EQT buys visual content specialist Freepik

Alessia Argentieri
28 May 2020

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EQT has acquired a majority stake in Spain-based Freepik, a provider of digital visual content, from its founders and management team.

The deal gives the company an enterprise value of around €250m, equal to 21x its EBITDA, according to market sources.

Freepik's management team, including co-founders Alejandro and Pablo Blanes and Joaquin Cuenca, will retain a minority stake and continue to lead the company.

The GP deployed capital from EQT Mid-Market Europe, which closed on its €1.6bn hard-cap in May 2017. The vehicle invests in companies operating in a wide range of sectors, with enterprise values of €100-300m. It targets primarily the Nordic, DACH and Benelux regions, but can also invest a portion of its capital in selected opportunities in the rest of Europe.

EQT intends to support Freepik's growth, boost its expansion and further bolster its penetration in existing markets, including the US and Asia. The GP also plans to invest in the company's proprietary content library, user experience, technology platform, and AI and tool integration capability.

Company
Founded in 2010 and headquartered in Malaga, Freepik is a provider of digital visual content for the game design, social media and digital advertising segments.

The company operates under the Freepik, Flaticon and SlidesGo brands, offering a library of 10 million graphic resources, including icons, vectors, photos and templates to 32 million monthly visitors from 200 countries.

Freepik has 20 million registered users supported by a network of 450 in-house freelancer graphical designers and an external contributor base. It generated EBITDA of €12m from revenues of around €30m in 2019.

People
EQT – Victor Englesson (partner); Carlos Santana (managing director, head of EQT Private Equity in Spain).
Freepik – Joaquin Cuenca, Alejandro Blanes, Pablo Blanes (co-founders).

Advisers
Equity – Allen & Overy (legal); Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer (tax); Boston Consulting Group (commercial due diligence); KPMG (financial due diligence); LionTree (corporate finance).
Company – Drake Star Partners (corporate finance); Deloitte (financial due diligence); Callol Coca & Asociados (legal).