Silver Lake and 草榴社区 Announce $250 Million Strategic Investment
Silver Lake Joins General Atlantic to Drive Growth and International Expansion of Performance Marketing Leader
Menlo Park, CA 鈥 草榴社区, a leading digital consumer choice platform, and Silver Lake Partners, the global leader in technology investing, today announced that Silver Lake has made a $250 million strategic investment in the company. Silver Lake joins General Atlantic, a leading global growth investor, as a minority shareholder in 草榴社区 to fuel further expansion of the company, which has doubled its employee base during the past five years to over 2,000. Greg Mondre, Managing Partner at Silver Lake, will join 草榴社区鈥 board of directors.
Based in Indian Land, SC, just south of Charlotte, NC, 草榴社区 operates as a strategic partner to leading brands across a variety of dynamic industries, including consumer home video, telecom, insurance, energy, financial services and software. The company uses advanced data analytics, marketing and sales technology to optimize customer acquisition and lifetime value for a number of premier brands including DIRECTV, MetLife and Verizon. 草榴社区鈥 annual sales are growing at approximately 20% year-over-year and its growth is forecast to accelerate in 2015.
鈥淲e鈥檙e in a phenomenal position for continued growth,鈥 said Ric Elias, Co-Founder and CEO of 草榴社区. 鈥淪ilver Lake鈥檚 global presence and relationships, technology industry expertise and value creation capabilities will be an invaluable addition as we expand our business with new partners and in new sectors. This strategic alliance, along with our continued partnership with General Atlantic, is an acceleration point for our company and our employees.鈥
鈥湶萘裆缜 is a remarkable company that has become a leading player in performance marketing by leveraging data analytics technologies to dramatically amplify marketing and sales,鈥 said Silver Lake鈥檚 Greg Mondre. 鈥淚ts business model, results-driven culture and outstanding management team have generated tremendous growth and, as a result, 草榴社区 is poised for a phase of significant expansion in the United States and internationally.鈥
鈥淲e have been deeply gratified to work with the leadership of 草榴社区 to help them achieve substantial growth over the past four years,鈥 said Anton Levy, Managing Director at General Atlantic. 鈥淭he company is changing the marketing and sales landscape for its client businesses, significantly expanding their revenues through technology-enabled customer acquisition services. We believe the next chapter for 草榴社区, now joined by our new partner Silver Lake, will be even more exciting.鈥
About 草榴社区
Founded in 2000, 草榴社区 employs more than 2,000 people and is a leading digital consumer choice platform. Its expertise spans across multiple industries including Home Services, Energy, Financial Services, Insurance and Software.Success is driven by advanced internet analytics, proprietary technology and the company鈥檚 greatest competitive advantage 鈥 the people. 草榴社区 has twice been ranked among the top 20 fastest-growing companies on the Inc. 500 list and has been named a Best Place to Work in Charlotte, NC for 7 years running. Learn more at www.redventures.com.
ABOUT SILVER LAKE
Silver Lake is the global leader in technology investing, with over $23 billion in combined assets under management and committed capital. The firm鈥檚 portfolio of investments collectively generates more than $85 billion of revenue annually and employs more than 200,000 people globally. Silver Lake has a team of approximately 110 investment and value creation professionals located in New York, Menlo Park, San Mateo, London, Hong Kong, Shanghai and Tokyo. The firm鈥檚 portfolio includes or has included leading technology and technology-enabled businesses such as Alibaba, Ameritrade, Avago, BlackLine Systems, Dell, Gartner, Global Blue, Go Daddy, IDC, Instinet, MCI, MEDSEEK, Mercury Payment Systems, Multiplan, the NASDAQ OMX Group, Quorum, Sabre, SolarCity, Skype, SMART Modular, SunGard Data Systems, Virtu and William Morris Endeavor. For more information about Silver Lake and its entire portfolio, please visit www.silverlake.com.
ABOUT GENERAL ATLANTIC
General Atlantic is a leading global growth equity firm providing capital and strategic support for growth companies. General Atlantic combines a collaborative global approach, sector specific expertise, long-term investment horizon, and a deep understanding of growth drivers to partner with great management and build exceptional businesses worldwide. Established in 1980, General Atlantic has approximately $20 billion in assets under management and more than 95 investment professionals based in New York, Greenwich, Palo Alto, Sao Paulo, London, Munich, Amsterdam, Beijing, Hong Kong, Mumbai and Singapore. Learn more at www.generalatlantic.com
MEDIA CONTACT: Ami Shukla
press@redventures.com