Small Buyout Exit of the Year
Capital D Management LLP (Qmee)
We believe we should be recognised for our investment in Qmee because we achieved a gross multiple of money in excess of our five-year underwriting case inside 15 months, corresponding to a gross IRR of 143%, despite investing via an all-equity structure.
Through the competitive acquisition process we were able rapidly to build conviction in Qmee, demonstrate our value-add as an investor, and develop trust with the management team which allowed us to cement successfully our partnership through a majority investment in March 2021.
During our rather brief investment period we reinforced & enhanced the diversity and breadth of the management team, supported ongoing investment in technology, raised the importance of the ESG agenda, drove growth through country launches in France and Germany, and opened direct relationships with global market research customers.
It was such a discussion with Kantar that turned into a full-blown and sustained expression of interest to acquire Qmee, which they viewed as a strategic asset that could help them digitise their consumer insights gathering platforms. In response, we ran a tight process focused solely on strategic acquirers which yielded the exit in June 2022.
Foresight Group (DAL)
With Foresight’s support DAL saw an exponential increase in turnover and profits. On investment, Foresight introduced a new Chair, Diane Cheesebrough, formerly CEO at rival The Big Word, as well as a new Managing Director, Matthew Taylor, also from The Big Word - a leading translation services business. During Foresight’s ownership, DAL strengthened its management team to provide support to the founder who was stepping back from day-today leadership, substantially grew its employee base and developed a highly diverse client base of NHS trusts, charities, city councils, and corporates, building a strong reputation for quality provision.
The business also invested significantly in technology and IT infrastructure to support its clients, including the acquisition of Miton Systems, an interpreting technology specialist, enabling DAL to offer its own proprietary video and telephone remote interpreting products.
The exit was cash on completion and yielded a strong open market valuation the terms of which are undisclosed.
Synova (Mintec)
Synova initially invested in Mintec off-market in 2017, supporting the company through a period of transformational growth. Synova significantly expanded the senior leadership team, recruiting a CEO, CTO, CFO, Head of Sales, Head of Marketing and Chairman. Mintec’s global headcount grew 86% during Synova’s investment.
Synova played a key role in re-platforming Mintec’s legacy technology, developing a cuttingedge SaaS platform, Mintec Analytics, with superior functionality, analytical tools and intelligence, covering over 15,000 commodity prices. Following the hiring of a Head of Proprietary Pricing, Synova supported Mintec to develop its own price series, achieving IOSCO compliance as the world’s first food-focused Price Reporting Agency.
Mintec utilised Synova’s expertise to expand internationally and enter the US market, establishing its first dedicated sales team; resulting in a 10-fold increase in North American sales.
Synova originated and executed the acquisition of Danish price forecasting platform, Kairos, integrating it within two months to create the world’s most advanced pricing intelligence platform for food industry procurement and risk managers globally.
During Synova’s period of ownership ARR and EBITDA grew by 4x and 5x respectively.
The exit to FAPI (January 2022) generated a return of 12x invested capital and an 80% IRR for Synova III (2016).
Voting is now closed
To find out who won book a table at the British Private Equity Awards on 04 October 2022 by contacting Chris Coe.