Ardian invests €3m in Ariane

Company founders Michel Lavandier and Laurent Cardot will invest alongside the Paris-based GP and regain control from previous shareholders.

Ariane will use the fresh funds to speed up its international expansion, particularly in North America following the relocation of its CEO to the Washington DC office. Currently based in 20 countries worldwide, the company also plans to invest in offering personalisation, mobility and self-service to customers.

Ardian financed the deal via its Ardian Croissance Fund, which held a final close on €70m in April 2014.

Prior to Ariane, the fund was used by the GP in its €20m investment in Swiss online booking company Bravofly in order for the business to acquire Spanish travel agency Rumbo in 2012.

Further investments by the vehicle include the 20% stake acquired by Ardian in French cloud hosting service Ikoula in 2014 and a funding round into software company Saaswedo in January 2015.

Previous funding
Ariane has raised four rounds of funding since 2003, when the company received €1.3m from SGAM AI Private Equity. Three years later, SGAM was joined by Paris-based VC 123Venture in a €2.5m round.

The duo stayed on board for a €2.75m third round in 2008, which saw Omnes Capital contribute €2m contribution.

Company
Founded in 2001 by Laurent Cardot and Michel Lavandier, Ariane Systems is a software and hardware developer offering self-check-in and self-check-out technologies for the hospitality sector. It operates a network of 2,500 installations in hotel brands such as Scandic, Radisson Blu and B&B Hotels.

Headquartered in Pantin, the company is active in 20 countries, with regional offices in the UK, Germany, Spain, the Benelux region, Scandinavia, North America and the Middle East.

People
Managing director Laurent Foata and director Alexis Saada led the deal for Ardian. Michel Lavandier and Laurent Cardot are Ariane Systems' founders – the former being the company's current CEO and the latter its managing partner.

Advisers
Equity – Lamartine Conseil, Fabien Mauvais (Legal); KPMG, Antoine Bernabeu (Financial due diligence).
Company – Cleach, Cyrille Decavele (Legal); Financière Cambon, Morgann Lesné, Edwina Bassil (Corporate finance).

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• Topics
• France
• Expansion
• Industrials
• France
• Ardian (formerly Axa PE)