Trivergance, in partnership with Falcon Investment Advisors and Landon Capital Partners, has acquired Clarus Commerce from global venture capital and growth equity investment firm, Norwest Venture Partners.
The management team at Clarus has built a dynamic company that capitalises on the rapidly growing market opportunity at the intersection of eCommerce and subscription-based loyalty and rewards solutions. Specifically, Clarus has developed and manages a proprietary, flexible and scalable membership and benefit management technology platform. This platform delivers to consumers and its “white-label” partners a suite of valuable benefits that drive enhanced loyalty and customer engagement. Clarus offers its own portfolio of subscription products as well as a growing portfolio of custom “white-label” loyalty programs that Clarus executes in a holistic and turn-key manner on behalf of its eCommerce retailers, payment companies and other client partners.
Amongst other products, Clarus’ flagship product, Freeshipping.com, offers a suite of benefits to consumers including free shipping, 10 per cent cash back, price comparison, price guarantee and other valuable savings across a consortium of over 1,500 of the world’s largest online retailers. The company has an extensive roadmap of feature and benefit enhancements, which will drive additional value to consumers and to its “white-label” clients.
Marc Byron, CEO of Trivergance, says, “We are very proud to have sponsored and led this transaction. We believe Clarus represents the next platform opportunity for Trivergance to continue delivering on our track record of success in what we call the ‘Supply Chain of Customer Engagement.’ We have had great success in identifying trends early in these sectors and capitalising on these trends to rapidly scale companies and create tremendous value. Trivergance acts as an accelerator to help achieve outsized returns and do it faster.”
Byron adds: “With regard to Clarus, we see a tectonic shift coming in how brands and marketers engage and reward prospects and customers, and how strategies and programs like this are funded. Gone soon are the days where a loyalty program is funded solely by the brand in a vacuum, resulting in a major cost centre. Clarus’ suite of benefits and emerging solutions, in combination with specific intellectual property and operational know how of Trivergance, will deliver exciting innovations to this vast and highly fragmented market. Overall, the Clarus platform provides a ‘turn-key’ loyalty and membership management solution to its eCommerce and client partners that can be customised and rapidly implemented, increasing loyalty while at the same time driving profits to their bottom lines.”
Tom Caporaso, CEO of Clarus, says: “We had five great years with Norwest, which includes collaborating closely with Jon Kossow and David Su who have been active board members and great partners. Not only did they support us in materially growing the company to operational maturity, but we substantially grew both the top and bottom lines. With our new capital and operational partners, we can further scale the business and innovate the sector in ways that our product and platform yield significant and ongoing benefits to our consumers, eCommerce partners and ‘white label’ clients alike. The adoption of our first and core product Freeshipping.com is extensive across a network of more than 1,500 leading online retailers and other brands. They are hungry for further innovation that significantly drives more customer engagement, transactions, profitability, and ultimately more lifetime value. The industry can count on us to lead the way forward in re-inventing the dynamic sectors of loyalty, membership and rewards.”
Rafael Fogel, Partner at Falcon, says: “We’re pleased to be partnering with Trivergance to support this great company and management team in the loyalty and rewards management space.”
Chris Sullivan of Landon Capital Partners, adds: “We are delighted that this transaction will combine the Clarus team with the Trivergance team that brings unparalleled experience and success in direct to consumer marketing businesses over the past 20 years. We believe the Fortune 500 relationships Trivergance will bring to Clarus can further accelerate the company’s established outstanding track record of growth.”
Senior debt financing for this transaction has been provided by BBVA Compass Bank and Whitehorse Capital. Clarus Commerce was advised by Sanjay Chadda of Petsky Prunier, the leading investment bank for middle market transactions in the marketing, digital, eCommerce and related sectors.
