CapMan Growth and Mandatum to accelerate Sofigate’s growth
Sofigate to boost its turnover towards EUR 500 million
CapMan Growth press release
19 May 2021 at 8.30 a.m. EEST
CapMan Growth and Mandatum to accelerate Sofigate’s growth
Sofigate to boost its turnover towards EUR 500 million
Sofigate, the business technology transformation company, will be boosted by two private equity investors when CapMan Growth and Mandatum Private Equity become minority shareholders in the company. With their decision, the new owners are showing trust in a fast-growing digital transformation expert that combines program leadership, continuous management of business change and modern technology platforms. Sofigate aims for an annual turnover of EUR 500 million by 2025.
“CapMan and Mandatum bring financial and capital market expertise to the company, which will enable us to accelerate our growth. Company acquisitions are part of the strategy, and private equity investors ensure that financing is available when needed,” says Sofigate CEO Sami Karkkila.
Sofigate has grown rapidly in recent years. In five years, the company increased its turnover fivefold to the current level of EUR 100 million. Maintaining a similar growth rate requires both rapid organic growth and acquisitions.
Business technology a hot topic
The business technology sector is predicted to grow rapidly in the Nordic countries as well. The Covid-19 pandemic has accelerated digitalisation and spurred companies to invest even more in their digital processes.
“As a strategic investor, we see great potential in the development of Sofigate’s operations on the path the company has chosen. Sofigate operates in strong growth markets, and these are further intensified by the transformation brought about by digitalisation. As private equity investors, we bring considerable added value by significantly accelerating the implementation of Sofigate's internationalisation and acquisition strategies,” says CapMan Growth Managing Partner Juha Mikkola of the company’s future.
“As technology takes centre stage in business operations across industries, the winners will be companies that understand the relationships between technology and strategy, business operations and product development. In this digitalisation-driven market, Sofigate has a strong position in Finland and significant growth potential in other Nordic countries. As a strategic investor and in addition to our financial investment, we provide Sofigate with access to our growth strategy and acquisition expertise,” says Alexander Antas, head of Mandatum Private Equity.
Strong ownership by staff also
In addition to CapMan and Mandatum, Sofigate is owned by LähiTapiola, the company’s founders, and a significant number of its personnel. Institutional investors now own a little less than one-fifth of Sofigate in total. Even after the transaction, Sofigate is to a large extent owned by its employees.
“The investments will also strengthen the composition of the board, which will increase the company’s ability to develop its operations. We are ready to implement the chosen growth strategy both operationally and at the board level, and we will be able to move very quickly if necessary,” says Karkkila.
Sofigate was founded in 2003 as an IT management service provider, but has gradually grown into the leading business technology transformation expert in the Nordic countries. A key driver of that growth has been the digital revolution in business, which has forced customers to make their traditional operations technology-driven.
“We offer customers technological expertise and transformation management in one package,” Karkkila says. “We are a pioneer in combining the best technologies, people and management models.”
For more information, please contact:
Juha Mikkola, Managing Partner, CapMan Growth
juha.mikkola[a]capman.com
Tel. +358 50 590 0522Sami Karkkila, CEO, Sofigate
sami.karkkila[a]sofigate.com
Tel. +358 400 805 446
Sofigate is a business technology transformation company with approximately 600 employees in Finland, Sweden and Denmark. Sofigate helps its customers develop the interplay between business and technology: to design, build and implement transformations and business-friendly technology solutions. The company utilizes the Business Technology Standard and the world’s leading technology platforms such as ServiceNow, Salesforce, SAP, Oracle and Google Cloud.
CapMan Growth is a leading Finnish growth investor. The team’s second MEUR 97 fund, CapMan Growth II established in 2020, makes significant minority investments in growth stage companies with ambitious growth and expansion goals. CapMan is part of CapMan Group, a leading Nordic private asset expert with an active approach to value creation. As one of the Nordic private equity pioneers, we have developed hundreds of companies and real estate assets and created substantial value in these businesses and assets over the past 30 years. With close to €4 billion in assets under management, we have a broad presence in the unlisted market through our local and specialised teams.
Mandatum Private Equity (MPE) is a Finnish growth oriented investor with ca. 160m EUR of AUM. MPE focuses on significant minority investments in Finnish and Nordic privately held companies with proven business models and strong growth ambitions. Mandatum Private Equity is part of Mandatum Asset Management (MAM), a new asset management company that was formed by combining Sampo Group’s proprietary balance sheet, client assets, and investment operations from Sampo Plc and Mandatum Life. MAM leverages Sampo’s investment heritage as one of the most successful institutional investors in the Nordic region. MAM manages ca. 24bn EUR and employs ca. 100 investment professionals. MAM belongs to the Sampo Group.
