Digital services company Improving, backed by private equity firm Trinity Hunt Partners, has acquired YoppWorks, an application development consulting that has expertise across Google Cloud and Lightbend. Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed.
The deal is expected to push Improving's annual revenues above the $200 million mark, the buyer said.
This is technology M&A deal number 236 that ChannelE2E has covered so far in 2022. See more than 1,000 technology M&A deals involving MSPs, MSSPs & IT service providers listed here.
In this particular deal:
- The Buyer: Improving has more than 1,000 employees listed on LinkedIn. The company positions itself as a "complete IT services firm, offering training, consulting, recruiting, and project services."
- The Seller: YoppWorks has 90 employees listed on LinkedIn. The company positions itself as a consulting organization that "helps Enterprises rethink how they build software to remain competitive, relevant and capitalize on market opportunities." Key areas of expertise include the Scala programming language, the Akka Open Source toolkit, containerized cloud native environments, and the application of the Reactive Architecture, the seller indicates.
Improving M&A: Previous IT Services and Tech Consulting Acquisitions
Meanwhile, private equity firm Trinity Hunt Partners has owned Improving since July 2018. For its part, Improving has M&A experience that extends back to 2007. Example deals include:
- August 2021: Tahoe Partners, a Microsoft professional services firm, in August 2021. That particular deal pushed Improving's annual revenue to about $185 million.
- August 2020: Object Partners, an Amazon Web Services custom software developer. That deal lifted annual revenue to $150 million.
- August 2017: ProSource Solutions, a Microsoft partner that was expected to lift Improving's yearly revenue by more than $10 million in 2018.
- August 2017: The Willow Group of Minneapolis, Minnesota.
- December 2013: Quadras Development of Calgary, Canada.
- September 2012: Alphaware Training Center of Houston, Texas.
- December 2010: The Sophic Group, a Microsoft partner in Columbus, Ohio.
- January 2007: Blue Ocean Group and Improving Enterprises merged.
Improving Acquires YoppWorks: Executive Perspectives
In a prepared statement about the YoppWorks deal, Improving CEO Curtis Hite said:
“We have consistently been impressed with the YoppWorks team and their commitment to delivering innovation to their customers. There is an incredible alignment between our two companies on business philosophy and company culture, and we couldn’t be more excited to bring them into the Improving brand.”
Added Jack Gulas, CEO of YoppWorks:
“This is a very exciting announcement. We have experienced tremendous growth over the past year and joining the Improving team will provide us with the structure to continue to scale our business and to offer our customers new service offerings. The Improving culture is amazing and very similar to YoppWorks and I see this as a 1+1=3 for all our team members and customers.”
Trinity Hunt Partners: Cloud Consultancy, MSP Investments
Improving's owner, private equity firm Trinity Hunt Partners, has extensive experience in and around the IT consulting and MSP (managed IT service provider) markets. Example Trinity Hunt investment activity includes such deals as...
- July 2021: Dataprise, a major midmarket MSP backed by Trinity Hunt Partners, acquired Wireless Watchdogs.
- June 2021: Argano, backed by Trinity Hunt Partners, acquired Microsoft Dynamics 365 Cloud Partner Arbela Technologies.
- May 2021: Trinity Hunt acquired and combined three companies — Keste, interRel Consulting and United Virtualities (UV) — to form Argano.
It's a safe beet more details are coming. Indeed, Trinity Hunt Partners raised $460 million for Fund VI in September 2021. That fund will focus on small-cap companies in business, healthcare and consumer services, Trinity Hunt indicated.
Trinity Hunt Partners: Private Equity's Target Acquisitions
Generally speaking, Trinity Hunt Partners targets U.S.-based companies with annual EBITDA (earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization) of between $4 million and $25 million, the company’s website says.
When Trinity Hunt Partners finds an ideal target, the private equity firm will typically invest between $15 million and $50 million into each portfolio company — with the ability to invest additional equity capital via co-investment from limited partners, the company’s website adds.
Transaction types typically involve majority and significant minority recapitalizations, buy-and-builds, and management buyouts, the private equity firm notes.
