(Riverwood Capital) March 28, 2012 – Riverwood Capital, a globally-focused private equity firm that invests in high-growth businesses in the technology and services industries, announced today an investment plan of R$100M for the next three years, which includes the acquisition and integration of Mandic SA (“MANDIC”) and Tecla Internet (“TECLA”). The transaction aims to create a cloud computing leader in Brazil offering Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) and Infrastructure-as-a-Service (IaaS) technologies to corporates and small and medium sized enterprises. The combined company will maintain the MANDIC brand.
Riverwood will be the majority shareholder, with participation from Aleksandar Mandic (founder of MANDIC), Sidney Breyer (founder and shareholder of ALOG Data Centers do Brasil), and executives of the combined company. The company will have a customer base of more than 19,000 clients, including corporations and medium-sized businesses throughout Brazil, and a projected growth of over 50% per year.
“We are extremely excited to be investors in the acquisition of MANDIC and TECLA and partner with this great team of managers and entrepreneurs. We are embarking on an aggressive expansion plan to create the leading company in cloud computing services for small, medium-sized and large businesses in Brazil. MANDIC will expand its offerings of SaaS and IaaS technologies, built on top of TECLA’s cloud computing platform. The focus will be on developing innovative solutions to increase productivity and optimize cost for customers, always with the best customer service and experience”, says Francisco Alvarez-Demalde, a founding partner of Riverwood Capital.
“MANDIC’s trajectory depends on continued innovation. The support from Riverwood Capital represents a new milestone for the company and will help us bring more innovations in web services. The investment will help us maintain a leadership position as a provider of SaaS and IaaS technologies”, says Aleksandar Mandic, the founder of MANDIC SA.
The directors and management team of both companies will remain in the combined company and will lead an ambitious growth plan. The management team will include Antonio Carlos Pina, Lucio Boracchini, Paulo Lima and Cristian Gallegos. The founding members of Riverwood Capital, Francisco Alvarez-Demalde and Nicholas Brathwaite will serve as Board members, along with Aleksandar Mandic and Sidney Breyer. MANDIC and TECLA will continue a close long-term business relationship with ALOG Data Centers do Brasil.
Expansion Strategy
According to Lucio Boracchini and Antonio Carlos Pina, the investment plan and combination of MANDIC and TECLA is an excellent outcome for customers and employees. “By joining the expertise of both, we will be able to create a single point of service (one-stop-shop) of the highest quality with exceptional customer service,” says Boracchini.
As a leading provider of email and collaboration services, MANDIC is well positioned to expand its offerings to provide attractive solutions to optimize costs for companies in the corporate segment, using cloud computing technologies. At the same time, TECLA will continue to bring new innovations to its cloud infrastructure platform and improve MANDIC’s offerings. The aggressive expansion plan includes a wide range of SaaS and IaaS services, focused on providing the best customer experience.
Background
MANDIC has a long history as a pioneer of e-mail and collaboration services, as well as SaaS. MANDIC began operations in the early 1990’s as a Bulletin Board System (BBS), a dial-up based electronic messaging system. For a time, it was the most widely used messaging service in Brazil. MANDIC was also one of the earliest and most well-known providers of Internet access in Brazil, and a founding partner of ‘iG portal and free email’.
Riverwood Capital is a globally-focused private equity firm that invests in high-growth businesses in the technology and services industries, across a variety of verticals and geographies. In 2011, Riverwood Capital and Equinix and acquired ALOG Data Centers do Brasil. Riverwood has several portfolio companies in Latin America and in the cloud computing sector, including the Synapsis (a leader in providing IT services such as infrastructure and mission-critical outsourcing in Latin America), Globant (a leader in exporting software development from Latin America to the United States), MotionPoint (a platform that simplifies the translation and globalization process of websites, allowing customers to develop, maintain and customize multi-lingual sites) and Accellion (a secure platform to store and share large files for corporations and professional environments), among others. Riverwood has offices in Menlo Park (CA, USA), New York (NY, USA), São Paulo (Brazil) and Beijing (China).