Press Release | Technology & Business Solutions (TABS)

Inriver Announces Growth Investment from Thomas H. Lee Partners

May 19, 2022

Investment will support continued product innovation and go-to-market expansion in key markets of North America and Europe

MALMÖ, Sweden and CHICAGO, May 19, 2022 /PRNewswire/ — Inriver (“the Company”), a company that empowers organizations to deliver revenue-driving product information management (PIM) across every customer touchpoint, today announced that it will receive a majority investment from Thomas H. Lee Partners, L.P. (THL), a premier private equity firm investing in growth companies. Verdane, the European specialist growth equity investor and current inriver shareholder, will retain a significant stake in the Company. The transaction will include a significant primary capital investment to support inriver’s product development roadmap and significantly expand its presence in North America and Europe, to meet the demands of a high-growth market.

Headquartered in Malmö, Sweden, with its North American headquarters in Chicago, inriver helps the world’s leading manufacturers, distributors, and retailers harness the power of their product information to deliver exceptional customer experiences across channels. In a highly competitive, omnichannel world, customers rely on inriver’s software to manage, distribute, and optimize vast amounts of product information at scale to drive revenue.

“This is a milestone for inriver, our customers, partners, and investors,” said Thomas Zanzinger, CEO of inriver. “It’s a testament to the importance of product information as it is a foundation for modern commerce. We are excited to grow and scale in North America and across Europe to meet evolving market and customer demands with the investment from THL.”

“Inriver has developed an extremely strong SaaS product and very high customer advocacy in the PIM market, which benefits from outstanding long-term secular growth trends,” said Jeff Swenson, Managing Director and Head of Vertical Software at THL. “The Company enables customers to seamlessly power complex use cases in omnichannel ecommerce, which we believe is highly differentiated.”

Cliff Longley, Director at THL, added, “Inriver fits THL’s sector thesis related to ecommerce and digital enablement software, and its technology is fundamental to executing commerce at scale. We look forward to supporting go-to-market investments to accelerate growth in North America and build on the Company’s strength in Europe.”

Pål Malmros, Partner at Verdane, commented, “The Verdane team is pleased to continue to draw on our unique combination of software and digital consumer expertise to support inriver’s continued growth. Since Verdane first invested in inriver, the company has grown 10x in size and established itself as a global leader. We are certain that through this partnership with THL, inriver has secured the perfect backing to continue on its strong growth path – and most important of all – continue to deliver world class products to existing and future customers.”

THL invested in inriver through both its flagship Fund IX and its Automation Fund, the private equity industry’s first fund dedicated to automation-related businesses.

Evercore acted as financial advisor to inriver and Sidley Austin LLP acted as inriver’s legal advisor. SVB Securities acted as financial advisor to THL. Kirkland & Ellis LLP acted as THL’s legal advisor. Past investors of inriver include Industrifonden, RoosGruppen AB, and Zobito. Terms of the transaction were not disclosed. The transaction is expected to close in calendar Q2 2022.

About inriver:
Inriver empowers organizations to deliver revenue-driving product information at every touchpoint. Inriver’s Digital-first PIM™ enables organizations to bring compelling product stories to life for highly customized purchases, obtain actionable guidance on what influences buying decisions, and then quickly adapt to put insights into action. Inriver helps B2B and B2C organizations turn product information into strategic assets to drive revenue for over 1,600 brands and 700 customers globally. Headquartered in Malmö, Sweden, inriver has offices in Amsterdam, Chicago, Davao, London, Manila, Munich, and Stockholm. For more information, please visit www.inriver.com.

About THL:
Thomas H. Lee Partners, L.P. (“THL”) is a premier private equity firm investing in middle-market growth companies exclusively within three sectors: Healthcare, Financial Technology & Services, and Technology & Business Solutions. THL couples deep sector expertise through an Identified Sector Opportunity (“ISO”) process with dedicated internal operating resources from its Strategic Resource Group (“SRG”) to transform and build great companies of lasting value in partnership with management. The Firm’s domain expertise and resources help to build great companies with an aim to accelerate growth, improve operations and drive long-term sustainable value. Since 1974, THL has raised more than $34 billion of equity capital, invested in over 160 companies and completed more than 500 add-on acquisitions representing an aggregate enterprise value at acquisition of over $210 billion.

About Verdane:
Verdane is a specialist growth equity investment firm that partners with tech-enabled and sustainable European businesses to help them reach the next stage of international growth. Verdane can invest as a minority or majority investor, either in single companies or through portfolios of companies, and looks to deploy behind three core themes; the Digital Consumer, Software Everywhere and Sustainable Society. Verdane funds hold closer to €4 billion in total commitments and have made over 135 investments in fast-growing businesses since 2003. Verdane’s team of over 100 investment professionals and operating experts, based out of Berlin, Copenhagen, Helsinki, London, Oslo and Stockholm, is dedicated to being the preferred growth partner to tech-enabled and sustainable businesses in Europe. For more information, please visit: www.verdane.com.