Vitruvian Partners acquires majority stake in Scrive

Eliza Punshi
09 June 2020

Tweet
Facebook
LinkedIn
Google plus
Send to

London-based Vitruvian Partners has acquired a majority stake in Scrive, a Swedish provider of digital signature and identity solutions.

Exiting the company were Inbox Capital CEO Martin Wattin, early-stage venture capital firm Wellstreet, and Sebastian Siemiatkowski, the founder of Swedish payments startup Klarna. A minority stake will be retained by the board members and employees of the company.

Scrive CEO Viktor Wrede told Unquote that the company had been in talks with the GP for some time.

The GP's most recent fund is Vitruvian Investment Partnership III, which held a final close on its hard-cap of €2.4bn in December 2018. The vehicle invests €25-250m in companies valued at €75m-1bn.

When asked if Covid-19 has had any impact on the deal, Wrede said: "We have a greenfield opportunity in front of us right now. It's not a question of are people are moving from paper to digital, it's a question of when. When Covid-19 happened, of course it has been big blow to several industries we serve, the automotive industry for example. But overall, it actually made the need for our services more urgent. That's where we've seen more opportunity to expand."

The deal will help expand Scrive further into Europe, broaden its offering and enhance its customer experience. Wrede said the company plans to expand into two to three new markets over the next year, focusing on organic growth.

Previous funding
According to sister publication Mergermarket, Scrive was working on raising €10m from investors in March 2017. It reportedly raised around $3.9m prior to that, including SEK 10m ($1.13m) from investors including Nordic VC Wellstreet in summer 2016.

Before that, the company raised SEK 27m ($3.2m) in spring 2016 from private investors Martin Wattin and Svante Elfving.

Company
Founded in 2010 and based in Stockholm, Scrive is a provider of digital signature and identity solutions for companies. It counts Avis, DNB, Fabege, Volkswagen and Telenor among its customers and has offices in the Netherlands, Norway and Denmark. It employs 100 people and records €8m in recurring revenues.

People
Scrive – Viktor Wrede (CEO).
Vitruvian Partners – Jussi Wuoristo (partner).

Advisers
Company – Hansen Law (legal).