Private equity firm Vitruvian Partners has acquired Expereo, an SD-WAN and cloud acceleration service provider. Apax Partners, which has owed Expereo since 2018, will remain as a minority shareholder in Expereo. Financial terms were not disclosed.
This is M&A deal number 108 that ChannelE2E has covered so far in 2021. See all technology M&A deals for 2021 and 2020 listed here.
Expereo serves roughly 30 percent of Fortune 500 companies, mainly as a service provider that optimizes Internet performance. Expereo has grown both organically and through acquisitions. The company in 2020 acquired:
- Globalinternet, a global supplier of managed Internet access services; and
- Comsave, a connectivity intelligence platform that makes it easier to provision global Internet access services across multiple service providers.
Backed by Virtuvian Partners, it sounds like Expereo is preparing to make more acquisitions.
Vitruvian Partners Acquires Expereo: Executive Perspectives
In a prepared statement about the Vitruvian Partners deal, Expereo CEO Irwin Fouwels said:
"Vitruvian Partners will further bolster our ambitious growth trajectory, enabling us to capitalize even faster on the fundamental changes and opportunities digital transformation brings in the global network and cloud connectivity space,.Vitruvian and the continued support of Apax Partners, will enable us to further build out our leadership position at scale whilst broadening our services suite, enabling our global enterprise customers' network transformation and cloud-first strategies with enhanced internet and cloud access services with a single, best-in-class, digital customer experience."
Added David Nahama, senior partner at Vitruvian Partners:
"We have been tracking Expereo since 2016 and have seen the company consistently outperform, and more recently make multiple significant strategic acquisitions. Expereo has established a global leadership position in the highly attractive global cloud and software-defined networking market, allowing it to deliver compelling and differentiated solutions to its customers, underpinning its attractiveness from an investment perspective. We approached Irwin and Thomas late last year and are delighted to be partnering with the Expereo team and Apax on the next significant chapter of Expereo's expansion and success."
Joe O'Mara, partner at Vitruvian Partners, noted:
"Together with Apax, we believe we have significant capital and operational capabilities to support Expereo's growth and acquisition aspirations."
Concluded Thomas de Villeneuve, partner at Apax Partners:
"The rapid adoption of cloud-based applications and SD-WAN technologies puts Internet-based WAN solutions at the center of multinational companies' business models. Expereo has delivered impressive growth since we invested in the business and truly capitalized on these technology trends. We are extremely pleased to continue on this success journey together with Vitruvian, Irwin and his team."
