bd-capital, a pan-European, operationally-led private equity firm, has made its latest investment into TAPTAP Digital, an advertising technology and marketing intelligence software platform in Southern Europe, Latin America and Africa. This is bd-capital’s first investment in Spain.
TAPTAP was founded in 2010 by Alvaro del Castillo. The business has developed its own software platform called Sonata that helps deliver relevant advertising content to consumers while protecting their privacy. It aggregates and cross references multiple sources of location data, which helps advertisers to increase brand awareness, build purchase interest and boost consideration.
A key changing pattern of consumer behaviour is the desire of people to receive relevant advertising while maintaining privacy; TAPTAP technology delivers this solution. The TAPTAP proprietary technology is also very well-placed for upcoming structural trends in data protection and privacy regulations. This is because the software connects multiple data ecosystems and performs complex analytics without needing to rely on unique user identifiers.
The management team of TAPTAP is led by Founder & CEO Alvaro del Castillo, who will remain invested in the company.
Alvaro says: “We are excited to be partnering with the bd-capital team. The alignment since we first met in February 2020 is very strong. Through its differentiated partnership approach, I am sure that bd-capital can help us consolidate our presence in Southern Europe, Latin America and Africa, and expand our solutions to new markets.”
Alejo Vidal-Quadras, Partner and Head of Southern Europe at bd-capital, says: “We cannot think of a better company in which to make our first investment in Spain. TAPTAP has shown an impressive growth trajectory and is today uniquely positioned in the advertising and marketing technology space.”
Francesc Casabella, Operating Partner at bd-capital and the new Chairman of TAPTAP’s Board, adds: “TAPTAP is run by an exceptional and very talented group of people. We look forward to partnering with Alvaro and his team to support the next phase of growth.”
This latest investment into TAPTAP follows bd-capital’s recent investments into SportPursuit, a leading online private sales club in UK and Germany focused on sports, outdoor and active lifestyle products, Symprove, the gut health products business, and Ascenti, the UK’s leading provider of physical and mental wellbeing services. All four investments follow a consistent strategy of investing in companies where changing patterns of consumer behaviour and technology disruption are creating growth opportunities.
bd-capital was created by Richard Baker, former FTSE CEO and Chairman, and Andy Dawson, former Advent International Investment Partner, and takes an operationally-led approach to its partnerships with businesses. Since launching in 2019, the bd-capital team has grown to 18 people, six of whom are former CEOs with experience of growing mid-size businesses in the European market.
TAPTAP and its shareholders were advised by Gómez-Acebo & Pombo and Osborne Clarke (legal). bd-capital executed the transaction in close partnership with advisory teams from Uría Menéndez (legal), Deloitte (financial and tax), Accenture (commercial, technology and data security), Marsh (insurance and W&I advisory) and a number of industry experts.
