CVC Capital Partners ("CVC") today announced that the CVC Growth Fund ("CVC Growth") and Actua Corporation (NASDAQ:ACTA) ("Actua"), a multi-vertical cloud software company, have entered into a definitive agreement under which CVC Growth will acquire VelocityEHS (the "Company").
Actua, headquartered in Radnor, Pa., owns a number of vertically-focused Software as a Service (SaaS) providers. Actua's VelocityEHS subsidiary helps businesses comply with a broad range of environmental, health and safety ("EHS") regulations.
"We have been proactively pursuing investment opportunities in the EHS compliance software market due to its strong secular tailwinds," said Aaron Dupuis, Senior Managing Director of CVC Growth. "We were attracted to VelocityEHS due to its strong software platform, deep content library, diverse and loyal customer base and outstanding financial profile. We are thrilled to partner with Glenn and his team to pursue the next chapter in the Company’s growth."
"The team at CVC Growth distinguished themselves in this process with their deep understanding of our SaaS business model and the EHS compliance market," said Glenn Trout, co-founder and CEO of VelocityEHS. "We believe that we have built a robust compliance solution that offers our customers a compelling value proposition. CVC's expertise in helping scale high-growth SaaS businesses, combined with the global reach of the CVC platform, will enable us to capitalize on attractive organic and M&A growth opportunities and continue to expand our geographic footprint."
CVC Growth invests primarily in North America and Europe, focusing on high growth businesses in a variety of industries including software, SaaS, managed services, cloud computing, mobility, payments, security, financial technology, healthcare information technology and other tech-enabled business services. The CVC Growth Fund manages $1 billion in equity commitments.
As part of this transaction, CVC Growth will also acquire a controlling interest in BOLT Solutions, which provides software enabling digital distribution of P&C insurance products for both business and personal lines on behalf of carriers and agents.
The transaction is expected to close in the second half of 2017 and is subject to customary closing conditions, including Company shareholder consent and regulatory approval.
Evercore served as financial advisor to Actua. RBC Capital Markets served as financial advisor to CVC, and Fried, Frank, Harris, Shriver & Jacobson LLP served as legal advisor to CVC.