Private equity firm Spire Capital has partnered with Grant Evans and the founders of Telekenex, a provider of hosted communications, security solutions and managed network/IT solutions to small and medium-sized business (SMB) and enterprise customers.
The company's offerings include hosted Voice-over Internet Protocol (VoIP), managed access/MPLS services, security solutions and value-added managed services.
This marks Spire's second investment in Spire's third fund.
Founded in San Francisco, California in 1994, Telekenex serves over 800 customers in the US, which range from SMB customers to larger, multi-location enterprises and offer bundled, hosted managed IT solutions to a variety of sectors including retail, financial services, technology, and healthcare, among others. Telekenex's services are offered in a bundled, hosted solution or a la carte and include hosted VoIP, fiber and wireless data access, wireless device management, firewall, secure VPN, content filtering, antivirus and PCI compliant network services.
Evans joined the company upon Spire's investment to serve as the chief executive officer. Evans previously served as the chairman and CEO of ActiveIdentity and prior to that as the CEO of A4Vision.
"I am very excited to join Telekenex alongside the Founders as a valued leader. Brandon Chaney and Anthony Zabit have built an amazing team and company serving over 800 customers today. We plan to aggressively expand the IT services, data/voice services and security solutions offering at Telekenex to better provide our customers and new customers with broader solution sets and new services," says Evans. "The convergence of hosted communications, cloud services, IT services and security solutions in today's marketplace provides a great opportunity for us, our partners and our customers. Partnering with Spire Capital will provide the strategic focus and investment needed for Telekenex to continue to be a leading provider for converging IT solutions in the coming years."
"Anthony and I have enjoyed building a great company and demonstrating our ability to create an IT platform that provides premium solutions," says Brandon Chaney, a founder of Telekenex. "We believe we are in the first stages of enhanced convergence of IT solutions. He and I will continue to lead the Company alongside Grant, and couldn't be happier about the additional resources and enhanced leadership he and Spire will bring to the company."
"The company has developed strong relationships with partners and end customers since its founding, while successfully innovating and growing new services," says David Schaible, partner at Spire Capital. "We are excited to partner with Telekenex, Grant Evans, Brandon Chaney and Anthony Zabit. There will be numerous areas for new investment to expand Telekenex's service offerings and additional capital to acquire other providers that would expand the ecosystem the company serves. Bryan Koehler will also be joining the team as the CFO at Telekenex. Bryan had served as the CFO at one of our previous companies, Certiport, and will complement this team immensely."
DA Davidson & Co acted as financial advisor to Telekenex and Gunderson Dettmer Stough Villeneuve Franklin & Hachigian served as legal counsel to the company. Denton's served as legal counsel to Spire Capital and senior debt capital was provided for this transaction by Webster Bank.
