Francisco Partners Acquires Vendavo

Francisco Partners has completed the acquisition of Vendavo, a provider of business-to-business pricing optimization strategies.

Vendavo provides price optimization and management services that are used by its customers to make better data-driven decisions for pricing and sales effectiveness. The company serves B2B mid-market and enterprise companies in the chemicals and process industries, consumer packaged goods, wholesale distribution, energy and utilities, technology, industrial manufacturing, and medical devices and consumables. The company is based in Mountain View, CA (www.vendavo.com).

David Mitchell, an operating partner of Francisco Partners, will join Vendavo as CEO and lead the company’s worldwide business strategy and operations.  Incumbent CEO Neil Lustig will transition into an advisory role with Vendavo.

Mr. Mitchell has more than 25 years of experience as a software executive.  Previously, he was the president and CEO of Global 360, an enterprise business process management solutions provider, and CEO of webMethods, an enterprise software company focused on application, business process and B2B partner integration.  “It is truly a privilege to join Vendavo,” said Mr. Mitchell. “The company has an impressive list of customers and a strong portfolio of innovative products. I look forward to working with the leadership team to fully capitalize on Vendavo’s tremendous growth opportunities and take the company to new heights.”

“Vendavo has built a terrific foundation and we look forward to working with David and the team,” said Petri Oksanen, a partner at Francisco Partners. “Combining the management talent of Vendavo and Francisco Partners puts the company in an excellent position to usher Vendavo into its next stage of growth.”

Francisco Partners makes investments in technology companies with transaction values ranging from $50 million to $2 billion. Transaction structures include buyouts, divisional divestitures, recapitalizations, restructurings and growth equity financings. Francisco Partners is headquartered in San Francisco (www.franciscopartners.com).

Golub Capital was the lead arranger, sole bookrunner, and administrative agent on a senior credit facility to support the acquisition of Vendavo.  This is the ninth transaction that Golub has closed with Francisco Partners.  “We chose Golub Capital to lead the transaction because they understood our strategy to grow the business and provided us a customized and flexible solution that will help us execute it,” said Mr. Oksanen.

Golub Capital’s Late Stage Lending group, a unit of Golub Capital’s Middle Market Lending business, provides financing to technology companies backed by venture capital, growth equity, private equity or other private companies. The group will holds entire credit facilities from $15 million to $75 million in technology companies undergoing growth due to new services, increased adoption and/or entry into new markets.

“We are very excited to become a partner to Vendavo and support the company’s continued growth,” said Spyro Alexopoulos, Managing Director at Golub Capital.  “We are also thrilled to be completing another transaction with a world class sponsor and long-time partner in Francisco Partners.”

Francisco Partners was advised by JMP Securities, and Vendavo was advised by William Blair.

2014 PEPD • Private Equity’s Leading News Magazine • 10-30-14