14 Jun 2022
Investcorp Technology Partners (“ITP”), a leading European technology investor, today announced that it has entered into a definitive agreement to sell softgarden e-recruiting GmbH (“softgarden” or the “Company”), a provider of innovative human resources (“HR”) software solutions to Grupa Pracuj (WSE:GPP), an HR Tech company, leading in Central and Eastern Europe, and listed on the Warsaw Stock Exchange. The transaction, which is expected to complete imminently, will result in a return of in excess of 3x invested capital in less than four years.
Headquartered in Berlin, Germany, softgarden offers an innovative recruitment software platform to a diverse set of mid-market and enterprise customers across Europe. The Company’s award-winning Talent Acquisition Suite enables its customers to streamline and manage their entire digital recruitment process in an efficient, integrated and data-privacy-compliant manner. Furthermore, customers also benefit from access to hundreds of fully integrated job-boards. Through the strategic acquisition of absence.io in 2021, softgarden expanded its product offering beyond recruitment to include features such as time-tracking, vacation and absence management as well as digital personnel file management.
ITP acquired softgarden in 2018 as part of its Investcorp Technology Partners Fund IV and worked closely with its founder and CTO Stefan Schüffler and the management team to accelerate growth through international expansion, the strategic acquisition of absence.io as well as meaningful investments in product innovation and its go-to-market strategy. ITP oversaw significant development and revenue acceleration at the Company, including the growth of its software revenue by more than 400%, the strategic entry into new markets such as France, Spain, and Poland as well as the Company’s employee base more than doubling.
Georg Knoflach, Managing Director at Investcorp Technology Partners, said: “We are immensely proud of the successful sale of softgarden built on our close collaboration with the management team. This investment is a great demonstration of how our strategy of working in partnership with founders and management teams comes alive – driving value, executing M&A and internationalising the business model. I am confident that softgarden will build on these strong foundations to continue its growth journey. We wish the team the very best for the years to come.”
Mathias Heese, CEO at softgarden, said: “We could not have wished for a better partner than ITP. The team has closely supported our growth and development where we most needed it and, most importantly, enabled us to deliver great results for our clients. The business is going from strength to strength, and we look forward to our bright future as part of Grupa Pracuj.”
The DACH region has been a very active market for ITP, and the softgarden sale marks ITP’s second successful exit within 18 months, following the sale of Avira to NortonLifeLock.
Investcorp Technology Partners was advised by Covington & Burling, Deloitte and Kuhn & Partner. Grupa Pracuj was advised by Ebner Stolz, Houlihan Lokey and White & Case.
Investcorp (through ITP) has established a market leading position of investing in lower mid-market technology companies with a specific focus on the Data / Analytics, IT Security and Fintech / Payment sectors. ITP’s other investments currently include Ubisense’s SmartSpace, the enterprise software and sensor Real-Time Location Solutions platform; Calligo, a proprietary cloud solution company; Ageras, an online marketplace matching SMEs with professional service providers; Impero, a provider of online student safety and classroom and network management software; Contentserv, a product information management solutions provider; Rtekk, a leading, innovative and award-winning payments platform and e-wallet solutions provider; and HWG, Italy’s leading cybersecurity company.