Middle-market private equity firm Tailwind Capital has made an equity investment in AST, a pure-play Oracle Corporation consulting, implementation and managed services firm.
"AST is a trusted Platinum level member of the Oracle PartnerNetwork and is well positioned to support the growing demand for Oracle solutions that drive innovation and growth for AST’s customers," says Jim Hoch, partner at Tailwind Capital. "AST's proven track record of delivering large and complex Oracle- based solutions to public and private sector enterprises attests to the talent and commitment of AST’s consultants and executive management team.”
AST has made significant investments in becoming an Oracle cloud leader, with more than 90 per cent of AST’s workforce now cloud certified, and has become a trusted partner in navigating its customers’ transition to the cloud, from development of an internal cloud strategy and framework, to full implementation and ultimately to post-deployment support and managed services.
“As a member of the exclusive group of Oracle Cloud Premier Partners, AST represents an attractive opportunity as a leader in the continued transition of enterprise applications to the cloud," says Gurvendra Suri, an operating executive of Tailwind Capital and incoming chairman of AST’s board of directors. "We are confident in this team’s ability to take AST to the next level, particularly with the current and potential growth in Oracle’s cloud business and the continued need for services partners to implement, integrate and manage Oracle’s extensive suite of products for public and private enterprises.”
AST has been a pure-play Oracle services partner since its founding in 1995. Founders Pravin Kumar and Shaji Zechariah held prior roles at Oracle Corporation before leveraging their project management expertise and close Oracle relationships to build AST.
“AST has over twenty years of experience solving the challenges of public and private sector clients by making strategic investments in Oracle technologies and by developing innovative solutions for our customers,” says Kumar. “We look forward to continuing our close partnership with Oracle serving as the trusted advisor to our clients to help them meet and exceed their business objectives through innovative solutions that improve operational efficiency.”
AST was represented in this transaction by martinwolf, an M&A advisory firm serving the mid-market IT industry. William Blair & Company acted as financial adviser to Tailwind during the transaction.
