Launched earlier this year, the Nordic Capital Fund X is now the firm’s largest capital pool to date. Its predecessor, Nordic Capital Fund IX, closed in 2018 at €4.3bn.
The firm inaugurated the vehicle’s investment phase with the acquisition of 70% of the shares in the Danish software business, Siteimprove, in a deal valued at around €500m, the person added.
According to the terms of the transaction, the company’s founder, Morten Ebbesen, will continue as a significant minority shareholder and remain as CEO. Growth equity investor Summit Partners, which entered the business in 2015, will fully exit.
Founded in 2003, Siteimprove offers digital optimisation of websites for more than 7,200 customers from financial services, healthcare, and the public sectors. The company is headquartered in Copenhagen, but has offices across Europe, North America, and Asia, and has 550 employees.
In 2019, it reached recurring revenues of $81.6m, of which approximately 60% from US customers. The new capital will support Siteimprove’s development and international expansion by investing in the organisation and product offering, Nordic Capital said in a statement.
“We have long admired Siteimprove as one of the top [software as a service] SaaS companies globally, with great potential for further growth due to its world-class product offering, strong customer base and expanding market coverage,” said Fredrik Näslund, partner and head of technology and payments at Nordic Capital Advisors.
The transaction is subject to regulatory approvals and is expected to close in the autumn of 2020.
Nordic Capital’s new fund will make investments in mid-market companies primarily based in northern Europe. Its main targeted sectors will be healthcare, technology and payments, financial services, industrial and business services.
Since its inception in 1989, Nordic Capital has invested more than €15bn in over 110 investments, the firm said.
