e-Attestations aims to triple size with new Keensight backing

Min Ho
25 July 2023

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e-Attestations, a French third-party risk management (TPRM) platform, is eyeing x3 revenue size in the next three to four years with the new backing of Keensight Capital, a spokesperson for the investor said.

European growth buyout firm Keensight bought a minority stake in the company, which centrally stores, manages and validates Governance, Risk and Compliance (GRC) and Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) certificates of suppliers, according to a statement.

The GP plans to support the company's organic growth strategy, including capitalising on white space opportunity, assisting with product development and strengthening its commercial and marketing function, it said.

Bolt-on acquisitions will also play a part in e-Attestations' growth, including its internationalisation efforts, it said.

The company has grown its revenues at around 25% per annum over the past two years with 90% of total revenues coming from SaaS subscriptions, it said in the same statement.

Keensight declined to comment on the company's financial details, although it typically invests in profitable companies with high growth potential and revenues in the range of EUR 10m to EUR 400m.

The GP is currently deploying equity via Keensight Capital V, which was launched in September 2018 and closed in 2019 on EUR 1bn, according to Unquote Data.

"We have performed comprehensive work on the third-party risk management (TPRM) market and have already evaluated relevant investment opportunities in the sector," the spokesperson said of its origination process.

"When we became aware that the founders of e-Attestations were looking to add an institutional investor to the shareholder base, we were quick to act and our deep sector knowledge and understanding of e-Attestations' business helped us build early conviction in this investment opportunity," it added.

TPRM has recently piqued the interest of private equity investors, most recently Once For All, a SaaS-based supplier management system serving the construction industry, which was acquired by US private equity firm GTCR. Once For All was marketed based on an EBITDA of GBP 40m–GBP 45m with a valuation expectation of GBP 1.5bn, according to Mergermarket.

Company
Founded in 2008, e-Attestations is a developer of TPRM and supplier master data management software solutions used to centrally store, manage and validate GRC and ESG certificates of suppliers.

e-Attestations currently employs nearly 50 people monitoring around 400k active suppliers spread across over 140 countries.

People
e-Attestations - Emmanuel Poidevin (founder and president), Pascal Gué (CEO).
Keensight Capital - Gregory Agez (partner).

Advisors
Vendor (e-Attestations) – Lincoln (financial advisor); Change Legal (legal); Alvarez & Marsal (financial due diligence); Arsene Taxand (tax).

Equity (Keensight) – Emerton (strategic and commercial due diligence); SCP (strategic and commercial due diligence); 8 advisory (financial, legal and tax due diligence); Pentalog (technology due diligence); Hogan Lovells (legal); Bryan Garnier (financial advisor); Transaction R (financial advisor).

Debt (Eurazeo) – Mermoz (legal).

[Editor's note: Following a post-publication request from Keensight, the article has been amended to clarify that e-Attestations is looking to triple its revenue size over the next three-four years.]