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- Climb's M&A Weekly: BV Investment Partners, Dropbox and Longshore Capital all feature
Climb's M&A Weekly: BV Investment Partners, Dropbox and Longshore Capital all feature
BV invest in an edtech giant to help them expand in the US and beyond, whilst Dropbox target scheduling and calendar management
Nick @ Climb
August 25, 2024
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.
Edtech company Kami receives major investment from BV Investment Partners
Overview: Kami is a classroom engagement and teacher productivity content provider headquartered in New Zealand, which serves over 40M teachers and students. This sizable investment from PE firm BV values the company at $175M and is aimed at strengthening their presence in the US, where they already serve 2000 school districts, and then replicate this across other areas of the globe. Kami simplifies workflows, increases student engagement, and reduces printing costs — the four founders will continue to operate the business & open a US hub in Boston. Read more here.
Climb Comment: Kami’s modern tools for teachers and students include AI-created assessments & offer real-time monitoring as well as a full suite of lesson creation materials that students & teachers can interact with digitally. They are well integrated into leading LMS & other edtech systems & message that their tools improve student engagement and save teachers time, leading to better learning. A US based office will help expand into additional districts & we’d expect to see them make some acquisitions in the near to mid-term.
Reclaim.ai bought by Dropbox
Overview: Reclaim.ai, an AI-powered scheduling tool that had raised over $9.5M from investors such as Index Ventures and Calendly, has been bought by file management giant Dropbox. Reclaim’s product suite aims to help users better manage their time through scheduling meetings, tasks, building personal habits and taking breaks. This software fits in with Dropbox’s mission of creating “a more enlightened way of working” as productivity companies continue to focus on integrating calendar management and scheduling tools. Read more here.
Climb Comment: Interesting play here from Dropbox & yet another example of an incumbent acquiring a team & product focused on generative AI. Reclaim’s thesis, echoed in prior management comments from Dropbox, is that the calendar serves as the truest system of record within an enterprise. CRMs may or may not be updated, email contains excess static, but a calendar shows a true overview of the bulk of internal & external events taking place in a company. It’s a valid thesis. Whether Dropbox is able to evolve beyond a file-sharing & storage platform into more of an ‘everything app’ is TBD, but the team, product & customers from Reclaim will certainly aid their efforts. Based on Reclaim’s last funding announcement being in 2021 we imagine that Dropbox likely acquired at a good value.
Danaher Corporation acquires Genedata AG
Overview: Life sciences and diagnostics giant Danaher is acquiring Genedata, a provider of software solutions for biopharmaceutical R&D. The Swiss company helps biopharmaceutical organizations boost their R&D productivity by automating what tend to be extremely data intensive and complex R&D processes. A perfect addition to Danaher’s workflow suite which aims to accelerate the speed of drug discovery, development and manufacturing for critical new therapies. Read more here.
Climb Comment: Genedata is a longstanding leader in the drug discovery space, serving some of the world’s largest pharma companies (a customer set shared with Danaher) and executing on present and future AI integrations. Deal terms were undisclosed but Danaher was sitting on ~$2.3B in cash as of June so certainly well positioned for M&A.
Trinity Hunt Partners backed Supreme Group makes BioStrata their 4th acquisition
Overview: Supreme Group’s platform offers business, communication and marketing services to the life science and healthcare industries. This deal sees them specifically target the life science marketing piece, with BioStrata specializing in integrated marketing communications for the life science sector. The London based company will also help the acquirer expand their global reach and will continue to operate under its brand name as a standalone organization, becoming the 4th business unit in the Supreme Group portfolio. Read more here.
Climb Comment: Strong platform growth for Supreme Group since Trinity Hunt launched the platform in June ‘23 by combining two biotech focused agencies, with a 3rd acquired in March of this year. Interesting to note that BioStrata will continue to operate under their existing branding, with likely optimizations occurring in the background. The acquisition also deepens Supreme Group’s presence in the UK & Europe.
Longshore Capital backed Blue Wheel acquires Day One Digital
Overview: Blue Wheel, an omni-channel digital commerce and marketplace agency has acquired Day One Digital. Headquartered in Seattle, with an additional office in Austin, Day One is a full-service Amazon agency offering sales support, supply chain accounting and category management. Their addition boosts Blue Wheel’s service offerings and customer base whilst strengthening their expertise when it comes to Amazon, with the Day One team set to be retained post close. Read more here.
Climb Comment: Strategic agency deal with both businesses focusing on managing cross-platform e-commerce for global enterprise brands, Day One taking a special focus on Amazon. Blue Wheel claims to manage more than $1B in revenue for brands like Thermos & 5 Hour Energy and Day One counts marquee brands like General Mills & Hain Celestial among their customers. The agencies will combine strengths across a number of disciplines from TikTok advertising to supply chain management. Kudos to all involved.
Article of the week
Great listen here from the Cloud Returns team, with Matt Harney interviewing Nick Tippman, a vertical saas-focused angel investor. They cover the impact of Gen AI, the importance of payments/fintech in vertical ecosystems, and how Nick thinks about TAM, founder fit, and more. Informative for founders & investors alike.
Thanks for following along & hope you found something useful or interesting.
All the best,
Nick