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- Climb's M&A Weekly: Deals by Freshworks, Intel471 and OpenGov
Climb's M&A Weekly: Deals by Freshworks, Intel471 and OpenGov
Freshworks makes $230M acquisition and Intel471 adds advanced threat hunting software
Nick @ Climb
May 05, 2024
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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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Freshworks announces $230M deal for Device42
Overview: Freshworks, a publicly listed SaaS company that helps clients with customer service, engagement, and IT service management, has acquired Device42 for $215M cash with a $15M equity rollover. The Connecticut based startup helps organizations manage their IT infrastructure, giving a real time view of hardware, software and network components, to improve system visibility and optimize resource allocation. Read more here.
Climb Comment: Freshworks makes their first acquisition here since their 2021 IPO. Packaged in the acquisition announcement was news that Freshworks founder Girish Mathrubootham would step down as CEO and transition into a Chairman role. Dennis Woodside, previously President at Freshworks, will take the reins.
Device42 offers a comprehensive systems & device infrastructure system that helps organizations optimize resource allocation across cloud & hardware. Freshworks will use these advanced capabilities to continue serving the expansive needs of enterprises across the IT stack. Worth noting that Freshworks & Device42 had historically been partners on larger enterprise deals.
Intel 471 buys Cyborg Security to help clients detect cyber threats in advance
Overview: Intel 471 is adding Cyborg Security and their threat hunting software to help their clients stay ahead of potential cyber attacks. The acquirer’s TITAN platform helps enterprises and government agencies gain near real-time insights on malicious attacks, with the demand amongst these clients for the advanced threat hunting capabilities that Cyborg can provide continuing to grow. Read more here.
Climb Comment: We’ve highlighted cybersecurity M&A in prior weeks and the space remains hot for deals as government agencies and enterprises seek to defend against bad actors online. “Threat Hunting” is a unique discipline of cybersecurity that relies on monitoring the dark web for whispers of potential attacks, as well as proactively searching for vulnerabilities in an organizations cyber environment. The Cyborg platform also contains a simulation environment, allowing teams to run widespread scenarios efficiently.
Cox Enterprises backed OpenGov announces deal for iGovServices
Overview: Fresh off receiving a major investment from Cox Enterprises that valued the company at $1.8B, OpenGov is acquiring iGovServices. The acquirer is a leading provider of cloud software for US cities, counties, state agencies and special districts, with this deal adding valuable tax and revenue collection software. Read more here.
Climb Comment: OpenGov putting some recently invested capital to work here with a deal that adds strong revenue & tax collection capabilities to their existing suite of software for governments. iGovServices specializes in helping local governments collect & manage specialized taxes such as hotel lodging tax, alcohol taxes, property taxes & more. Govtech remains hot for M&A - in a choppy market the stickiness of government revenue represents a safe haven.
WindRose Health Investors acquires majority stake in Austin-based SubjectWell
Overview: The healthcare focused PE firm has made a majority growth investment in SubjectWell and their platform which connects patients to relevant clinical trials and market-ready treatments. Used by tens of millions of patients worldwide, the platform supports global vaccine, chronic, rare disease and oncology clinical studies for pharma, biotech, clinical research sites, clinical research organizations, and other healthcare clients. Read more here.
Climb Comment: With over $3B in AUM, WindRose makes a strong investment here into a company that is solving major real-world problems via tech. SubjectWell connects to major healthcare platforms to identify tens of millions of motivated patients & connect them to research partners for late-stage clinical trials.
SubjectWell currently leverages ML technology & robust integrations into major EHRs and will no doubt expand on those capabilities with this investment.
Inventoro acquired by Rubicon Technology Partners backed CIN7
Overview: Inventoro’s AI powered sales forecasting and replenishment tools help small and medium sized businesses manage their inventory. This deal will allow CIN7 to improve the AI capabilities of their inventory management platform, as product sellers continue to demand improved forecasting, with stocking inefficiencies causing estimated losses of $163B globally each year. Read more here.
Climb Comment: CIN7 adds Inventoro’s more than 2,000 customers to their platform as well as advanced AI-enabled inventory forecasting capabilities. Inventory is a tough nut to crack, especially in the small to mid-size market, with companies walking the fine line between cutting too far into working capital vs being understocked and missing out on revenue. Inventoro groups products into fast, slow, & medium movers by integrating into a company’s software stack and helps plan ordering accordingly.
Interesting to note that Inventoro emerges from Presto Ventures Czech & EE focused venture fund. Often the case that companies built in smaller markets do a fantastic job of serving SMB & middle-market customers.
Article of the week
This week’s article comes in the form of a LinkedIn post exploring the major acquisitions in software startups and how these deals have shaped the markets in recent years.
Thanks for following along & hope you found something useful or interesting.
All the best,
Nick