NeoXam acquires SmartCo with the support of BlackFin Capital Partners, a private equity firm specialized in financial services.
NeoXam is a provider of front, middle and back office software solutions dedicated to asset managers, asset owners and securities servicing platforms. It employs 300 highly skilled financial software developers and consultants in Europe, China, Africa, and the US. Neoxam’s clients include Tier 1 financial institutions such as Caceis Investor Services, BBVA Asset Management, UBS and Citic Securities. In January 2014, BlackFin acquired the GP3 and Decalog software programs from SunGard and constituted NeoXam together with buy-in manager Serge Delpla. NeoXam now operates as a standalone entity and enjoys strong growth, driven by a reshuffled management team and several new customers.
In June 2015, NeoXam acquires SmartCo, a fast-growing Enterprise Data Management software provider. The company, created by Pascal Mougin in 2004, has offices in Paris, Zurich and Boston. The data management software solution SmartCo DataHub enables asset management companies, investment banks, and security services providers to collect, verify, revise and deliver financial data from multiple sources in real time.
The acquisition of SmartCo allows NeoXam to broaden its product offering, to strengthen its R&D capabilities, and to expand its footprint in the UK, Germany and North America. This acquisition follows NeoXam’s investments in Nexfi and Density.
Laurent Bouyoux, President of BlackFin Capital Partners, declares: “We are delighted to integrate SmartCo in NeoXam. SmartCo’s data management solutions enable investors to reduce their back-office costs and the risks of errors. NeoXam now provides a full range of software solutions meeting all investors’ needs.”
About BlackFin Capital Partners
BlackFin Capital Partners is a fully independent firm, run by its four founding partners. Laurent Bouyoux, Eric May, Bruno Rostain and Paul Mizrahi have worked together as managers and entrepreneurs in the financial industry for decades. Based in Paris and Brussels, the team consists of 12 experienced professionals from different European nationalities.
The firm’s strategy focuses on asset-light (as opposed to balance-sheet intensive) businesses in the financial services sector, across continental Europe. Businesses of interest to BlackFin include asset-management, institutional and retail brokerage, distribution of insurance and banking products, both digital and through traditional channels, payments, processing, debt management and collection, fund administration, business process outsourcing and financial technology.
BlackFin operates as an active and influential investor. In Fund I (closed in 2011), the BlackFin team has substantially transformed its portfolio companies by growing them organically, improving operating margins and also through an active buy and build strategy. Transactions have been completed in France, Germany, Italy and Switzerland.
BlackFin will pursue this same strategy in Fund II, keeping its focus on the lower mid-market segment of the financial services sector, and supporting successful management teams to take their businesses to the next level.