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- Climb's M&A Weekly: Deals by Commvault, Beefree and Thoughtworks
Climb's M&A Weekly: Deals by Commvault, Beefree and Thoughtworks
Commvault aims to boost recovery speed post attack and Thoughtworks adds Watchful to increase speed of AI deployment
Nick @ Climb
April 21, 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.
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Commvault boosts recovery capabilities by acquiring Appranix
Overview: Commvault (NASDAQ: CVLT) provides a cyber resilience platform that combines data security and rapid recovery solutions. This deal for Appranix helps them to address a major challenge faced by organizations today, rebuilding cloud applications after an outage or attack. Appranix has developed software to protect and recover applications running in the public clouds with their team of approx. 70 employees expected to join Commvault post acquisition. Read more here.
Climb Comment: Fast response to get customers back up and running again after a cyberattack or cloud outage is a huge value add for a business like Commvault operating in the cyber resilience space. Not a huge deal for Commvault in terms of scale, but highly strategic and no doubt the additional team will create leverage alongside the product.
Thoughtworks add Watchful to shorten time for AI deployment
Overview: Leading global technology consultancy firm Thoughtworks (NASDAQ: TWKS) has announced a deal for Watchful that sees them add both tech and a talented team of 15 AI professionals. Based in San Francisco, Watchful helps organizations create, improve and deploy AI models with Thoughtworks aiming to provide their clients with faster returns on their AI investments by expediting the proof of concept to production process. Read more here.
Climb Comment: Another instance of a professional services/consulting firm acquiring a generative AI startup. As orgs race to implement & integrate AI, consultants are racing to keep up and to gain market leadership specifically in the new AI landscape. Acquisitions like this add beachhead, talent, & product - Watchful CEO Shayan Mohanty has been appointed Head of AI Research within Thoughtworks - bringing key new strengths to Thoughtworks team of more than 10,000.
Beefree acquire Really Good Emails (RGE) to boost content creation side of their business
Overview: Beefree, a business unit of Growens (GROW: IM) and a provider of no-code email creation tools, is acquiring Really Good Emails. Beefree users are now able to edit templates from RGE’s library of over 15,000 email designs. Beefree’s no-code tools can also be used to design landing pages, pop-ups, and other digital assets. Read more here.
Climb Comment: Beefree expands into RGE’s user base of more than 220k active subscribers and brings a robust template library to their own existing customers. Strategic intersection of strong tech infrastructure in Beefree’s e-mail builder now being able to access a massive library of great templates & design.
Detailed write-up here from Beefree CEO Massimo Arrigoni - lots of excitement evident for collaboration with the RGE team and for long-term integration of the platform.
Myndshft bought by DrFirst to reduce admin burden on medical practices
Overview: Myndshft streamlines prior authorization for both medical and pharmacy benefits, instantly determining if the medication or procedure in question is covered by the patient’s insurance plan. With the integration of this solution, DrFirst boosts their medication management platform which already includes improving e-prescribing workflows, medication history and clinical data usability. Read more here.
Climb Comment: Sixth Street-backed DrFirst provides ePrescribing software - enabling 235m prescriptions annually - adds a strong niche product here. DrFirst will look to integrate AI-powered Myndshft to help solve provider challenges around prior authorization of specialty drugs & treatments. Any time end-users can be kept in a single platform without disrupting workflows the user experience improves and data remains more accurate.
SixSpeed acquires KC Truth in strategic marketing deal
Overview: Independent creative marketing agency SixSpeed is acquiring KC Truth in a bid to boost their media strategy and global placement capabilities. The acquirer already serves several high profile clients such as Polaris, Red Bull, Titleist and Target, with the addition of one of Minneapolis' longest tenured agencies expanding what they can offer in strategy, creative, and media. Read more here.
Climb Comment: Two respected Twin Cities agencies join forces, with each bringing both local F500 accounts including 3M, Cargill, Target & more with a bent towards adventurous brands. They share a customer in Polaris, the powersports manufacturer, with KC building a comprehensive ad & media campaign for them & SixSpeed creating an immersive festival which has generated more than 500 million impressions over the last ten years. Great combo of strengths here & a regional powerhouse in the making.
Article of the week
This week’s article delves into the life of billionaire Justin Ishbia. Whilst many will be more familiar with his younger brother and owner of the Phoenix Suns Mat, Justin’s life is a tale equally worth knowing. Read about how he’s bought over a thousand small businesses, and in doing so, made a fortune for both himself and his investors here.
Thanks for following along & hope you found something useful or interesting.
All the best,
Nick