Main Capital's Assessio to be sold to Pollen Street

Pollen Street is currently deploying equity via PSC IV, which raised GBP 1bn in 2021. PSC V is currently in pre-launch mode with a GBP 1bn fundraising target, according to Unquote Data.

The Nordic recruitment services provider is expected to continue its M&A and organic growth strategy under its incoming new owner. The current management team under Johan Masironi, Evelien Schram, Peter Tjernstrom and Staffan Landberg are expected to remain, according to a statement from Pollen Street.

Main Capital Partners hired William Blair earlier this year to guide the sale process of the talent assessment player. Indicative bids from private equity and strategic firms came in at around SEK 1.2bn-SEK 1.7bn (EUR 104.2m-EUR 147.6m), according to Unquote sister publication Mergermarket.

The company expected to turn over approximately SEK 300m (EUR 26.5m) in FY23, with an EBITDA margin north of 30%, as previously reported.

"Assessio has been a tremendous success for Main Capital Partners because of the growth of the company, but also the improvement of the quality of the product offering making the company more recurring revenue mix," Main Capital founding partner and CEO Charly Zwemstra told Unquote. "We also tripled the revenues in the course of four years. We created a lot of value [in Assessio] and so the exit for Main Capital Partners was highly attractive."

He declined to comment on the sale price and the company's financials.

Under Main Capital, the company's revenues tripled over the course of four years, Zwemstra said. This is thanks in part to moving the consultancy-driven business to a scalable SaaS operation. Growth initiatives included the strategic acquisitions of Netherlands-based HFMTalentindex and Eelloo and, as well as Denmark-based People Test Systems, according to a statement from Main Capital.

Main Capital acquired Assessio in 2019 via Main Capital V, which raised around EUR 240m in 2017. The Netherlands-headquartered fund is currently deploying equity via Main Capital VII, which raised EUR 1bn in 2021.

Company
Assessio is a Nordic e-assessment company that helps HR teams with the recruitment and development of leaders and teams. Through tests and tools, they provide organizations with data of both current and potential employees. Assessio was founded in the 1950s and today their work psychological tests are used all over the world and in over 30 different languages.

Advisor
Vendor – William Blair (corporate finance).

People
Assessio - Johan Masironi (CEO).
Pollen Street - Anastasia Kovaleva (investment director).
Main Capital Partners - Wessel Ploegmakers (partner).

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