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- Climb's M&A Weekly: Luminate Capital Partners, Typeface and TA Associates all feature
Climb's M&A Weekly: Luminate Capital Partners, Typeface and TA Associates all feature
Luminate Capital Partners make their first acquisition of the year and a Gen AI unicorn backed by names such as Salesforce, Google, Microsoft, Menlo and Lightspeed Venture Partners makes a double acquisition.
Nick @ Climb
September 22, 2024
In partnership with
Welcome to Climb Advisor’s weekly deal newsletter highlighting transactions announced last week across the B2B tech landscape.
Climb Advisors is an M&A and credit advisory firm focused on B2B software and services companies in the range of $5m to $100m+ enterprise value. We guide CEOs and business owners through the process of selling their business & assist investors in sourcing & closing great deals. We love to talk markets and share beneficial information - please reach out any time.
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Luminate Capital Partners acquires AbsenceSoft from Norwest Venture Partners and Bow River Capital
Overview: Luminate has made AbsenceSoft their first transaction of 2024, and the first acquisition from their upcoming fourth fund. The Colorado based company provides a SaaS platform which helps over 300 clients manage leave of absences, such as paternity and maternity leave, and other accommodations. This announcement also sees both Norwest and Bow River exit completely. Read more here.
Climb Comment: AbsenceSoft (153 employees per LinkedIn) helps manage logistics and compliance around employee leave. Their site claims that in an enterprise up to 20% of employees are on leave at any given time and that there are more than 120 frequently changing laws pertaining to leave. Always positive to see tech solutions which blend regulatory compliance with improved employee experience. HR tech often moves towards a platform approach so will be interesting to see if Luminate seeks bolt-ons or continues to run as a leading point solution.
Salesforce Ventures backed Typeface adds Treat and Narrato
Overview: Generative AI startup Typeface, which focuses on enterprise content creation, has added a pair of fellow Gen AI companies to bolster their tech stack. NYC based Treat uses customer data to generate product images that contain aspects designed to perform well with certain demographics. Similarly, Australian base Narrato provides access to an AI content assistant that helps companies with content creation and planning. This announcement marks Typeface’s third and fourth acquisitions, with the company raising a $100m Series B round at a $1B valuation in June of last year. Read more here.
Climb Comment: Two Gen AI deals that make a lot of sense - with both strengthening key use cases for Typeface while adding strong talent. Typeface builds Gen AI content creation systems - enabling training for customized brand voice, easy collaboration, & integration into enterprise tools. Treat ($8m+ raised) creates image targeting based on brand/customer data and Narrato ($1m+ raised) focuses on workflow, tooling & content planning. Great adds for typeface & kudos to all.
Advantive appears again with deal for Comsense
Overview: Advantive, a mission critical software provider focusing on specialty manufacturing and distribution businesses, previously appeared in a July version of our newsletter when they acquired Pepperi. The company which is backed by Insight Partners, TA Associates and ST6 continue their global expansion here, albeit closer to home this time, adding Toronto based Comsense. The Canadian company provides ERP software for architectural opening distributors, helping Advantive solidify their presence in construction-related materials distribution. Read more here.
Climb Comment: Another deal in specialty ERP, this time in the ‘doors, windows, & hardware’ space. Comsense built a platform that caters to the unique needs of architectural opening distributors. These are some of our favorite types of businesses at Climb - a unique and direct tech solution to a scaled and complex real world problem. When a distributor needs to quote the sale of 10,000 pieces of door hardware for a commercial client, they can use Comsense to build out order workflows, quote prices, and generate specs. The business was founded in 1989 and finds a home with an active and growing strategic partner with Advantive.
Agellus Capital recapitalizes Blackpoint IT Services
Overview: PE firm Agellus Capital has recapitalized Blackpoint IT Services, a provider of managed IT and cybersecurity services for SMBs across the US. Based in Seattle, Blackpoint IT provides 24/7 monitoring and IT support through tailored managed services, cloud and software hosting, cybersecurity and consulting. Co-Founders James and Lesleigh Watson will retain a significant ownership in the business with Agellus looking to partner with founders and management teams to drive growth in non-discretionary, essential services businesses. Read more here.
Climb Comment: IT Services demand remains strong and especially with a cybersecurity overlap. SMBs will continue to seek outsourced help & Blackpoint is well positioned to grow alongside their customers. Agellus announced the close of their debut $400m fund in July and this marks their first investment from the vehicle. Agellus is targeting businesses with $2m-$20m in ebitda in services & supply chain.
TA Associates, Five Arrows, and Nordic Capital backed RLDatix acquires SocialClimb
Overview: RLDatix is adding to its suite of connected healthcare operations software and services by acquiring SocialClimb. The healthtech company supplies provider groups, hospitals and healthcare systems with patient satisfaction, reputation management and revenue growth solutions. Their technology helps clients gather important data such as patient outcomes, NPS scores and patient population demographic data. Read more here.
Climb Comment: Patient-based care has been the direction of healthcare over the last decade and tech is going a long way to help enable that. RLDatix offers a broad platform of connected care solutions to make clinical care more efficient and pleasant for clinicians, patients, and administrative staff. SocialClimb is a HIPAA compliant marketing engine for practices & hospital groups to succeed in local search, value-based patient targeting and post-care surveys.
Article of the week
This week’s article comes from Pete Flint and is titled The Verticalization of Everything - it relates to the world of vertical SaaS, in particular the role AI is set to play in deepening vertical SaaS companies dominating their horizontal counterparts.
Thanks for following along & hope you found something useful or interesting.
All the best,
Nick