Livingbridge and Gresham House sell Kirona to Advanced

The sale represents a 3.1x return for Gresham's Baronsmead VCTs and for Livingbridge's Enterprise 1 Fund.

The development comes five months after Livingbridge sold its VCT management business – comprising the Baronsmead VCTs and two open-ended vehicles – to Gresham House for at least £30m in order to focus on its core mid-market private equity activities.

Since Livingbridge first backed the company, Kirona has invested in product development and expanded into new verticals, including local and central government, utilities, infrastructure and retail.

Kirona's underlying parent company, KHL Newco, generated EBITDA excluding exceptional costs of £3.6m from a turnover of £11m in the year ending in June 2018, according to publicly available documents.

Previous funding
Kirona first received private equity backing in 2011, when LDC purchased the company as part of an all-equity management buyout in December 2011. The GP then provided the business with follow-on funding in 2012 to support the acquisition of Xmbrace.

Livingbridge acquired Kirona in a £20m secondary buyout from LDC in 2014.

Company
Founded in 2003 and headquartered in Alderley Edge, Cheshire, Kirona develops field service management software for sectors including local and central government, utilities, facilities management, healthcare, social care and environmental services.

People
Livingbridge – Pete Clarke (partner).
Gresham House Ventures – Bevan Duncan (portfolio director).
Kirona – David Murray (CEO); Neil Harvey (chief technical officer).

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