23 April 2018: Hg today announces the sale of Allocate Software (“Allocate”), the leading international provider of healthcare workforce management software, to Vista Equity Partners (“Vista”). The terms of the transaction have not been disclosed.
Allocate supports the operational and administrative needs of healthcare professionals in all healthcare settings, enabling the delivery of safe and effective care at optimal cost, by helping organisations to have the right people in the right place at the right time. Allocate serves the largest public and private healthcare institutions around the world, with over 800 clients and over a million staff rostered daily – over 700,000 of which are now managed on the ‘Optima’ software-as-a-service platform. Allocate has 500 employees, with over 170 working in the R&D and product management function. It is headquartered in the UK.
Hg initially invested in Allocate at the end of 2014, completing a public-to-private transaction from the London Stock Exchange. Since then Hg has worked with management to materially enhance the capabilities of Allocate’s software suite, achieved greater customer engagement and supported a substantial increase in employment and skills development – with the business now employing 500 people, compared to 300 when Hg first invested. Allocate has also recently initiated a programme of international growth, seeding the future roll-out of Allocate’s core ‘Optima’ product in France, Germany, Spain and Denmark.
This is the fifth realisation from the Mercury 1 Fund to date, which in aggregate has delivered realised returns of 3.2x and a gross IRR of 46%, including proceeds from the prior sales of Zitcom to Intelligent (announced in June 2017 for 3.3x and 141% gross IRR) and Relay Software to Applied Systems (announced in August 2016 for 2.1x cost and 39% gross IRR).
Dr. Sati Sian, CEO, Allocate, said:
“The significant investment and partnership with Hg over the period has supported the company to provide valued solutions to over a million additional healthcare, and other, workers in around 11 different countries worldwide. This has helped our customers improve care delivery, provide a better experience for workers, while at the same time enabling individual organisations each to unlock as much as £4 million in annualised savings.”
David Issott, Partner at Hg, said:
“We have been delighted to partner with all of the team at Allocate over the last 3 years. Together we have built a leader in its sector and, working with an impressive management team, we have improved the operational performance of Allocate across every metric. We wish Sati and the management team well as they partner with Vista for their next phase of growth.”
