Texas tech firm acquires High Alpha's ClearScholar
Indianapolis – 12th June 2018 - ClearScholar Inc. has been acquired by Civitas Learning Inc., an Austin, Texas-based education-tech company that supplies its data-gathering and packaging platform to more than 350 colleges and universities. Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed. Founded in 2016, ClearScholar is the second company in the High Alpha portfolio to be snapped up in the last four months. Locally based High Alpha is a startup studio that provide expertise and capital to launch companies that backers hope will generate big returns. In March, Indianapolis-based tech firm Octiv Inc. was acquired by Conga, a Colorado-based document automation firm with about 350 employees. It is expected to retain its local presence.
https://www.civitaslearning.com/press/
Foreign investment in UK tech firms doubles in just one year
The UK’s tech sector is soaring ahead of its competitors in Europe, attracting more venture capital investment last year than Germany, France and Sweden combined. British tech businesses attracted $7.8bn (£5.8bn) of funding last year, which was almost double the amount received in 2016. Research by Dealroom and Tech Nation showed that the UK’s venture capital investment last year was higher than Germany’s total of $3.2bn and France, which brought in $2.8bn. The boost to its tech sector has propelled the UK’s growth of foreign direct investment (FDI), helping it to remain the top destination for such funding. According to a report by EY, there was a 22pc increase in digital investment into the UK, which helped to offset a decline in investment to sectors such as a financial services and logistics, due to investor concerns over Brexit. Investment into the UK’s manufacturing sector also remained resilient, increasing by 17pc.
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/business/2018/06/10/foreign-investment-uk-te...
Envision Healthcare to be Acquired by KKR for $9.9 Billion in All-Cash Transaction
Nashville, Tennessee – 11th June 2018 - Envision Healthcare Corporation has announced it has entered into a definitive agreement to be acquired by global investment firm, KKR, in an all-cash transaction for approximately $9.9 billion, including the assumption or repayment of debt. Under the terms of the agreement, which has been unanimously approved by Envision's Board of Directors, KKR will acquire all of the outstanding shares of Envision's common stock for $46.00 per share in cash, representing a 32% premium to Envision's volume-weighted average share price (VWAP) from November 1, 2017, the day immediately following the Company's first announcement that it was reviewing strategic alternatives. The transaction price represents a multiple of 10.9x trailing 12 months Adjusted EBITDA and 10.1x 2018 anticipated Adjusted EBITDA.1
http://media.kkr.com/media/media_releasedetail.cfm?ReleaseID=1069771
Launch of Luge Capital, a new $75 Million Fund Focused on Fintech and Artificial Intelligence Montreal and Toronto, June 11, 2018 - Luge Capital, a new venture capital fund specifically focused on early-stage fintech companies and artificial intelligence (AI) solutions applied to financial services, has announced that it has completed a $75 million round of financing to begin operations. Initially, $50 million of the raised capital was announced in October 2017 by the Caisse de dépôt et placement du Québec (CDPQ) and Desjardins Group, two of the fund's major investors. Sun Life Financial, the Fonds de Solidarité FTQ and La Capitale are also significant participants. Luge may expand the fund even further up to $100 million in the coming months. The fund will support the development of innovative solutions that improve customer experiences, enhance efficiency for financial institutions and implement data-driven methods and artificial intelligence for decision-making. Luge Capital will concentrate on Seed and Series A financing, with initial investments between $250,000 and $2 million.
https://blogues.desjardins.com/press_release/2018/06/launch-of-luge-capital-a-new-fund-focused-on-fintech-and-artificial-intelligence-applied-to-financia.php
Unicorn Start-Ups Set to Exceed $1 Billion Next Year
By Dana Olsen – 11th June 2018 - Last month, Zola raised a $100 million round that valued the wedding startup at $650 million. And in the beginning of the year, Sun Basket, a meal-kit delivery provider, secured $58 million in fresh funding at a valuation of roughly $508 million. Those are just two of the 29 venture-backed companies in the US that have reached valuations between $500 million and $999 million so far this year. By this time next year, it's likely that a lot of them will become unicorns. For US venture-backed businesses that have reached valuations over $1 billion in the last decade and a half, a median of 1.12 years passed from their final pre-unicorn round to the financing that pushed them over the billion-dollar mark, per PitchBook data. Among that group, the last pre-unicorn round was raised at a median valuation of $500 million, while the unicorn round was at a median valuation of $1.1 billion.
https://pitchbook.com/news/articles/unicorns-in-waiting-these-startups-could-pass-the-billion-dollar-mark-in-the-next-year
Bigo Technology raises $272 million in Series D Funding Round
India - 8th June 2018 - Social media platform Bigo Technology has raised $272 million in Series D round of funding. The funding round was led by YY Inc. The company will use the fresh capital to strengthen their R&D platform and penetrate further globally, especially in India. Bigo Technology operates BIGO LIKE, a short video editing and sharing platform. “With the current funding we aim to strengthen our platform and increase our consumer reach. India is a significant market for us and we aim to expand and also hire great talents in technology space and also content creators. We have started Million Dollar Talent Hunt in India on LIKE to look for unique content creators. Indian youth have great potential and we are receiving and overwhelming response for our talent hunt,” said Aaron Wei, Global Vice President of LIKE.
http://www.bigo.sg/index_pc.html
Accruent to Expand CMMS Leadership with Acquisition of Maintenance Connection
Austin, TX, June 6, 2018 – Accruent, a provider of physical resource management solutions, has announced a definitive agreement to acquire Maintenance Connection, a Computerized Maintenance Management System (CMMS) provider. This agreement accelerates Accruent’s efforts to help customers gain insight and make data-driven decisions for multi-site facility management. Customers will be able to view their physical resource assessments, view data from IoT sensors, trigger maintenance orders and have a full view of their engineering documentation. Maintenance Connection’s software helps maintenance teams manage work orders, organize and execute preventative maintenance, predict asset maintenance, and manage enterprise assets and equipment inventory. It is built to handle the needs of complex enterprises with capabilities that include multi-site deployment, IoT sensors and M2M (Machine-to-Machine) data exchange to generate insights into asset management. https://www.accruent.com/resources/news/accruent-expand-cmms-leadership-acquisition-maintenance-connection
SaaS Valuations Getting Crazier
By Sammy Abdullah – 6th June 2018 - Valuations for SaaS are higher than they’ve ever been since we started keeping track of the data in Q4 2014: of the 77 SaaS companies we follow, the average public SaaS business is trading at 10.07x revenue while the median is 9.32x. Negative EBITDA, positive cash flow. The median SaaS business had trailing twelve-month revenue of $302mm, EBITDA of -$16mm, but positive cash flow of $20mm thanks to deferred revenue and up-front collections on annual contracts. Indeed so long as you’re growing (the median annual growth rate is 14%), investors will overlook negative EBITDA especially if the business is cash flow positive after working capital changes.
https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/saas-valuations-getting-crazier-sammy-abdullah/
Accruent Acquires EMS Software, Strengthening Its Space Management Platform
Austin, TX, June 4, 2018 – Accruent, a provider of physical resource management solutions, has acquired EMS Software, bringing its workplace and campus management platform into Accruent’s portfolio, and offering customers the ability to make data-driven meeting space planning decisions. This acquisition continues to build on Accruent’s strategy to deliver the entire lifecycle of managing physical resources to core industries including enterprises, higher education, healthcare, and the public sector. “The mission of our clients is to optimize their physical spaces, create a stellar working or learning environment and reduce costs. We acquired EMS Software because their platform helps our customers achieve their missions,” said John Borgerding, CEO, Accruent. “When integrated with our existing portfolio, organizations get the analytics and insights they need to make data-driven space planning decisions. We are learning from our 175 joint customers and are proud to continue investing in the EMS platform.” https://www.accruent.com/resources/news/accruent-acquires-ems-software-strengthening-its-space-management-platform
WorkXO Acquired by Long-Time Partner Questionpro
QuestionPro has announced that it has acquired WorkXO, which has now become a wholly owned subsidiary of QuestionPro. Founded in 2015, WorkXO created a revolutionary model for measuring workplace culture, a powerful proprietary technology for analyzing it and a proven methodology for ensuring organizations get and stay intentional about managing it. Clients like T-Mobile, Cisco, NBC Universal, Security First Bank, and Southern Dental Alliance use WorkXO’s first-of-its-kind culture management platform – Workplace Genome® – to turn workplace culture into a competitive advantage. Vivek Bhaskaran, Founder, QuestionPro said in a release about the acquisition: “We feel strongly that culture should and will be at the heart of the next wave of workforce technology. In taking that next step, I’m excited and honored to work with Charlie and his team to scale WorkXO to the broader market while having him lead the way in a new chapter in our QuestionPro Workforce platform.”
https://www.questionpro.com/blog/workxo-acquired-by-questionpro/
Vora Ventures Acquires ShakeDeal, India’s Leading B2B Online Marketplace
Major investment from US based private equity into B2B Commerce in India, a $1 trillion market. Vora Ventures, a US based private equity firm, specializing in building B2B information technology companies, has announced that it has acquired ShakeDeal (www.shakedeal.com), India’s first B2B bulk sourcing online marketplace for Industrial Goods, Supplies, and Raw Materials. The investment will be used to support the ongoing growth and expansion of ShakeDeal into new vertical markets and product lines and to make it a preferred destination for businesses in India to purchase supplies, tools and raw materials. http://www.voraventures.com/news/vora-ventures-acquires-shakedeal-india-s-leading-b2b-online-marketplace
