UK regional private equity firm NorthEdge has completed the sale of CMap Group Limited (CMap) to ECI, a growth-focused mid-market private equity firm with a track record of investing in software businesses.
CMap, a Manchester-headquartered Professional Services Automation (PSA) software business, serves customers in the Architects, Engineering & Construction (AEC) and Consulting sectors. NorthEdge invested in December 2019, backing the founding team led by Dave Graham (CEO), to execute on a vertically-focused growth strategy in both the UK and USA.
The exit, which was led by Ray Stenton, Managing Partner, and Dan Matkin, Director, alongside the CMap management team, is NorthEdge’s sixth in the tech sector to date with the realisations having delivered 4.6x gross MOIC and 69% gross IRR.
Since the initial investment in 2019, NorthEdge has supported the CMap team to consolidate its market-leading position in the AEC sector, as well as accelerate it’s market presence in the Consulting sector and the US. To support this further, CMap completed the acquisition of Atvero in 2023, an AEC-focused document management software.
Throughout the partnership the business made significant investments in People, Sales, Marketing, and Customer Success, resulting in strong ARR growth and NRR performance.
According to a reps statement, ECI will now support CMap to “invest in its team, deepen its presence within the AEC and consulting markets, continue its international growth, and accelerate its product and AI roadmap to further improve its customer offering”.
NorthEdge and CMap were advised by Houlihan Lokey (Corporate Finance), DWF (Legal), PwC (Commercial, Financial and Tax), Crosslake (Technology), and Liberty (Management advisors).
