Leading customer management and payment processing Software-as-a-Service to the dance studio industry
Denver, CO., (January 27, 2020) – The Forbes M+A Group (Forbes), an award-winning middle market investment bank, served as exclusive advisor to The Studio Director, a Customer and Payment Management SaaS Platform, on its sale to Evercommerce, a Company backed by Providence Strategic Growth, an affiliate of Providence Equity Partners.
“The Forbes team was able to unlock a huge amount of additional value in our Company by truly understanding our unique value drivers. They exceeded our expectations by achieving a successful close with an ideal partner within only four months.” said The Studio Director’s President & Co-owner Jon Visscher. Vice President & Co-owner Steve Luna added, “An M&A transaction is one of the most important life events for a business owner, and I am grateful we selected Forbes. They were a group we could trust to fiercely advocate for us throughout the entire process.”
Dan Pellegrino, Managing Director and Partner of Forbes’ Software and Technology team and The Studio Director’s lead advisor, stated “Technology companies with both scalable proprietary IT assets and payment processing capabilities, like The Studio Director, are attracting significant interest from major investment groups and strategics alike.”
Blake Shear, Director at Forbes and co-advisor commented, “Health and wellness industry leaders see significant strategic value in acquiring innovative software and technologies to transform the approach to supporting their customer’s active lifestyles.” Blake further commented that, “The current market demand and The Studio Director’s innovative technology platform enabled us to employ a “pre-emptive” bid strategy that yielded a great partnership for both The Studio Director and Providence.”
In addition to Dan Pellegrino and Blake Shear, The Studio Director advisory team included Associate, Cassie Dobos.
About the Studio Director
The Studio Director provides proprietary web-based management software and payment solutions for children’s activity centers, primarily dance and gymnastic studios. The Studio Director platform enables its customers to lower administrative costs and increase revenue and customer service. Additionally, the platform creates a high ROI for its customers by providing flexible solutions for scheduling, customer relationship management (CRM), credit card / ACH processing, customer communications, inventory, ecommerce, and event management. By delivering quality software and support, the Company has experienced solid growth over its 15-year history, serving thousands of clients and annually processing over half a billion dollars in credit card payments.
About The Forbes M+A Group
The Forbes M+A Group, founded in 2004 with offices in Denver, CO and Salt Lake City, UT is an award-winning investment bank with expertise in mergers and acquisitions, capital formation, and financial restructuring within the middle market. The group has over 15 years of experience delivering outstanding results for business owners, entrepreneurs and investors. Advisors at The Forbes M+A Group have 250+ years of combined experience in international transactions across a wide variety of industries. The Forbes M+A Group has been recognized as a leader within the middle market as a regional M&A Firm of the Year for the past 5 years. For more information, please visit us at: www.forbes-partners.com or phone at (303) 770-6017.
About EverCommerce
EverCommerce is the leading service commerce platform, providing the top marketing, business management, and customer retention solutions to more than 200,000 service businesses across the globe. Specializing in Home & Field Services, Health Services, and Fitness & Wellness industries, EverCommerce solutions streamline the business-to-customer lifecycle of interactions that enable organizations to attract customers at scale, provide services efficiently, act on business insights, and increase customer loyalty and value. Learn more at EverCommerce.com.
About Providence Strategic Growth Capital Partners L.L.C.
Providence Strategic Growth (“PSG”) is an affiliate of Providence Equity Partners (“Providence”). Established in 2014, PSG focuses on growth equity investments in lower middle market software and technology-enabled service companies. Providence is a premier global asset management firm that pioneered a sector-focused approach to private equity investing with the vision that a dedicated team of industry experts could build exceptional companies of enduring value. Since the firm’s inception in 1989, Providence has invested in more than 180 companies and is a leading equity investment firm focused on the media, communications, education and information industries. PSG is headquartered in Boston, MA, with offices in London and Kansas City. For more information on PSG, please visit www.provequity.com/private-equity/psg, and for more information on Providence, please visit www.provequity.com.
For more information on this and other transactions, contact The Forbes M+A Team.