Halyard Capital has sold StratEx, a cloud-based provider of human resources and payroll services to restaurants, to Toast, a cloud-based restaurant software company. Halyard acquired StratEx, in partnership with its founders, in December 2016 though Halyard Capital Fund III LP.
StratEx is a provider of a Human Capital Management (HCM) SaaS platform that is used to monitor all aspects of the employee lifecycle, from applicant tracking and time and attendance to payroll, benefits and performance management. StratEx, led by CEO Adam Ochstein, is headquartered in Chicago (www.stratex.com).
“Halyard Capital has been an outstanding financial and strategic partner to our company,” said Mr. Ochstein. “We joined forces three years ago with a common vision of becoming the HR partner of choice to restaurant owners. This transaction is a validation of that achievement and we are excited to leverage the significant relationships and resources that Toast can offer our business.”
Toast is a cloud-based software company that provides restaurant management and point of sale (POS) systems to thousands of restaurants, from small cafes to nationwide chains, across the US.
The company was founded by Steve Fredette, Aman Narang, and Jonathan Grimm in 2012 and in July 2018 became a “unicorn” startup company after a Series D round of financing raised $115 million and valued the company at $1.4 billion. In the first quarter of 2019, it raised an additional $250 million at a valuation of $2.7 billion. Toast is headquartered in Boston (www.toasttab.com).
“We are extremely pleased to have worked closely with StratEx’s management team to build a leading SaaS platform in the restaurant industry,” said Jonathan Barnes, a partner at Halyard. “The company’s ability to manage and automate the full employee lifecycle has made it the go-to application provider for employers in this dynamic marketplace.”
Halyard invests from $10 million to $40 million in control and non-control middle-market leveraged buyouts and growth equity investments. Typical targets of the firm will have EBITDA of $2 million to $20 million and will be based in North America or Europe. Sectors of interest include tech-enabled business and information services, digital marketing, data analytics, IT cybersecurity, and IT infrastructure and communications.
“We have enjoyed an outstanding partnership with Adam Ochstein and his team at StratEx. They are experts in delivering both software and services to meet the unique needs of employers in the restaurant industry,” said Brendyn Grimaldi, a principal at Halyard. “We are confident in their future success, as they continue to innovate in their marketplace.”
Halyard has over $600 million of capital under management and is headquartered in New York (www.halyard.com).
© 2019 Private Equity Professional | July 29, 2019
