Haveli, General Atlantic acquire business software startup Certinia for nearly $1 billion

While startup funding has slowed down in recent months. Merger and acquisition (M&A) activity continues to trend upward as private equity firms discovered great deals and opportunities. The latest is software vendor Certinia.

Today, private equity firms Haveli Investments and General Atlantic said they have agreed to acquire Certinia (formerly FinancialForce) from its current owners, Advent International and Technology Crossover Ventures for an undisclosed amount, the firms said in a news release.

Although the financial details of the deal were not disclosed in the news release. However, Reuters reported, citing sources familiar with the deal, that the acquisition was valued at nearly $1 billion, including debt.

As part of the acquisition agreement, Haveli, which was launched by former Vista Equity Partners president Brian Sheth, and General Atlantic will buy Advent’s majority stake in Certinia as well as a minority stake held by Technology Crossover Ventures (TCV), the sources told Reuters. Salesforce, which currently owns a stake of less than 10% in Certinia, will also retain its position in the company, the sources added.

In a statement, Mike Stewart, Principal at Haveli Investments, said: “Certinia has an incredibly strong offering with a loyal and growing customer base. Given our team’s collective experience working with high-potential companies in the enterprise software space, we believe Haveli is very well positioned to support Certinia through its next stage of growth and drive value creation for all of its stakeholders.”

Scott Brown, President and CEO of Certinia said: “Haveli has assembled a world-class team of investment professionals, and we are thrilled to partner with them as we enter this exciting next chapter for Certinia. We are very well positioned in a rapidly expanding market, and with Haveli as our new PE partner, we are confident we can take full advantage of growth opportunities and further enhance our ability to meet our customers’ ever-evolving needs and help them achieve their full potential.”

Founded in 2009, the San Jose, California-based Certinia is a provider of a Services-as-a-Business platform that integrates all aspects of services operations that includes service estimation, delivery, customer success management, and financial planning and accounting.

Certinia’s offerings consist of Professional Services Automation (PSA), Customer Success, and ERP solutions, all built on Salesforce’s leading cloud platform. These solutions empower service-based businesses to operate as connected and intelligent entities, fostering business agility.

The company boasts an impressive client list, featuring prominent corporations such as Hewlett-Packard Enterprise, Philips, Cisco Systems, and Siemens, among others. Their trust in Certinia’s services speaks to the company’s reliability and expertise in the industry.