served as legal counsel to eloomi, and Kirkland & Ellis LLP and Moalem Weitemeyer served as joint legal counsel to Great Hill Partners.
About eloomi
At eloomi, we focus on changing people outcomes by combining learning & performance. Founded in 2015, we realized the market was lacking a solution with a focus on the employee experience, that ensures continuous employee development, while engaging and motivating them. Today, we have created the leading employee experience platform for mid-sized businesses. Our platform connects the dots between learning and performance to gain greater employee outcomes, engagement and productivity. Changing the traditional organizational people approach from “one size fits all” to a tailored, automated, and guided approach to increase engagement and change people outcomes for the modern workforce has been our north star. We are all about giving you more impact with less effort!
About Great Hill Partners
Great Hill Partners is a Boston-based private equity firm targeting investments of $25 million to $500 million in high-growth companies across the software, digital commerce, financial technology, healthcare, and digital infrastructure sectors. Over the past two decades, Great Hill has raised nearly $8 billion of commitments and invested in more than 75 companies, establishing an extensive track record of building long-term partnerships with entrepreneurs and providing flexible resources to help middle-market companies scale. For more information, visit www.greathillpartners.com.
View source version on businesswire.com:
https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20210607005426/en/
Contact:
For eloomi:
Claus Johansen
+45 3131 6161
claus@eloomi.com
For Great Hill Partners:
Sard Verbinnen & Co
greathill-SVC@SARDVERB.com
212-687-8080
Learn More at: bloomberg.com
LONDON, England — June 2021
eStoreMedia, the digital shelf software for Fortune 500 brands has raised $30 million in its first fundraise through investment by Kennet Partners and Digital+ Partners. The firm, which already counts many of the Fortune 500 brands as its clients, will use the investment to accelerate eStoreMedia’s digital shelf automation suite for brands, as well as for expansion into new markets.
This is the first external investment in the company and both investors have significant experience in building SaaS and B2B focused businesses as they look to accelerate their growth. Kennet Partners is a leading European technology growth equity investor focused on bootstrapped and capital efficient companies, and it has invested alongside Digital+ Partners, a leading growth equity investor focused on B2B technology companies.
In addition to the $30 million invested in the company, eStoreMedia plans to bolster its Board of Directors with leading industry experts to support and drive the company’s international growth strategy as it looks to expand into the US market and accelerate in existing markets such as the UK, Mexico, Poland, and the DACH region.
eStoreMedia uses the knowledge of branding experts combined with tech engineers to develop solutions which change the way brands, and their e-commerce retail partners, work together. It creates seamless platforms for integrated analytics, e-content automation, and shopper research for ultimately better brand positioning and consequently sales. It has a global footprint with over 1000 e-retailers and hundreds of global brands.
Bartosz Kielbinski, founder and CEO, eStoreMedia, said: “We are extremely excited about the opportunities our new investment will bring. We plan to accelerate our vision of creating the most complete Digital Shelf Automation platform for brands, revolutionizing how they manage their e-commerce retail partners. We recognise the value of our people and the expertise we have from a branding perspective which makes us unique when it comes to developing technology which makes a difference. This new investment is exciting for our global teams as we can make even more great ideas come to life.”
Hillel Zidel, Managing Director, Kennet Partners, said: “eStoreMedia is a great example of the type of bootstrapped B2B SaaS company that we love to invest in. We see huge potential in the business: they are revolutionising how brands manage e-commerce and have ambitious plans for tech development which will retain their industry leading offering. We look forward to working with the team as they embark on the next stage of growth.”
Dirk Schmuecking, Partner at Digital+ Partners said: “We have been thoroughly impressed by eStoreMedia’s accomplishments to date and look forward to supporting the team’s growth strategy to become the category leader for digital shelf analytics. With the new financing, eStoreMedia is well-positioned to accelerate product roadmap opportunities, attract further top talent and scale up the go-to-market organization globally.”
eStoreMedia was advised by Michal Frys and CP Legal. The investor consortium was advised by Goodwin as legal advisor, Smith & Williamson and Code & co as financial and technical advisors respectively.
About eStoreMedia
eStoreMedia provides an e-commerce automation suite that helps Fortune 500 Brands accelerate online sales. eStoreMedia’s suite of SaaS tools integrates Digital Shelf Analytics, Product Information Management and Al‑based Research Methodologies to streamline e-commerce processes and drive Perfect Store implementation across thousands of online e-retailers in over 50 markets globally.
About Digital+ Partners
Based in Frankfurt and Munich, Germany, Digital+ Partners is a leading technology growth equity investor focused on European and US technology companies with over €500 million assets under management. Digital+ Partners aims to support ambitious entrepreneurs build global technology leaders, providing them with strategic advice and long-term financial support to help them define and execute their growth plans. Digital+ Partners focuses exclusively on B2B technology companies and leverages a deep corporate network to help portfolio companies access new markets and build new partnerships. For more information please visit: www.dplus.partners
LONDON, England — February 19 2021
In the latest development, leading market engagement platform for virtual and in-person events, Grip, has announced $13 million (£9.3 million approx) in series A funding, taking its total amount raised to $14.5 million (£10.4 million approx).
The round, led by London-based growth equity fund Kennet Partners, will further enable Grip to provide industry-leading experiences both in-person and virtually.
Founded in 2016, Grip aims to transform the way professionals network at industry events, working with the majority of the world’s largest event organisers including Reed Exhibitions, Messe Frankfurt, VentureBeat, and TechCrunch.
With the pandemic serving as a catalyst for the online events industry, organisers have needed to provide different event types to serve the updated needs of the market. Building on five years of in-person event experience, Grip’s Market Engagement Platform enables event organisers to create an omnichannel experience, combining various event types across virtual, hybrid and live to deliver increased networking value and engagement.
Underpinned by its award-winning AI-powered technology, Grip is proven to increase the number of quality interactions at events, creating unique insight and opportunities for organisers to generate meaningful value for their clients.
Tim Groot, CEO and founder of Grip, says: “Our mission is to empower organisers to bring professionals together to advance industries. This funding round is going to enable us to take the experience to a new level, leveraging our extensive industry-leading platform, offering unique value for Virtual, Hybrid and In-Person events.”
“I’m humbled and thankful to our clients for trusting us and working with us to achieve this milestone. We’ve raised the round for them, to make our platform better. We’re going to invest heavily in our product and global expansion to support organisers across the world in the continued digitization of their business and empower them to succeed in this new reality."
“Now, more than ever, we must do everything possible to help professionals connect in useful and meaningful ways.”
Hillel Zidel, Partner at Kennet and Grip board member, added: “Grip’s ability to organise virtual events with a key focus on networking has meant that the company has seen tremendous growth over the last year. Event organisers and their clients have been able to remain connected with their customers despite the constraints on in-person events. As live events resume in the future, Grip is extremely well positioned to continue to assist event organisers through the provision of software solutions supporting live, virtual and hybrid events.”
Brent Hoberman, co-founder of Founders Factory and previous investor, says: “Grip was born out of a need we saw in running events at Founders Forum – how do you use smart technology to catalyse the most relevant and valuable connections between your guests? I’m thrilled that under Tim’s leadership, Grip has become a world-class product that continues to build on this seed of an idea in using smart tech to facilitate more meaningful connections. It’s exciting to see the team attract and bring on a great fund in Kennet Partners – they now have the resources they need to take the company to the next level.”
Grip is the first Market Engagement Platform for Event Organisers to create Virtual, Hybrid and Live event experiences in a single solution to move markets forward. Grip works with 12 out of 20 of the leading Event Organisers in the world and is known for its leading AI-powered matchmaking engine, which has been used to establish millions of valuable connections at thousands of events.
Learn more at: www.uktech.news/ai/
LONDON, England — March 9 2021
Work management software company secures investment to enable customers in North America, APAC and European markets to simplify their techstack and eliminate distractions
Scoro, an award-winning work management software for professional service businesses, has closed a $16.4 million Series B funding round led by Kennet Partners. Additional investors include Columbia Lake Partners, Inventure, Livonia Partners and Tera Ventures. The investment will fuel continued global expansion and is supported by new French and Spanish versions of the software.
“Even before Covid-19 hit, most professional service businesses used as many as a dozen different platforms daily,” said Scoro’s Founder and CEO, Fred Krieger. “However, teams now realise that constantly switching between tools harms productivity and results in lost data and duplicated work. In many ways, these tools became weapons of mass distraction. We’re proud to have the support of Kennet Partners and other investors as we help businesses identify and remove these weapons of mass distraction with our end-to-end work management software.”
Scoro’s most recent product launch has been a modernization of the Gantt chart, which had not evolved since its creation at the turn of the 19th Century. With the new funding, Scoro will continue to create innovative tools which enable professional service businesses to improve their productivity and profitability.
“The dramatic disruption to working practices caused by Covid-19 should give us pause for thought, challenge our assumptions, and encourage us to think about what the new normal should be,” said Dave Kellogg, a highly experienced SaaS advisor and new addition to Scoro’s Board of Directors. “The evolution of the workplace will be supported by platforms such as Scoro which enable staff to communicate and collaborate effectively, flexibly and without distraction.”
Kennet Partners’ Managing Director Hillel Zidel also joins the Board of Directors, alongside Dave Kellogg. Martin Fincham continues to lead the Board of Directors as Scoro’s Chairman.
“It is a privilege to chair such a high calibre Board and very reassuring to be supported on our scale-up journey by some of Europe’s top B2B SaaS investors,” added Martin Fincham.
“Scoro is a great example of the type of high-growth, founder-led B2B SaaS company we love to invest in at Kennet,” said Hillel Zidel. “Clients get a lot of value out of Scoro and I’m very excited to support the company in its international expansion at a time when so many businesses are looking for productivity gains.”
Scoro now joins an elite group of start-ups founded in Estonia that have raised more than $20 million in venture capital. Estonia is the world leader in creating technology unicorns per capita, with successes including Skype, Transferwise, Bolt and Pipedrive.
To learn more about Scoro’s end-to-end work management software and how it helps professional service businesses boost productivity and profitability, visit www.scoro.com.
About Scoro
Scoro is an award-winning work management software platform for collaborative teams in the professional services and creative industries.
Thousands of teams in more than 60 countries trust Scoro to increase their margins, save them time and accelerate data-driven decision making. Unlike traditional single-use solutions, Scoro is scalable across an entire business – from projects and sales through to billing and reporting.
Founded in 2013 by Fred Krieger, Scoro is headquartered in London, with additional offices in Tallinn and New York. Scoro has been listed in Deloitte’s Technology Fast 50 list and the Inc. 5000 list. For more information, visit www.scoro.com.
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 $900 million in funds under management. For more information, visit www.kennet.com.
About Columbia Lake Partners
Columbia Lake Partners is an experienced team of investors providing investment for growing technology companies across Europe. Columbia Lake Partners’ portfolio has extended investment of more than €300 million to over 100 companies. For more information, visit www.clpgrowth.com.
About Inventure
Inventure is one of the most experienced Nordic venture funds that specializes in helping its portfolio companies with talent and expansion. Since 2005, the team has been in venture with over 70 companies ranging from deep tech to consumer internet brands, including Wolt, Detectify, Blueprint Genetics, and Swappie. For more information, visit www.inventure.vc.
About Livonia Partners
Livonia Partners is a private equity and growth capital firm which invests in companies with a strong growth potential, providing investments in the range of €10 million to €20 million. For more information, visit www.livoniapartners.com.
About Tera Ventures
Founded in 2016, Tera Ventures is an international investment firm which enables disruptive technology companies to scale into global leaders. For more information, visit www.tera.vc.
Learn more at: www.uktechnews.info