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- Climb's M&A Weekly: Thoma Bravo, GTCR, and Providence Equity all feature
Climb's M&A Weekly: Thoma Bravo, GTCR, and Providence Equity all feature
Thoma Bravo takes Verint private and GTCR acquires Innovative Software
Climb Advisors Weekly
August 31, 2025
Welcome back to the Climb Advisors weekly newsletter with five deals from across the B2B tech landscape.
Climb Advisors focuses on sell-side advisory for B2B Software and services companies generating $5m-$15m in revenue. We also advise on credit solutions for companies of the same profile & in select cases engage in retained buy-side processes for quality buyers. We love to talk markets and make introductions - please don’t hesitate to reach out if you’re a founder or investor looking to transact.
Thoma Bravo acquires Verint in a take private deal valued at $2 billion in cash
Overview: Thoma Bravo purchases Verint Systems, a customer engagement and analytics software provider, in an all-cash take-private deal valued at $2 billion EV. Verint is designed to enhance customer engagement at touchpoints including contact centers, back offices, websites and more. With demand for AI-powered engagement tools rising, Thoma Bravo is looking to capitalize on this trend and scale Verint further as a private company in its portfolio. Read more here.
Climb Comment: The deal values Verint at ~$20.50 per share, representing only an 18% premium to its 10 day volume weighted moving average. Verint’s stock had been struggling before the announcement having been down over 25% YTD before Thoma Bravo announced the acquisition. The deal values Verint at ~16x trailing EBITDA. Thoma Bravo plans on integrating Verint with Calabrio, a workforce management platform already in Thoma Bravo’s portfolio. Thoma Bravo has made some massive acquisitions this year highlighted by its recent $12.3 billion take private of Dayforce, Thoma Bravo’s largest deal to date.
GTCR acquires Innovative Systems, a provider of mission critical software
Overview: GTCR acquires Innovative Systems, a provider of mission-critical software for enterprises from Alpine Investors. Innovative Systems’s platform provides mission critical operating and billing software systems as well as payments and bill processing. GTCR is looking to replicate its successful investments in Lexipol and Once For All, both vertical market software companies. Read more here.
Climb Comment: With the investment, GTCR has brought in Scott Alcott to lead Innovative Systems as CEO. GTCR is going to look to expand Innovative Systems and pursue M&A throughout the vertical market software, payments, and telecommunications infrastructure spaces. There has been increased demand for mission critical software over the past few years and it has been very attractive for private equity investment.
Maria DB, backed by K1, acquires SkySQL
Overview: MariaDB, backed by K1 Investment Management, acquires SkySQL, an AI-powered serverless database-as-a-service. The deal will combine MariaDB’s open-source relational database with SkySQL’s cloud-native platform, allowing enterprises to shift workloads to a fully managed environment. As cloud adoption accelerates, MariaDB is aiming to give its customers more flexibility with its offerings. Read more here.
Climb Comment: Interestingly, SkySQL was originally developed by MariaDB and was spun off in 2023. The company has since significantly developed its product offering. Before being taken private by K1, MariaDB’s stock had tumbled ~94% since its IPO. This acquisition will strengthen MariaDB’s cloud services as MariaDB’s Cloud division provides a provisioned database on all three major public clouds. The public clouds being AWS, Azure, and Google Cloud. SkySQL can scale easily with serverless workloads and AI driven applications. K1 is expected to provide follow-on capital to fund integration and expansion.
Providence Equity Partners acquires a majority stake in Modern Campus, a provider of higher education software solutions
Overview: Providence Equity Partners makes a growth investment in Modern Campus, a leading provider of higher education software solutions. Modern Campus serves over 2,000 colleges and universities with products designed to boost enrollment, retention, and student engagement. It is a learner-to-earner lifecycle platform for higher education. Modern Campus also introduces Craig Chanoff as CEO. Read more here.
Climb Comment: Modern Campus has numerous higher education solutions including purpose-built content management systems, catalog and curriculum solutions, engagement tools, and a student information system designed for life after college. Providence Equity has a vast amount of experience in both the education sectors and the vertical software market, with prior investments in Blackboard and Ascend Learning. Providence Equity plans to invest in product development and support add-on acquisitions. The new CEO, Craig Chanoff, brings over 20 years of SaaS experience and was previously the Chief Revenue Officer at a K-12 SaaS online safety company.
General Atlantic invests $115 million in Starian, a Brazil based software provider
Overview: General Atlantic makes a $115 million growth investment in Starian, a Brazil-based software provider focused on the private sector. Starian offers SaaS tools to three major verticals including construction, legal intelligence, and operational efficiency. LatAm and specifically General Atlantic plans to grow Starian inorganically in a fast growing market. Read more here.
Climb Comment: Latin America, and Brazil in particular, is one of the fastest growing markets anywhere in the world and has been a hot bed for investment recently. As valuations and competition rise in developed markets, investors are increasingly looking to emerging markets for investment. Starian was recently carved out from Softplan, one of the largest technology SaaS companies in Brazil. As a result of the carve out, Starian will focus exclusively on the private sector, while Softplan will focus strictly on the public sector. General Atlantic has been very active in the LatAm market and it sees massive tailwinds in this region.
Article of the week
The article this week is once again from Goehring & Rozencwajg. A commodity focused hedge fund that puts out excellent quarterly commentaries about the current cycles for commodities and their long term view.
Thanks for following along & hope you found something useful or interesting. Please don’t hesitate to reach out if you’re considering a sale this year - we’re always glad to chat & share perspective.
All the best,
Nick