Keensight Capital, a private equity managers dedicated to pan-European Growth Buyout investment has signed an exclusivity agreement with mid cap investor Naxicap with a view to buying a majority stake in Sogelink, a provider of vertical software solutions for infrastructure sector professionals.
Keensight Capital will become the majority shareholder of Sogelink, alongside Naxicap, management and employees.
Founded in 2000, Sogelink designs, develops and markets software and SaaS (Software as a Service) solutions intended to simplify and optimise complex business processes in the building site, infrastructure and property management industry.
With its unique collaborative platform, Sogelink stands as a pioneer and undisputed leader in its market in France. It is also the number one provider of topographic software. Over the past 20 years, Sogelink and its 180 employees have built up a diverse and loyal base of 18,000 clients (churn of less than 2 per cent pa), representing more than 80,000 users.
In 2018, Sogelink generated revenue of EUR38 million and has been recording top-line growth of over 20 per cent pa over the last 10 years. Its robust business model ensures increasingly recurrent revenue and a high level of profitability.
Keensight Capital will be putting its 20 years of cutting-edge expertise in IT and its experience in international markets to use in helping Sogelink to:
• cement its position as an independent leader in the markets currently addressed;
• provide support in developing and diversifying Sogelink’s product range, notably by marketing new business-specific solutions; and
• acquire growth businesses to extend the group’s international footprint and bolster certain areas of expertise.
Fatima Berral, CEO of Sogelink, says: “We are convinced that Keensight’s support and extensive expertise, particularly in vertical software, will be a tremendous asset to enable us to pursue our development strategy in France and abroad. The Keensight team’s philosophy is perfectly aligned with ours, so I am delighted with this partnership.”
Jean-Michel Beghin, Managing Partner of Keensight Capital, says: “We have known Sogelink for a long time and it fits our investment criteria perfectly: strong growth, robust profitability, and a leader in a structurally expanding market. We are impressed by the work accomplished by Fatima, Ignace and Sogelink’s teams in recent years and the coherent manner with which they have developed the group’s diverse business activities. We are convinced of the growth potential harboured by the company, both in its domestic market and abroad.”
Angèle Faugier, Managing Partner at Naxicap, says: “We are proud to have been able to support the Sogelink team over the past 3 years. During this stage, with the founder, we decided to entrust the role of CEO to Fatima Berral, whose action was decisive in ensuring the very sustained pace of development, integrating new talents and giving a new dimension to the group. In addition, the platform has been configured to accommodate new services and developments internally or externally; these elements have motivated our desire to re-include ourselves very significantly in the new investment round.”
