Enterprise Equity makes 10x return on the sale of its Phorest shareholding to SGE
18th June 2018
Following last month’s big return to EEVC from the sale of SensL to ON Semi, EEVC delivers another very significant return with Phorest
Enterprise Equity (“EEVC”), one of Ireland’s most successful Early Stage investors, has sold its full shareholding in Irish company Phorest, Europe’s fastest growing premium feature driven salon management software business, to Susquehanna Growth Equity, LLC (“SGE”).
The sale is part of a significant €20m SGE investment in Phorest.
Enterprise Equity first invested in Phorest in 2011 via its seed capital fund (“AIBSCF”) and EEVC has generated a 10x plus return on its investment. EEVC has been on the Board of Phorest continuously since 2011. Phorest now has revenues of over €10m and employs 150.
Tom Shinkwin, a Partner in EEVC, said:
“Phorest is another great example of an innovative SaaS business that has proved it can sell and leverage its product internationally. We identified Ronan Perceval, the founder of the business, as someone capable of scaling the operation significantly and that is exactly what he has achieved. We are delighted to have been an active contributor to the success of the company, and we wish the team at Phorest and SGE the very best in the future.”
“As with Phorest, we firmly believe in offering our investment companies real, not virtual, value add. We are hands-on with our investments because we know that this contribution really works and achieves results. We are medium to long-term investors, with our investment horizon running typically from four to eight years, and our success to date has been achieved through investment in innovative and scalable businesses at an early stage of their development. We work with businesses that have a laser focus on international scalable growth, which are backed by entrepreneurial and talented management teams.”
The sale of Enterprise Equity’s shareholding in Phorest follows another excellent return on its investment in SensL Technologies, the Cork based company which was sold to ON Semiconductor last month. SensL is a technology leader specialising in Silicon Photomultipliers (SiPM), Single Photon Avalanche Diode (SPAD) and LiDAR sensing products for automotive, medical, industrial and consumer markets.
Other recent successful exits by Enterprise Equity include Movidius, the company that develops microchips to handle advanced vision processing duties in various devices, which was acquired by Intel ; EMBO Medical was acquired by Bard ; and Celtrak was acquired by Ingersoll Rand.
EEVC has invested in 88 internationally orientated early stage companies in areas including B2B SaaS, Connectivity, Fintech and Healthtech. It has offices in Dublin, Cork, Galway, and San Francisco.
Editorial Notes:
- Enterprise Equity: enterpriseequity.com
- Phorest: phorest.com
- Susquehanna Growth Equity: sgep.com
For further information, please contact:
Breda Brown
Unique Media
Tel: (353 1) 522 5200 or (353 87) 248 7120 (Breda)
