Edison Partners, a growth-equity investment firm, has completed the sale of its stake in Solovis to Nasdaq (Nasdaq: NDAQ), generating over a 50 per cent IRR on its USD13 million total investment.Headquartered in Dallas, Solovis offers multi-asset class portfolio management, analytics and reporting tools for asset owners and allocators. Solovis’ solutions, which enable public and private assets to be managed on the same platform, will become available through Nasdaq’s eVestment group and broaden eVestment’s capabilities for institutional investors.
The third fintech exit for Edison Partners this year following the acquisitions of Scivantage by Refinitiv and Clearpool by BMO Financial Group, Solovis also represents the first exit for the firm in the state of Texas. Solovis was the first earlier stage investment completed by Edison Partners. As part of its earlier stage investment strategy, Edison Partners invests USD2 to USD4 million in fast-growing companies that initially have revenues of less than USD5 million but share traits of later stage companies. These companies have the ability to quickly “graduate” to a core investment, with Edison Partners leading future financing rounds. This was the case with Solovis, as the company achieved phenomenal revenue growth over a four-year period, with Edison Partners leading each of the company’s subsequent funding rounds through exit.
“Solovis has disrupted the status quo in institutional investing and is an ideal fit for a global powerhouse like Nasdaq looking to elevate its technology and analytics capabilities in the investment technology markets,” says Tom VanderSchaaff, General Partner at Edison Partners, who led the initial and subsequent investments. “Our capital and value-add to the Solovis team on their growth journey has proven out tremendously well over a short period of time. We’re extremely proud of co-founders Josh Smith and Caleb Doise and the rest of the management team for being great partners in delivering this outcome.”
“We’re excited to now be a part of Nasdaq and to continue to transform institutional investing for asset owners and allocators, now with an even broader data and technology footprint and global geographic reach,” says Josh Smith, co-founder and CEO of Solovis. “The added financial support and operating expertise that Edison Partners provided was instrumental in helping us accelerate Solovis’ growth and bringing us to this milestone. We greatly appreciate their confidence in our vision, which resulted in a top-tier exit in just over three years.” Smith will continue to serve as CEO of Solovis.
Financial terms of the sale have not been disclosed.
