ECI Partners buys business comms specialist Commify for £257m

Sep 5, 2023 | News

Private equity firm ECI Partners has bought Nottingham-based business comms specialist Commify in deal values at £257m. The deal has seen Hg –which invests in European and transatlantic software and services companies – sell its stake in the business having backed Commify since 2016.

The funding will help Commify with its plans to more than double in size and make acquisitions in new and existing territories across Europe, the US and Australia. Commify has completed 16 acquisitions in the last decade. The support will also be used for platform and product development.

Commify has more than 45,000 clients on its books helping them communicate with their customers and staff for things such as appointment confirmations to emergency alerts, via SMS, WhatsApp, e-mail and voice messages. Its brands include Esendex, Spryng, Skebby, Text Anywhere and Text Marketer.

It is well established in Europe and has growing operations in the US and Australia.

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Commify chief executive Richard Hanscott said: “With Hg’s backing in recent years we have built a highly differentiated market-leading business, with material investment in both M&A and our business messaging platform.

“ECI’s ownership will allow us to accelerate our investment in new products and services, including our growing range of messaging channels such as WhatsApp.

Paul McCreadie, a partner at ECI, said: “Commify has built a differentiated position in an exciting global market, and with messaging becoming the number one customer engagement channel, there is a clear and compelling growth opportunity across Europe, the US and Australia.”

Nick Jordan, a partner at Hg, said: “The investment from ECI is a big milestone for the management and staff at Commify. We have been incredibly proud to support the business as it expanded into multiple new European geographies and the US, more than doubling the size of business in doing so.”

Source: Business Live

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