We are pleased to have acted as exclusive financial advisor to CapVest and its portfolio company Datasite® on the acquisition of SHERPANY®, a Zurich-based board reporting and meeting management software provider. This partnership extends Datasite’s product suite with advanced functionality that facilitates board collaboration and meeting management, further enhancing organisational productivity.

Founded in 2011 and with offices across Europe, Sherpany’s software allows professionals to increase productivity by streamlining both board and general meeting preparation, execution and archiving. Sherpany will run as a strategic business unit within Datasite and will function as a standalone entity, supported by Datasite’s ongoing investment.

Datasite is a leading SaaS platform that is used by enterprises globally to execute complex, strategic projects. Datasite’s innovative products drive workflow automation and efficiencies, while generating unique data insights to empower knowledge workers around the world to succeed across the entire project lifecycle.


Datasite acquisition of Sherpany

We are pleased to have acted as exclusive financial advisor to Nexthink, the global leader in digital employee experience management software, on its acquisition of AppLearn. Through this acquisition, Nexthink is once again redefining DEX, aligning with its longstanding vision to offer enterprises a one-of-a-kind solution addressing every aspect of digital workplace management.

Nexthink’s acquisition of AppLearn

AppLearn specializes in tailored learning and digital adoption guidance for employees within applications, enhancing individual and organizational digital dexterity while also empowering IT with innovative sources of influence and insight for digital transformation projects.

Nexthink provides IT leaders with unprecedented insight allowing them to see, diagnose and fix at scale issues. It enables more than 1,200 customers to provide better digital experiences to more than 15 million employees globally. 

We are pleased to have acted as exclusive financial advisor to TrusTrace, a global SaaS company with a market-leading platform for product traceability and compliance, on its $24m Series B fundraise led by Circularity Capital with participation of existing investors Industrifonden and Fairpoint Capital. The partnership will enable TrusTrace to further accelerate its global expansion ambitions by strengthening its presence in key markets, deepening product innovation and expanding collaborations.

TrusTrace’s $24m Series B led by Circularity Capital

Established in 2016, TrusTrace offers a market-leading platform for supply chain traceability and compliance, enabling brands and suppliers around the world to standardise how supply chain and material traceability data is captured, digitised and shared. Through providing access to validated supply chain data, TrusTrace empowers brands to identify, understand and improve the impact of their supply chain. The data can be used for risk management, compliance, product claims and footprint calculations, offering the ability to share data confidently and easily about product origin, impact, and much more.

Circularity Capital is a European growth stage investor in the Circular Economy. Circularity was founded in 2015 with the belief that circular companies deserve a specialist investor, and that this combination would drive premium investment returns alongside measurable positive impact.

This fundraise further demonstrates Torch Partners’ expertise and successful track record in the ESG / Traceability B2B SaaS space, with six transactions facilitated in this sector across the past two and a half years. 

We are pleased to have acted as exclusive financial advisor to Mayfair Equity Partners on its acquisition of TrustedHousesitters, a subscription-based pet-sitting and travel online community, for over $100m. The partnership will help accelerate growth and support product innovation across its core markets in the US, the UK, Europe, and Australia.

Mayfair Equity Partners’ acquisition of TrustedHousesitters

Established in the UK in 2010, TrustedHousesitters is the leading global pet people community connecting owners looking for pet sitters and people looking for affordable travel options in more than 140 countries, having facilitated over 10 million nights of pet sitting since inception. Its focus on creating a fervent pet loving community and unique subscription model makes it a category-defining pet-sitting marketplace, delivering outsized value to its over 200,000 members and allowing it to grow 158% year-on-year in 2022, with off-the-chart customer satisfaction scores.

Mayfair Equity Partners is a dedicated technology and consumer investor with over £2 billion in assets under management. Mayfair has a track record of supporting fast-growing, sector-defining companies, whilst generating returns by actively engaging with and supporting management through portfolio operations.

This transaction further demonstrates Torch Partners’ expertise and successful track record in supporting financial sponsors in identifying premium assets within the subscription-based B2C and Marketplace space. 


MayfairEquity/TrustedHousesitters

We are pleased to have acted as exclusive financial advisor to N+ONE DATACENTERS (N+ONE), a leading African data center owner and operator, on its $90m growth equity funding led by African Infrastructure Investment Managers (AIIM). The investment will support the roll-out of a new Pan-African data center and cloud services platform with a short-term target capacity of 40 MW.

N+ONE DATACENTERS’ $90m growth equity funding led by AIIM

Founded in 2008 and based in Morocco, N+ONE is a leading carrier-neutral data center company in North Africa. The company empowers its customers with mission-critical services ranging from raw colocation to completely managed hosting and cutting-edge cloud computing infrastructures. N+ONE facilities have been certified to the highest international standards since their launch. In 2021, N+ONE embarked on its development journey into Senegal and other locations in West Africa.
 
AIIM, a member of Old Mutual Alternative Investments (OMAI), has been investing in the African infrastructure sector since 1999 and currently manages an aggregate AUM of $2.6bn in assets across the power, renewable energy, digital infrastructure, mid-stream energy and transport sectors with operations in 19 African countries. AIIM's extensive infrastructure investment track record in Africa, with multiple digital infrastructure investments across the telecommunications towers, data center and fibre sub-sectors, coupled with an active asset management strategy to support high-performing management teams alongside its ability to provide substantial growth capital, were key factors in forming the alliance.

The platform will focus on the development of hyperscale and wholesale carrier-neutral facilities to provide solutions to enterprise, government and hyperscale customers across the continent. The partnership with AIIM paves the way for N+ONE to further expand its existing campuses in Morocco and Senegal while developing new hyperscale locations in response to customer demand.

The joint venture aspires to bridge Africa's current digital infrastructure gap and unlock the continent’s tremendous digital economy potential by providing world-class facilities and services to stimulate the expansion of local businesses and enable multinational companies to extend their African operations. 


N+One Datacenters/AIIM

We are pleased to have acted as exclusive financial adviser to SustainCERT, a global leader in climate impact verification, on its $37m Series B capital raise. The raise will assist SustainCERT scale its value chain decarbonisation impact solution for Scope 3 emissions and launch the first of its kind digital verification solution for carbon markets.

SustainCERT completed $37m Series B capital raise to scale the world’s first climate impact verification platform

Established in 2018, SustainCERT focuses on bringing credibility to climate impact claims by integrating cutting edge digital solutions with climate expertise to deliver independent impact verification. Alongside accelerating the scale-up of its digital verification platform, the proceeds will also be used to grow the reach of the Value Change Initiative, a multi-stakeholder forum bringing together some of the world’s largest companies and internationally recognised frameworks to define best practices for Scope 3 emission reductions.

The Series B raise was led by Partech, the global technology investment firm, through its newly established Article 9, Partech Impact Fund, which focuses on investing in European impact-native technology companies that are addressing fundamental environmental and social challenges. The round also saw participation from Hartree Partners, a leader in voluntary & compliance carbon markets. Citizen Capital, Innovacom, and Microsoft, existing investors of SustainCERT, also invested in the round.

This transaction reinforces investors’ continued excitement for the ESG sector and differentiated players operating in the market. The transaction also marks Torch Partners’ fifth transaction in the ESG space over the past two years following the sale of Greenstone+ to Cority (Thoma Bravo portfolio company), sale of Envizi to IBM, acquisition of ERM by KKR and acquisition of Fenergo by Astorg and Bridgepoint.

SustainCERT

We are pleased to have acted as exclusive financial adviser to Greenstone+, a leading provider of SaaS solutions dedicated to the ESG sector, on its acquisition by Cority, a portfolio company of Thoma Bravo. The transaction will expand Cority’s Sustainability and Environmental solutions enabling customers to measure, manage, and report sustainability and ESG information and performance throughout their organizations, supply chains, and investment portfolios.

Sale of Greenstone+ to Cority

Founded in 2006 and headquartered in London, UK, Greenstone+ offers a comprehensive suite of SaaS-based sustainability solutions enabling clients to address the whole value chain, irrespective of maturity, scale, and complexity. It aims to simplify and facilitate the gathering, analyzing, and sharing of sustainability data through guided workflows, configurable questionnaires, data collection wizards, comprehensive emission and frameworks libraries, as well as advisory and data management services and support. With offices in London and New York, Greenstone+ serves over 75 customers in 106 countries across 15 industries.

Cority is a leading provider of enterprise Environmental, Health, and Safety (EHS) software solutions. The acquisition of Greenstone+ further solidifies Cority’s market leadership with the broadest ESG offering within the EHS space. With its expanded global footprint, Cority has over 600 employees serving more than 1,500 customers worldwide.

This transaction further demonstrates Torch Partners’ expertise and successful track record in advising leading companies across the ESG and B2B Enterprise SaaS sectors including: advising Concirrus on its long-term strategic partnership with Applied Underwriters; Cushon on its sale to NatWest Group; Envizi on its sale to IBM; and KKR on its acquisition of ERM.

Greenstone/Cority

Torch Partners has acted as exclusive financial adviser to GleSYS Holding AB (“GleSYS”) on its sale to Cube Infrastructure Managers. GleSYS’ shareholders include VIA Equity (“VIA”), a leading Northern European private equity firm, Glenn Johansson, CEO & founder of GleSYS, and certain key employees and minority shareholders of GleSYS.

Sale of GleSYS to Cube Infrastructure Managers

GleSYS operates datacentres and is a leader in providing Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS) in the Nordics. Through its one-stop-shop approach, GleSYS’ service portfolio expands across colocation, dedicated servers, network & connection, system management, and virtual private servers, catering to customers active in sectors such as e-commerce and cybersecurity.

Following VIA’s investment in GleSYS in 2018, the company has experienced significant growth. This can be attributed to a series of successful bolt-on acquisitions, the construction of state-of-the-art data centres, ISO certification, expansion of the management team and strong organic profitable growth. As a result of these efforts, GleSYS has developed into a leading Nordic hybrid cloud IT Infrastructure as a service player.

Cube Infrastructure Managers is an independent mid-market infrastructure investor joining deep sector knowledge with operational and financial expertise. Since foundation in 2007, Cube has leveraged its operational and financial capabilities to pioneer and transform essential and local infrastructure assets, in areas such as fibre, district heating, mobility and EV charging. 

The transaction is subject to customary regulatory approvals and other closing conditions. 

Glesys/Cube Infrastructure Managers

We are pleased to have acted as the exclusive financial advisor to Concirrus, on its long-term strategic partnership with Applied Underwriters. This partnership will support the development and provision of multi-product line solutions to global insurers, reinsurers and other risk-based entities.

Long-term strategic partnership between Concirrus and Applied Underwriters

Founded in 2011 and based in London, United Kingdom, Concirrus offers a suite of analytics and digital capabilities to commercial insurers, assisting them in accelerating their digital strategies. The Concirrus platform accesses and interprets wide-ranging datasets, combining them with historical claims data to reveal behaviours that correlate to claims and risk. This capability enables carriers and brokers to drive improvements in risk selection, management and transfer, whilst also unlocking capital efficiency and competitive advantage. 

Headquartered in Omaha, Nebraska, Applied Underwriters is a global risk services firm that offers business services, insurance and reinsurance solutions. The Company is distinguished by its innovative approach to client care and its strong financial strength, with operations throughout the US, UK, EU and Middle East.

The combination of Applied Underwriters’ trove of patents and data processing advances will assist Concirrus in expanding its solutions to a wider range of customers and product lines, while Concirrus’ market leading analytics platform is well aligned to Applied Underwriters’ digital first strategy and advantage.

Concirrus/Applied Underwriters 

Torch Partners acted as financial adviser to Just Eat, the leading online food order and delivery brand, on its IPO on the London Stock Exchange. Torch advised Just Eat on Board and Shareholder dynamics and building the equity story for communication to the public market.

Just Eat IPO on the London Stock Exchange

Before the IPO, Torch advised Just Eat on multiple fundraising and M&A processes. This underlines Torch Partners’ extensive experience working with companies throughout their financing and M&A lifecycle, from growth equity rounds through to Sale or IPO. Post IPO, Torch was retained as independent financial advisers on group strategy and potential M&As. 

Torch works closely with clients to assess readiness and guide them through the full IPO / SPAC process.

Just Eat/IPO

Torch Partners has acted as financial adviser to Cushon on its sale to NatWest Group (LSE:NWG) for ** [£170m]**. Cushon’s shareholders include Augmentum Fintech plc, Europe’s leading publicly listed fintech fund, and Ashgrove Capital LLP, an investor in the software and services sectors.

Sale of Cushon to NatWest Group

Founded in 2015, Cushon is an award winning, London-based fintech whose mission is to improve people’s financial futures through healthier savings habits, making saving for the future easier and more rewarding. Cushon offers a holistic workplace pension and savings app with a carbon neutral default fund for UK employers. 

Cushon currently has over 500,000 customers with £1.8 billion of assets under management. Its corporate clients include 250 well known blue-chip companies including many of the FTSE 100. Its primary products are its workplace ISA and master trust pension - which offers an investment strategy designed to drive down the financed CO2 emissions of customers' investments. Cushon also provides Junior and Lifetime ISAs, as well as a general investment account.

The intended acquisition will therefore provide NatWest Group with a workplace pensions and savings proposition, enabling the group to offer a new suite of financial wellbeing services to its commercial mid-market customers and, consequently, to their employees. Cushon will continue its organic growth ambitions in the Workplace Pensions and Savings market, in addition to distributing to NatWest commercial customers.

The transaction remains subject to regulatory approval and is expected to close later in 2023.


Cushon/NatWest Group

Torch acted as exclusive financial adviser to Curriculum Associates’ majority shareholders, Permira and Berkshire Partners, on the investment by Hellman & Friedman

Curriculum Associates on the investment by Hellman & Friedman

Curriculum Associates (“CA”) is a leading, adaptative learning platform for U.S. K12 schools and districts offering products currently used by 22,000+ schools and 10m+ students. CA further offers a deep integration of content and learning diagnostics with a premiere set of tools for teachers to deliver tailored learning across the U.S.   CA currently addresses $4bn of the total EdTech spend in the U.S. and $4bn of near market expansion is planned in the core curriculum, supplemental curriculum and assessment areas. 

Torch played a pivotal role in preparing key process deliverables, project management and in managing a highly competitive, multi bidder, auction. Our extensive experience in working with private equity funds helped CA, its management team and shareholders achieve the best possible transaction outcome.

Curriculum Associates/Hellman & Friedman

Oak Hill Capital Partners and 3i take private of Telecity plc

Telecity/Oakhill

Redbus Interhouse

Redbus/Telecity

TelecityRedbus acquisition of Globix

Telecity Redbus/Globix

Telecity IPO on the London Stock Exchange

TelecityGroup/London Stock Exchange

Index Ventures led a £10.5m Series A Financing of Just Eat, the leading European online meal ordering company.

Just Eat Series A financing

Just  Eat Series A financing

Just Eat/Series A

LDC acquisition of 1st The Exchange

LDC/1st The Exchange

Mercuria Energy acquisition of 3B Biofuels

3B Biofuels/Mercuria

Huddle Series B financing

Huddle/Matrix

1st The Exchange acquisition of N4 Solutions

1st The Exchange/N4

TelecityGroup acquisition of IFL

Offering a complementary strategic fit with TelecityGroup’s existing presence in the city, the acquisition also brought the potential for significant further growth.

TelecityGroup/IFL

Bridgepoint Development Capital acquisition of a majority stake in Lumison

BDC invested alongside incoming executive Mark Howling, formerly CEO of Digica, and existing management. Lumison is the first step in a “buy and build” programme to create a fully integrated IT services group focused on serving the high growth SME market.

Lumison/Bridgepoint

21 Net Series C financing

21Net raised a £6.5m Series-C financing round led by Innovacom, an experienced investor in the telecoms sector, to expand its commercial capabilities and operations globally.

21Net/Innovacom

1st The Exchange acquisition of Screen Business

1st The Exchange/Screen Business

Just Eat have raised $48m of equity financing in a round co-led by Greylock Partners and Redpoint Ventures with Index Ventures and other existing angels also investing.

Just Eat Series B financing

The new capital will be used to further internationalise the Just Eat network.

Torch acted as sole financial adviser to Just Eat, introducing potential investors and managing the financing process.

Just Eat/Series B

LDC acquisition of UK2 Group

Torch Partners acted as exclusive financial advisor to UK2 Group on the transaction.

LDC acquisition of UK2 Group 

LDC/UK2

Borro Series C financing

Torch acted as exclusive adviser to Borro on this transaction, which demonstrates our long term commitment to clients.

Borro/Augmentum

The funding from ECI will be used to support the continued growth of CarTrawler organically and through acquisition.

Torch Partners acted as exclusive financial advisor to CarTrawler and its Shareholders.

Management buyout of Cartrawler

Cartrawler/ECI

Borro is revolutionising the Pawnbroking industry and is set to become one of the most important alternative consumer credit companies created in the last 5 years.

Loan book financing facility 

Borro/Octopus

TelecityGroup acquisition of Data Electronics

The combination of Data Electronics and TelecityGroup establishes a platform to capture the strong demand potential for connected data centre services in Ireland and fulfil the growth requirements of existing customers.

TelecityGroup/Data Electronics

FreeAgent Series B financing

Torch Partners worked with SM Trust to make the investment.

SM Trust/FreeAgent

TelecityGroup acquisition of UKGrid Group

The acquisition of UK Grid will immediately add approximately 1.5 megawatts of high quality carrier neutral capacity to TelecityGroup’s existing estate in the North West with the potential for further expansion.

Torch Partners acted as financial advisor to TelecityGroup on the acquisition.

TelecityGroup/UK Grid

Dropbox Series B financing by RIT Capital Partners

Torch acted as advisor to RIT Capital Partners plc.

RIT/Dropbox

Acquisition of WorkPlace Systems financed by LDC

The customer base of WorkPlace Systems includes Walmart in the US and Gala Coral, H&M and Metro Group in Europe.

Torch Partners acted as financial advisor to LDC and Wasp Management Software on the acquisition.

LDC/Workplace

Unruly Series A financing

The financing is the first outside funding Unruly has received and will be used to cement Unruly's position as global leader in social video advertising.

Unruly/Amadeus

Summit Partners acquistion of a majority stake in 360T Group

Torch Partners was exclusive financial advisor to Summit Partners.

Summit Partners acquistion of a majority stake in 360T Group 

Summit Partners/360T

Just Eat has raised $64m of equity financing in a round led by Vitruvian Partners with existing investors Index Ventures, Greylock Partners and Redpoint Ventures also investing.

Just Eat Series C financing 

It is the largest ecommerce fundraising in Europe so far in 2012. Torch acted as sole financial adviser to Just Eat. Since 2009, Torch has helped Just Eat to raise more than $130m in three equity financing rounds.

Just Eat/Vitruvian

TelecityGroup acquisition of Tenue Oy

Torch Partners acted as exclusive financial advisor to TelecityGroup on the acquisition.

TelecityGroup/Tenue

Skydox

SkyDox/SEP

Merger of SkyDox and Workshare

The combination is supported by growth capital investment from a UK investor group led by Scottish Equity Partners and includes Business Growth Fund.

Workshare/SkyDox

Secret Escapes Series B financing

Secret Escapes is an online luxury travel club and offers unsold hotel rooms at cut price rates. The funding will be used for UK and international expansion.

Secret Escapes/Index Ventures

Majority sale of Graze.com to Carlyle Group

Torch Partners acted as exclusive financial advisor to Graze.com on the transaction.

Graze/Carlyle Group

Telecity acquisition of Academica

TelecityGroup/Academica

Reed Elsevier's acquisition of Mendeley

Torch Partners acted as exclusive financial advisor to Mendeley on the acquisition.

Mendeley/Reed Elsevier

Dorothy

TelecityGroup acquisition of Sadece Hosting

This acquisition marks the entry of TelecityGroup into the Turkish market.

Torch Partners acted as exclusive financial advisor to TelecityGroup.

TelecityGroup/Sadece

CarTrawler's acquisition of Holiday Autos

CarTrawler has developed a market leading technology platform and infrastructure which enables it to distribute car rental through multiple routes to market on a global basis.

Cartrawler/Holiday Autos

Erydel Series B financing

Torch Partners acted as exclusive financial advisor to Erydel on the financing.

Erydel/Genextra

Fuzebox Series B financing

The funding will go toward aggressively growing engineering and product teams and increasing global salesforce. Torch Partners acted as exclusive financial advisor to Fuzebox on the financing.

Torch has helped Fuzebox to raise more than $46m in two equity financing rounds.

Fuzebox/Index Ventures

Calastone, the independent cross-border transaction network for the global funds industry, has completed an $18m equity investment round led by Accel Partners with participation from existing investor Octopus Investments.

Calastone Series B Financing

Torch Partners acted as exclusive financial advisor to Calastone on the financing.

Calestone/Accel

Bluefin Robotics acquisition of SeeByte

SeeByte/Bluefin Robotics

TelecityGroup acquisition of 3DC

This acquisition marks the entry of TelecityGroup into the Bulgarian market. Located in Sofia, 3DC’s high quality facility provides a strategic location in the Balkans with access to markets in the EU, Turkey and the Caucasus, offering compelling growth opportunities for Telecity in the region.

Torch Partners acted as exclusive financial advisor to TelecityGroup.

TelecityGroup/3DC

TelecityGroup acquisition of PLIX

This acquisition marks the entry of TelecityGroup into the Polish market.

Torch Partners acted as exclusive financial advisor to TelecityGroup.

TelecityGroup/Plix

Not on the High Street

notonthehighstreet.com is the leading online marketplace for independent creative businesses in the UK.

Torch Partners acted as exclusive financial advisor to notonthehighstreet.com on the transaction.

Not on the High Street/Industry Ventures

CarTrawler majority sale to ECI Partners

Torch Partners acted as exclusive financial advisor to Greg and Niall Turley, the founders of CarTrawler, on the transaction.

Cartrawler/BC

Scarosso Series B equity fund raising

Torch Partners acted as exclusive financial advisor to Scarosso on the financing.

Scarosso/Neo

FriendScout24, the European online dating service provider, has been acquired by Match.com via its wholly owned French subsidiary, Meetic Group.

FriendScout24 Acquired by Match.com

Torch Partners acted as exclusive financial advisor to FriendScout24 (part of the Scout24 Group) on the acquisition.

FriendScout24/Match

Blippar acquired AR pioneer Layar

Torch Partners acted as exclusive financial advisor to Blippar.

Blippar/Layar

Just Eat’s RestauranteWeb has merged with iFood.com Agencia de Restaurantes Online. The new company will be called IF-JE Participações Ltda and will be a joint venture between Just Eat and iFood's existing shareholders. Just Eat will transfer all of the share capital of Just Eat Brazil Serviços Online Ltda – which trades as RestauranteWeb – to IF-JE, which will also include all of the share capital of iFood.

Just Eat’s Brazilian business RestauranteWeb merged with iFood.com

Torch acted as exclusive financial adviser to Just Eat.

Just Eat/iFood

Oak Hill Capital Partners has entered into a definitive agreement to acquire Pulsant, a leading provider of managed, hosted data centre and IT infrastructure services to the mid-market, from Bridgepoint Development Capital. Terms of the transaction were not disclosed.

Oak Hill Capital Partners acquisition of Pulsant

Torch Partners acted as exclusive corporate finance advisor to Oak Hill Capital Partners on the acquisition. This is Torch’s 15th M&A transaction in the hosting and internet infrastructure sector.

Oakhill/Pulsant

A company backed by the Permira funds has entered into a definitive agreement to acquire 100% of Teraco Data Environments, the largest provider of carrier neutral datacentre services in Sub-Saharan Africa. Terms of the transaction were not disclosed and the transaction is subject to regulatory approval and customary closing conditions.

The Permira Funds to acquire Teraco Data Environments

Torch Partners acted as sole financial advisor to the Permira funds on the transaction.

Permira/Teraco

MCB, a consumer finance company providing fast, convenient and flexible credit products under the Credit24 brand to retail customers in Finland, Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania, has been acquired by LSE listed IPF, a leading international home credit business.

Recommended cash acquisition of MCB Finance Group plc (“MCB”) by International Personal Finance plc (“IPF”)

Torch Partners acted as Rule 3 adviser to MCB on the transaction.

MCB/IPF

Berlin-based DaWanda, Europe’s largest online marketplace for unique and hand-crafted goods with over five million active members, has received a significant growth investment from Insight Venture Partners, Global Founders Capital, Enfield and Kersiwood. The new financing round will be used for further international expansion.

DaWanda secures majority investment from Insight Venture Partners

Torch Partners acted as exclusive financial advisor to DaWanda.

Deals