Alpine Investors (“Alpine”), a private equity firm focused on software and services businesses, today announced that Cleo Communications (“Cleo”), a global provider of ecosystem integration solutions, is receiving a significant growth investment from an affiliate of H.I.G. Capital (“H.I.G.”), a global private equity and alternative assets investment firm. As part of the partnership, Alpine is exiting its investment in Cleo.
Cleo is a global SaaS provider of enterprise data integration solutions with capabilities across B2B, applications, cloud, and big data integrations through a single platform integration suite, Cleo Integration Cloud. Alpine partnered with Mahesh Rajasekharan in the investment in Cleo in 2012 and appointed him as President and CEO. Over its holding period, through their in-house talent program, Alpine also helped round out Cleo’s leadership team with exceptional executive talent. With this team in place, Cleo successfully grew the business from 30 to 300 employees, and now serves over 4,000 global customers, principally in the manufacturing, retail, logistics & transportation, and wholesale distribution industries.
Since 2012, Cleo has become the global leader of the ecosystem integration software category through investment and innovation. During this time, Cleo completed two strategic add-ons, increased its total addressable market, and shifted the entire product suite to a SaaS-based cloud offering that has become the market standard for ecosystem integration. The team also built out its professional sales and marketing operations, increasing revenue more than five-fold during Alpine’s nine-year investment period. Cleo’s partnership with H.I.G. will provide investment for its next phase of growth and accelerate Cleo’s ecosystem integration category leadership and growth strategy.
“Over the last nine years, Cleo has redefined B2B integration in the cloud, and pioneered the ecosystem integration software category, creating an end-to-end product solution on a single platform, which businesses across industries are rapidly adopting,” said Rajasekharan. “H.I.G. Capital’s deep domain knowledge and shared vision in helping businesses manage rapid growth through cloud integration technology makes them the perfect partner for Cleo’s next phase of growth.”
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“Under Mahesh’s people-driven leadership and customer orientation, Cleo has grown into a global market leader,” said Billy Maguy, partner at Alpine. “Cleo’s goal of creating a leading solution for B2B enterprise data has helped businesses gain the supply chain visibility and control they need to scale. We’re excited to watch Cleo continue to provide value and solve challenges for its customers in partnership with H.I.G.”
UBS Securities LLC served as financial advisor and Kirkland & Ellis LLP served as legal counsel to Cleo and Alpine.