Industry Related TransactionsAcuant, an Audax Private Equity portfolio company, Acquired Hello Soda
Buyside Advisor to Acuant
7 Mile Advisors Acts as Buyside Advisor to Acuant, an Audax Private Equity Portfolio Company, in Their Acquisition of Hello Soda
Bringing the teams and technology together will strengthen Acuant’s Trusted Identity Platform
CHARLOTTE, NC — 7 Mile Advisors is pleased to announce that Acuant, the global trusted identity platform for fraud prevention and anti money laundering (AML) compliance, has acquired Hello Soda, a global provider of identity verification and know your customer (KYC ) solutions headquartered in the UK. Along with Hello Soda’s deep expertise in eMoney and gaming, with customers including VirginBet, Klarna, and Paysafe, the union will bring together technology and data science capabilities that are key to unlocking trust in digital identities. 7 Mile Advisors acted as the buyside advisor to Acuant, an Audax Private Equity (Audax) portfolio company, throughout the transaction.
“Acuant is taking all of the right steps to become a global leader of choice in digital identity solutions. It was a pleasure to work alongside their executive team to expand their presence in Europe,” said Garth Martin, Vice President at 7 Mile Advisors.
Hello Soda’s foundation in advanced analytics has driven its success in developing and delivering to market, a suite of solutions that leverage digital data sources and capabilities for the purpose of KYC and AML. With a focus on ensuring businesses receive actionable insight, Hello Soda’s technology utilizes proprietary analytics, matching algorithms, and data science modelling to provide configurable and composite scoring, enabling businesses to make educated decisions from the point of onboarding, to enhanced due diligence, and continuous monitoring. Their dark web solution mitigates the risk of impersonation fraud by searching over 600 million records on the dark web for a customer’s information and provides an extra level of security by searching and monitoring customer personally identifiable information (PII) against compromised data. Its innovative and multilingual platform has enabled Hello Soda to become a market leader in automated identity solutions, currently verifying identities in over 180 countries.
“Our goal has always been to power trust for all, a vision we share with Hello Soda whom we are excited to welcome to the Acuant family,” said Yossi Zekri President and CEO of Acuant. “This is truly the most exhilarating time in our company’s history, coinciding with the disruption of traditional financial markets, the rapid digitalization of the world, and the need for business and governments to help safeguard identity more than ever before. Adding Hello Soda to our Trusted Identity Platform will allow us to reach more people and position us more strongly for the future of digital identity.”
The acquisition comes on the heels of Acuant’s best quarter in company history, with numerous accomplishments, including record growth, newly patented technology, enhanced global coverage and technology partners, and increased industry leadership. The Acuant team continues to look for opportunities that will allow them to scale. “7 Mile Advisor’s is excited to announce this significant digital identity transaction with our partners at Acuant and Audax. We are excited to continue growing value through strategic M&A,” said Tripp Davis, Partner at 7 Mile Advisors.
While primarily sellside advisors, the 7 Mile Advisors team takes great pride in supporting leading IT Services firms in their goal to scale through high-touch buyside services. Other notable buyside transactions include Gryphon’s acquisition of Pragmatic Works and Court Square’s acquisition of Thrive. To view all of 7 Mile Advisors’ recent transactions, visit 7mileadvisors.com.
About 7 Mile Advisors
7 Mile Advisors provides Investment Banking & Advisory Services to the Business Services and Technology Industries globally. 7 Mile Advisors advises on M&A and private capital transactions, as well as provides market assessments and benchmarking. As a close-knit team with a long history together and a laser focus on our target markets, 7 Mile Advisors helps its clients sell companies, raise capital, grow through acquisitions, and evaluate new markets. All securities transactions are executed by 7M Securities, LLC, member FINRA / SIPC. For more information, including research on the M&A markets, visit www.7mileadvisors.com.
About Acuant
Acuant’s Trusted Identity Platform is at the forefront of enabling businesses and governments to transact with trust in an ever-increasing digital world, facilitating the creation, ownership and ability to verify your identity and making that accessible to the entire global population. With industry leading identity verification, regulatory compliance (AML/KYC), and digital identity solutions powered by AI and human assisted machine learning, Acuant delivers unparalleled results and operational efficiency. Omnichannel deployment delivers seamless customer experiences to fight fraud, increase conversions and establish trust in seconds from anywhere in the world. Completing more than 1.5 billion transactions in over 200 countries and territories, Acuant powers trust in every major industry.
About Audax Private Equity
Audax Group is a leading alternative investment manager with offices in Boston, New York, and San Francisco. Since its founding in 1999, the firm has raised over $27 billion in capital across its Private Equity and Private Debt businesses. Audax Private Equity has invested over $6 billion in more than 135 platforms and over 950 add-on companies, and is currently investing out of its $3.5 billion, sixth private equity fund. Through its disciplined Buy & Build approach, Audax Private Equity seeks to help platform companies execute add-on acquisitions that fuel revenue growth, optimize operations, and significantly increase equity value. With more than 250 employees, Audax is a leading capital partner for North American middle market companies. For more information, visit the Audax Private Equity website: www.audaxprivateequity.com or follow them on LinkedIn.
