AnaCap Financial Partners (AnaCap), a specialist European financial services private equity firm and active investor, has sold Ellisphere, a French business intelligence company that specialises in data and analytics, to Andera Partners, Tikehau Capital and Bpifrance.
The exit comes after just two years since AnaCap’s initial investment and will generate a 2.6x money multiple and 52 per cent IRR for the firm.
A market-leader in the French business intelligence market, Ellisphere collects and processes data to provide high quality, tailored solutions to support clients’ decision- making processes. It offers a comprehensive range of business and marketing information services that allow its clients to develop their customer portfolios, manage risk and monitor client exposure.
The company is headquartered in Nanterre and employs more than 300 staff across 8 locations in France, servicing a diversified base of circa 6,500 clients (circa 35,000 daily users).
AnaCap acquired the business in 2017, backing an already strong management team led by Valérie Attia to enable the expansion of its core offerings with new products, including market-leading Compliance solutions.
Ellisphere, actively supported by AnaCap throughout its rapid growth trajectory, has focused in recent years on the dynamic digitisation of its processes, with the successful implementation of Darwin, a new technological platform based on artificial intelligence and machine learning used for data mining and enrichment. The platform promotes a more efficient and tailored customer experience, providing critical and timely knowledge for client’s decision-making process.
Nassim Cherchali, Managing Director at AnaCap, says: “When we invested in Ellisphere in April 2017 the company had an extremely attractive platform with a unique position in the French market, giving direct access to an already impressive client base, while providing the opportunity to serve them with a wider product offering. This underpinned a strong growth trajectory in a short period of time, both in its core historical credit scoring product as well as its recently established Compliance offering. We enjoyed working with the management team and are delighted with this exit which sees a fantastic return for our investors. We wish Ellisphere all the success for the next stage of their journey under new stewardship with Andera Partners, Tikehau and Bpifrance.”
Valérie Attia, CEO at Ellisphere, says: “AnaCap’s experience in both the application of digital technology to develop a broader suite of products and in the internationalisation of revenue streams has been an important part of our growth story. We have very much enjoyed their support and are delighted that together we have delivered a great return to investors.”
