Irish Company SoftCo Acquired by Keensight Capital
5th March 2024
SoftCo is one of Ireland’s most successful international software companies with global blue-chip customers and operations in the US, Finland, the UK and Ireland. Co-founded by Susan Spence and Jim Coffey, the Company has just been acquired by Keensight Capital – one of the leading private equity managers dedicated to pan-European Growth Buyout[1] investments.
Established in 1990 and headquartered in Dublin, SoftCo is a fast-growing provider of Procure-to-Pay[2] and Compliance software. The Company has grown to over a million users worldwide with annual recurring revenues growing at over 25% per annum and expected to further accelerate in the coming years. Keensight Capital plans to support SoftCo in its next phase of growth.
SoftCo’s solutions streamline financial processes, deliver greater control and visibility over spend and reduce the need for manual intervention. Its unique machine learning technology offers unrivalled automation rates, and the Company receives the highest customer satisfaction rankings in the industry.
Susan Spence, co-founder of SoftCo, said:
“We are proud of how SoftCo has grown and as we step back, the company has never been as strong. SoftCo has the best technology in the market and a growing global customer base.
We would like to thank all our employees, customers and partners who joined us on the journey over the last 34 years.”
Co-founders of SoftCo, Jim Coffey and Susan Spence
Jim Coffey, co-founder of SoftCo, added:
“While we had approaches from many potential acquirers, Keensight Capital showed its ability to support the existing management team in achieving the next phase of growth. This was a major factor in our decision to select them.”
Keensight Capital will capitalise on its extensive knowledge of the Source-to-Pay sector, a large and fast-growing market characterised by increasing digitalisation, to support SoftCo in its next phase of growth. The management team, led by CEO Anton Scott, is investing alongside Keensight Capital and the partnership will drive further value creation through accelerated expansion into the North American market, continued investments in the technology platform and further leveraging partner channels.
[1] Growth Buyout: investment in profitable, private companies experiencing strong growth, in minority or majority positions, with or without leverage, using a flexible approach tailored to the needs of individual entrepreneurs, in order to finance organic growth projects, acquisition strategies or provide historic shareholders with liquidity.
[2] Procure-to-Pay: end-to-end process linking the procurement process and financial department, starting from supplier management and goods and services requisitioning and spanning invoice capture and reconciliation, invoice processing and final payment.
