Tag Archives: Marketing

GP Bullhound advises Falcon.io on its sale to Cision

Gp Bullhound

Headquartered in Copenhagen, Falcon.io offers an integrated SaaS platform for social media listening, engaging, publishing, measuring, advertising and managing customer data. The Company enables its clients to explore the full potential of digital marketing by managing multiple customer touchpoints from one platform. Falcon.io’s diverse and global client portfolio includes Carlsberg, Toyota, William Grant & Sons, Momondo, Panasonic, Coca-Cola, and many more.

Cision Ltd. (NYSE:  CISN) is a leading global provider of earned media software and services to public relations and marketing communications professionals. By adding Falcon’s social marketing solutions to the Cision portfolio, Cision will allow industry professionals to execute sophisticated social media campaigns across paid, owned, and earned media that spans the entire customer journey.

“Social media is core to today’s customer experience, with nearly 2.5 billion users. At Falcon.io, we take pride in providing world-class brands with our leading social media marketing solution,” said Ulrik Bo Larsen, Falcon.io founder and CEO. “GP Bullhound was an outstanding advisor to us, with excellent sector knowledge and creative ideas throughout the entire process. Their team remained dedicated to delivering an outstanding result and we could not have achieved this outcome without the GP Bullhound team.”

Jonathan Cantwell, Director at GP Bullhound, commented: “Having known the Company and team for several years, we are thrilled to have advised Falcon in this important transaction. Cision and Falcon will be a force in the marketing comms and social space for a long time.”

This marks GP Bullhound’s 10th software transaction in the last twelve months and highlights the firm’s track record of working with leading SaaS companies globally. Selected previous transactions include Synthesio (sold to Ipsos), Rant & Rave (sold to Upland Software), Extenda (sold to STG Partners), TextRecruit (sold to iCIMS), and many others.

Inquiries
For inquiries please contact:
Jonathan Cantwell, Director, at Jonathan.Cantwell@gpbullhound.com
Carl Wessberg, Executive Director, at Carl.Wessberg@gpbullhound.com
Eric Crowley, Vice President, at Eric.Crowley@gpbullhound.com

About GP Bullhound
GP Bullhound is a leading technology advisory and investment firm, providing transaction advice and capital to the world’s best entrepreneurs and founders. Founded in 1999, the firm today has offices in London, San Francisco, Stockholm, Berlin, Manchester, Paris, Hong Kong, Madrid and New York. For more information, please visit www.gpbullhound.com, or follow on Twitter @GPBullhound.

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FiloBlu to accelerate its development with Ardian Growth

Ardian

Paris, 10 July 2018 – Ardian, a world-leading private investment house, today announces the acquisition of a minority stake in FiloBlu S.p.A., a leading digital consulting company based in Italy, focused on digital strategies, e-commerce and omnichannel to develop the online business and enhancing brand equity on a global scale for Brands and Retailers.

The strategic partnership between Ardian Growth and FiloBlu aims to accelerate the growth of the company by strengthening its organization and implementing an ambitious business strategy for the next three years. This partnership will lead to increased investments in research, innovation and training, while expanding FiloBlu’s international presence.

Christian Nucibella, founder of FiloBlu, said: “This partnership with a prestigious and world-leading investment house such as Ardian is an extraordinary opportunity for FiloBlu to strengthen our organization and achieve stronger growth. We will look to improve our ability to offer our clients and partners innovative services and cutting-edge technologies, helping them expand their business in the increasingly global marketplace and take advantage of the range of opportunities for growth offered by digital transformation.”

Laurent Foata, Managing Director of Ardian Growth, stated: “By carrying out this initiative alongside Christian Nucibella, we’re showing our desire to become a leading partner of companies like FiloBlu, which has put into practice an effective growth model on an international scale.”

Bertrand Schapiro, Senior Investment Manager at Ardian Growth, added: “After having combined profitability with very fast organic growth, FiloBlu is starting a new stage of its growth. We are pleased to support the company on its journey of further international expansion.”

The agreement comes at a particularly positive period for FiloBlu, which was recently awarded by Deloitte as one of the “Best Managed Companies” in Italy, and among the fastest-growing European digital companies, making Deloitte’s “Technology Fast 500 EMEA” ranking three years in a row since 2015. The company has also been ranked amongst the “Financial Times: 1000 Europe’s Fastest Growing Companies” for two years in a row since 2017.

ABOUT FILOBLU

FiloBlu is an ideal business partner for brands and retailers looking to develop their businesses and brand awareness internationally, thanks to a tailored sales, marketing and communication strategy that combines online shopping and brick-and-mortar retail. FiloBlu accompanies companies during the growth process. The joint initiatives of the parties are backed by data analysis using the dynamic Commerce Intelligence Platform, which gathers together the most important sources of information in real time. It has the capacity to connect a number of digital sources and monitor and analyse the behaviour and preferences of online users. FiloBlu provides its clients with a comprehensive array of local group companies in the most strategic markets, as well as integrated logistics facilities and a hub of competences with links to a network of international partners. Founded in 2009 by Christian Nucibella, FiloBlu has headquarters in Venice and offices in Milan, Naples, Lugano, Prague, New York, Shanghai and Hong Kong. One big, professional team of more than 120 people carries out digital-oriented business projects on a global scale.
www.filoblu.com

ABOUT ARDIAN

Ardian is a world-leading private investment house with assets of US$71bn managed or advised in Europe, the Americas and Asia. The company is majority-owned by its employees. It keeps entrepreneurship at its heart and focuses on delivering excellent investment performance to its global investor base. Through its commitment to shared outcomes for all stakeholders, Ardian’s activities fuel individual, corporate and economic growth around the world. Holding close its core values of excellence, loyalty and entrepreneurship, Ardian maintains a truly global network, with more than 500 employees working from fourteen offices across Europe (Frankfurt, Jersey, London, Luxembourg, Madrid, Milan, Paris and Zurich), the Americas (New York, San Francisco and Santiago) and Asia (Beijing, Singapore, Tokyo). It manages funds on behalf of around 700 clients through five pillars of investment expertise: Fund of Funds, Direct Funds, Infrastructure, Real Estate and Private Debt.
Ardian on Twitter @Ardian
www.ardian.com

LIST OF PARTIES INVOLVED

Filoblu : Christian Nucibella, Alberto Arcolin, Gaia Coller
Financial Advisor: Buttignon Zotti Milan & Co (Fabio Buttignon, Antonio Zotti, Lucia Scarpari)
Ardian : Laurent Foata, Bertrand Schapiro
Legal Advisor: Giovannelli e Associati (Fabrizio Scaparro, Paola Cairoli, Matilde Finucci)
Financial Advisor : KPMG Italy (Fabrizio Scaparro, Paola Cairoli, Matilde Finucci)

PRESS CONTACTS

FILOBLU
 PR & PRESS – AD MIRABILIA Tel. +39 02 4382191 filoblu@admirabilia.it
Manuela Lubrano Tel. +39 02 43821937 Cell. +39 349 2410696
Valeria Dalcore Cell. +39 3403861104
ARDIAN PR & PRESS – HEADLAND
Carl Leijonhufvud Cell. +44 020 3805 482 cleijonhufvud@headlandconsultancy.com

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Up-and-coming Customer Data Platform CrossEngage obtains fresh capital

Project A

The MarTech startup company based in Berlin convinces new investors – Vorwerk Ventures is on board

Berlin, November 1st 2017 – The Berlin-based marketing technology company CrossEngage will receive additional funding of 5 million euros. After its successful foundation in July 2015 and subsequent 7-digit seed financing round at the beginning of 2016, the company is attracting new investors and additional ownership interests from existing shareholders. The new round of financing will be led by Vorwerk Ventures as a new shareholder, as well as the existing investor Earlybird Venture Capital. The existing investors Project A, VC Fonds Kreativwirtschaft which is managed by IBB Beteiligungsgesellschaft, Cavalry Ventures, 42 Capital, Capnamic Ventures, Ventech and TA Ventures are also increasing their holdings.

In the last two years, the Berlin-based company has focused on product development and grown into a leading customer data platform on the German market. CrossEngage technology enables advertisers to reach their target audiences through individualised messages and automated selection and combination of marketing channels. User data from online and offline marketing channels are summarised and evaluated in real time. This enables marketers to immediately implement consistent campaigns across all marketing channels. Customers such as Contorion, BodyChange, HelloFresh and Deutsche Bahn Vertriebs GmbH are already working successfully with the CrossEngage solution.

The two founders Dr. Markus Wübben and Manuel Hinz are now using the new capital from this financing round to expand their international business and further develop the technology. The aim is to further optimise the platform and offer an even more effective cross-channel marketing approach by applying artificial intelligence, especially on an international level. CrossEngage has been active on the UK market since September 2017. Dan McKinnon, Head of Sales UK, is responsible for customer expansion in London.

US market researcher Gartner published its annual analysis report on business technologies in August 2017. 32 trends were analysed in the “Hype Cycle for Digital Marketing and Advertising”. Gartner already described customer data platforms as an up-and-coming, innovative solution for marketers in last year’s report. In the current report, the market researcher emphasises the benefits of bundling all customer data within a customer data platform as the basis for effective and flexible marketing. The challenge and at the same time the pressure for marketers to have a 360° customer view for a relevant and personalised cross-device and cross-channel address is currently at its peak. CrossEngage is the pioneer in the German market for this trend.

Norbert Muschong, General Manager Vorwerk Ventures, comments: “We see strong growth potential in CrossEngage and are convinced by its technological know-how. We believe that the start-up’s technology can also compete internationally and we are therefore very optimistic that the company will continue to establish itself strongly in the coming year”.

Dr. Florian Heinemann, Partner at Project A, adds: “Within the last two years, CrossEngage has developed an effective and competitive MarTech platform, which offers real orchestration of marketing tools and, above all, has already convinced well-known customers. We are pleased about the success and look forward to continuing to accompany the Berlin team on its way into the international market”.

About CrossEngage

CrossEngage is a leading customer data platform for cross-channel campaign management. The technology enables customer loyalty and thus increases marketing profitability through personalised, real-time campaigns across all channels. Customers include Deutsche Bahn Vertrieb, HelloFresh, Contorion, BodyChange, Stylefile, Friendsurance and Mycs. In addition to Vorwerk Ventures, Project A, Earlybird Venture Capital, VC Fonds Kreativwirtschaft managed by IBB Beteiligungsgesellschaft, Capnamic Ventures, Ventech, 42 Capital and Cavalry Ventures, the sponsors include numerous business angels who are prominent in the field. The Berlin location currently employs 45 people. www.crossengage.io

 

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Ardian sells its stake in TimeOne

Ardian

Paris – October 2nd 2017 – Ardian, the independent private investment company, today announces the sale of its stake in TimeOne, the independent French leader in digital marketing, to Edmond de Rothschild Investment Partners’ ActoMezz investment team.

Ralph Ruimy, co-founder of TimeOne, sells its stakes and Sylvain Gross, co-founder of TimeOne, becomes Group CEO. Sylvain Gross and the Group managers strongly increase their stake.

TimeOne was created as a result of the merger of Public-Idées and Place des Leads in 2016, with the support of Ardian Growth. Following the transaction, TimeOne cemented its position as an independent French leader in online marketing in France, with a consolidated turnover of nearly €50 million.

Specialising in data analytics, the company’s activity is structured around three priorities: Content, Data and Technologies. TimeOne covers all stages of the client conversion funnel (reputation, engagement, conversion, re-purchase) via its online marketing solutions: Performance, Mobile, Lead Management Technology, Native, Social, Programmatic and Publishing.

In addition to France, the Group is present in the United Kingdom, Spain, Italy, South Africa, Asia, and South America.

Through close collaboration between Ardian Growth and the TimeOne management team, the Group successfully adopted a new identity, integrated technological solutions and developed a complete service offering, while maintaining steady and profitable growth of over 10%.

Sylvain Gross, CEO of TimeOne Group, said: “With the support of Ardian Growth, TimeOne has undergone transformational change. We look forward to working with Edmond de Rothschild Investment Partners as TimeOne continues to realise its ambitious growth plans.”

Romain Chiudini, Senior Investment Manager at Ardian Growth, added: “We are pleased to have supported the founding team in the development of TimeOne Group. It was an important stage in which we played a key role as a strategic partner. As ever, it was also important to us that the management team had the right resources to maintain the company’s growth dynamic after the sale, which will certainly be the case with a partner like Edmond de Rothschild Investment Partners.”

Ralph Ruimy, co-founder of TimeOne said: “I’m delighted to sell my stake to leading investors as Edmond de Rothschild Investment Partners and wish every success to my former partners and colleagues.”

Arnaud Faure, Deputy Director at ActoMezz within Edmond de Rothschild Investment Partners, added: “We are convinced that TimeOne has the strong basis needed to pursue its development in France but also abroad. Its Data Marketing Platform, unique technological expertise across all its activities, and its numerous innovations have propelled the company to become a leader within the digital marketing sector. Together with the management, our ambition is to grow the turnover to over €70 million in four years.”

ABOUT TIMEONE

TimeOne is an innovative Marketing Services group. The Group’s activities are structured around three priorities: Content – Data – Technologies. By combining expertise in content creation, machine learning, prescriptive marketing, performance and real-time activation, TimeOne is adding new value to media. With a well-established reputation in prescriptive marketing and a common technological base (DMP), TimeOne is founded on strong innovation made possible through its substantial Research and Development activity. TimeOne covers all online marketing solutions: Performance, Mobile, Lead Management Technology, Native, Social, Programmatic and Publishing. The Group is present in France, the United Kingdom, Spain, Italy, South Africa, Asia and South America.

https://www.timeonegroup.com/

ABOUT EDMOND DE ROTHSCHILD INVESTMENT PARTNERS

About Edmond de Rothschild Investment Partners

Edmond de Rothschild Investment Partners, a leading firm in the area of unlisted investment, manages over €1.8bn in life sciences (BioDiscovery), growth capital and succession (Winch Capital for mid caps and Cabestan Capital for small caps) and mezzanine financing (ActoMezz).
Edmond de Rothschild Investment Partners will continue to raise funds in its current segments, soon bringing its assets under management to more than €2bn. Based in Paris, Edmond de Rothschild Investment Partners is a firm with 58 employees of which 40 are investment professionals. It is 51% owned by the Edmond de Rothschild Group and 49% owned by the management company’s partners and employees.

ABOUT ACTOMEZZ

ActoMezz is a team of eight investors who support via mezzanine and minority capital (i) the management teams of French small-mid-cap SMEs valued between €15m and €200m in their efforts to take over the majority shareholding of their company (sponsorless transaction) or in the financing of their development and (ii) investment funds via mezzanine sponsor transactions. With €700m under management, ActoMezz has carried out 37 transactions since its creation in 2006 and invests €5m to €45m per transaction.

www.edrip.fr

ABOUT ARDIAN

Ardian, founded in 1996 and led by Dominique Senequier, is an independent private investment company with assets of US$65bn managed or advised in Europe, North America and Asia. The company, which is majority- owned by its employees, keeps entrepreneurship at its heart and delivers investment performance to its global investors while fuelling growth in economies across the world. Ardian’s investment process embodies three values: excellence, loyalty and entrepreneurship. Ardian maintains a truly global network, with more than 470 employees working through twelve offices in Paris, London, Frankfurt, Milan, Madrid, Zurich, New York, San Francisco, Beijing, Singapore, Jersey, Luxembourg. The company offers its 610 investors a diversified choice of funds covering the full range of asset classes, including Ardian Funds of Funds (primary, early secondary and secondary), Ardian Private Debt, Ardian Buyout (including Ardian Mid Cap Buyout Europe & North America, Ardian Expansion, Ardian Growth and Ardian Co-Investment), Ardian Infrastructure, Ardian Real Estate and Ardian Mandates.

www.ardian.com

LIST OF PARTICIPANTS

Ardian: Laurent Foata, Romain Chiudini
Edmond de Rothschild Investment Partners: Arnaud Faure, Christine Martinovic, Antoine Soucaze
TimeOne: Sylvain Gross, Ralph Ruimy
Banks: LCL (Chloé Fournier, Laurent Suscosse), Crédit du Nord (Pierre Delorme), Caisse Epargne Ile de France (Philippe De Oliveira, Julien Jonasson), BNPP (Hélène Faure, Amélie Roseandrieux, David Eyraud)

Sales advisory:

Investment banker: DC Advisory (François Prioux, Alexis Baron, Timothée Héron)
Lawyers: McDermott Will & Emery (Diana Hund, Marie-Muriel Barthelet, Claire Barra)
Tax: McDermott Will & Emery (Antoine Vergnat, Romain Desmonts)
Financing: McDermott Will & Emery (Pierre-Arnoux Mayoly, Benjamin Briand, Alice Beral)
Social: McDermott Will & Emery (Myrtille Lapuelle)
Financial review: KPMG (Antoine Bernabeu, Guillaume Staal, David Martinet)

Edmond de Rothschild Investment Partners Advisors:

Legal: Hogan Lovells (Stéphane Huten, Florian Brechon, Sarah Naidji)
Tax: Hogan Lovells (Bruno Knadjian, Laurent Ragot)
Social: Hogan Lovells (Thierry Meillat, Alexandra Tuil)
Financing: Hogan Lovells (Alexander Premont, Guergana Zabounova, Isabelle Rivallin)
Strategic: Neovian (Patrick Richer, Kevin Bailey)
Financial: ACA Nexia (Hervé Krissi, Olivier Duval, Maxime Grélou)

Banking advisory:

Legal: CBCH Associés (Chukri Serhal, Carole Geara)

PRESS CONTACTS

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Bisnode acquires Global Group

Ratos

Ratos’s subsidiary Bisnode is acquiring Global Group Dialog Solutions AG, a German leading marketing solutions provider. The acquisition is a key element of Bisnode’s strategy to become the most wanted partner for data and analytics in Europe. In conjunction with the transaction, Ratos is contributing approximately SEK 54m for its holding.

Bisnode is strengthening its market position through the acquisition of Global Group. The company has approximately 60 employees and its head office in Idstein, Germany. Annual sales are approximately EUR 10.5m. Through its strong customer relationships, its marketing service portfolio offering and its proprietary consumer database, Global Group is one of the leading marketing providers for the German-speaking world.

“With its proprietary consumer database and sophisticated marketing solutions capabilities, Global Group represents a key building block in continuing to deliver on Bisnode’s strategy to become the most wanted partner for data and analytics in Europe. Global Group will enable us to offer further services to our German-speaking markets, but its offering also contributes to Bisnode’s product development initiatives for the next generation of marketing solutions,” says Magnus Silfverberg, CEO of Bisnode.

The acquisition is expected to be completed at the end of April 2017.

Ratos became a principal owner of Bisnode in 2005. Today, Bisnode is one of the leading European providers of decision support, focusing on helping companies and organisations to make smart decisions.
– See more at: http://ratos.se/en/Press/Press-releases/2017/Ratos-AB-Bisnode-acquires-Global-Group/#sthash.BtHiNEgD.dpuf

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reichweite² becomes part of Sovendus

Bregal unternehmerkapital

With the support of Bregal Unternehmerkapital, Karlsruhe-based online marketing firm Sovendus has acquired reichweite² beratung & medien GmbH, Ulm, thereby further strengthening its market position as the leader in check-out page marketing.

At the end of 2015 Bregal Unternehmerkapital acquired a minority stake in Sovendus. In the first half of 2016, Bregal supported the firm in its acquisition of the online marketing companies Tharuka and RMD Regional Marketing Deutschland.

Sovendus GmbH was founded in 2008. Its customers now include more than 850 online shops, numerous online portals, over 35 magazine publishers, 240 newspaper publishers and plenty of other product providers. Sovendus offers a whole range of marketing solutions for the check-out page of e-commerce shops and among others offers attractive deals and positive shopping experiences to generate additional sales, direct revenues and high-quality newsletter addresses for its shop partners. It also markets checkout pages and places regionally focused online offers on behalf of publishers. Together with the integrated services from Tharuka and RMD, this enables Sovendus to reach more than 20 million online customers a month in seven European countries.

reichweite² also addresses customers of online shops individually straight after an online purchase. It uses e-mails, call centres and offline campaigns to market subscriptions of newspapers and magazines, digital products such as audio books and non-print products. In addition to its Ulm location, the company, which was founded over 13 years ago, also has offices in Herisau, Switzerland. Its 400 customers include renowned publishing houses and well-known online shops as well as mail-order firms and agencies.

Together with reichweite², Sovendus will be able to further expand its customer base and product offering for check-out page marketing solutions. Furthermore, the proprietary technology developed by reichweite² will help Sovendus to strengthen its innovation leadership. The acquisition is also an important step for growing the partner network. We look forward to providing Sovendus with sustained support based on partnership as the company continues to grow.

Press contact:

IRA WÜLFING KOMMUNIKATION
Dr. Reinhard Saller
Phone: +49 89 2000 30-30
bregal@wuelfing-kommunikation.de

 

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