3TS sells Avangate to Francisco Partners

The deal saw 3TS fully divest its stake in the business in a "very competitive" process, according to 3TS managing partner Daniel Lynch. The deal was an exit for 3TS's €40m TCEE Fund II, raised in 2007.

Last month, 3TS announced a first close on €103m for its latest fund, 3TS TCEE Fund III.

Previous funding
3TS had backed the business in 2011 when the GP partnered with Romanian serial tech entrepreneur Radu Georgescu. 3TS injected €4m into the business and went on to support its expansion into the US. 3TS worked with Georgescu to appoint a new US management team and set up its Palo Alto office.

Revenues grew by more than 325% during the hold period, according to Lynch: "It was a great time of growth and transition for Avangate, as the market moved from licence-based to software-as-a-service-based software sales."

3TS is no stranger to bridging CEE businesses to the US: in 2009, the GP reaped 9.1x money on the flotation of Hungarian software business LogMeIn, in which it had been the first institutional backer before helping bring the business to Boston. Altogether, 3TS has bridged five CEE technology businesses to the US, according to Lynch.

Company
Avangate was founded in Romania in 2006 by Georgescu as an electronic software distribution business. The business is today headquartered in Amsterdam.

People
Carl Theobald is president and CEO of Avangate. Lynch is managing partner at 3TS and sat on Avangate's board together with Radu Georgescu and Diwaker Singh.

Advisers
Vendor – Edwards Wildman, Ted Cominos (Legal); Pagemill Partners (Corporate finance).
Equity – Sherman & Sterling (Legal); Navidar Group (Corporate finance).

 

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