FTV Capital made a US$42.5m minority investment in Lean Staffing Solutions, a transportation and logistics outsourcing company with operations in the US and Colombia.
(Press Release) Lean Staffing Solutions (“LSS”), a leading provider of nearshore, expert outsourced solutions for transportation and logistics companies in the United States, today announced a $42.5 million minority growth equity investment from FTV Capital, a sector-focused investor in innovative companies in enterprise technology and services, financial services, and payments and transaction processing. LSS, headquartered in Florida with operations in four cities across Colombia, is a pioneer in nearshoring for the logistics and transportation industry. The investment enables LSS to continue expanding in its core transportation and logistics market and further enhance the product suite to better serve clients. The investment will also help LSS grow its footprint beyond transportation into industries like finance, healthcare, factoring and insurance, where LSS’s domain expertise and broadly applicable offering will help customers to become more efficient, improve scalability and reduce cost.
Given its proximity to the United States, Colombia has emerged as a preferred nearshoring hub for many North American companies, particularly those in the freight brokerage and third-party logistics (3PL) industries. Trucking remains labor intensive and while more technologies are available to address problems, human-to-human communications will remain critical to apply nuanced solutions to complex logistics systems.
LSS’s value lies in its deep domain expertise and exceptional talent, providing customers with quality assurance and consultative guidance as employees take on increasingly sophisticated roles as part of a dedicated team operating as an extension of the customer’s own office.
LSS’s workforce draws from highly educated, motivated, bilingual talent who are trained in industry-specific functions across back-office administration, sales, marketing, customer service and technology. LSS delivers significant cost savings to its customers by managing all recruitment, training and onboarding of qualified employees.
LSS has scaled nearly 3,000%, from a staff of 14 in 2016 to more than 1,500 employees today. With an ambition to deepen their expertise and build their careers with a fast-growing American company, LSS’s Colombian employees have contributed to industry-leading retention rates, helping customers achieve a higher degree of continuity in an industry where employee tenure is valuable.
“With our deeply collaborative customer success model, we have built a compelling value proposition across the logistics space and are experiencing rapid growth,” said Roberto Cadena, CEO and co-founder of LSS. “We are thrilled to partner with FTV Capital at this stage to advance our product and services and launch into new verticals to further meet the needs of our clients.”
Included in the Inc. 500 list for America’s fastest-growing private companies for the second year in a row, moving from #409 to #347 in 2020, LSS is recognized for its leadership advancing freight brokerage and transportation management, an area where many companies seek support to hire the right talent dedicated to their businesses.
“Colombia is the fourth largest business process outsourcing (BPO) market in Latin America with a $2.3 billion market size and an annual growth rate of 19% over the last seven years,” said Brad Bernstein, managing partner of FTV Capital. “With its outstanding management team, vertical expertise and operational excellence anchored in a customer-centric approach, LSS is well positioned to continue to lead in this market. A profitable, high-growth and founder-owned business, LSS is highly representative of the innovative companies which FTV Capital seeks to partner. We look forward to bringing the best of our 22 years’ domain expertise in logistics, BPO and emerging markets to help accelerate the company’s enormous potential.”
“Already in partnership with many of the world’s top-tier logistics companies and expanding to address a huge market need, LSS has clearly established itself as the leader in the category,” said Jerome Hershey, senior investment advisor at FTV Capital. “LSS’s ability to be a true partner to their diverse customer base is attributed to the company’s experienced management team who have long-standing careers in the logistics industry, giving them an exceptional view into their customers’ pain points.”
As part of the transaction, FTV Capital’s managing partner Brad Bernstein, senior investment advisor Jerome Hershey, and vice president Brent Fierro will join Lean Staffing Solutions’ board of directors.
About Lean Staffing Solutions
Lean Staffing Solutions has revolutionized the way companies look to outsource their back- and front-offices by providing nearshoring solutions in Colombia. LSS specializes in the transportation and logistics industry and works with US-based companies to enhance their back- and front-office operations. Since 2014, LSS has worked with over 100 satisfied customers, partnering with them to establish a satellite office in Cartagena, Barranquilla, Bogotá and Medellín. Led by industry veterans, LSS has grown its workforce to over 1,500 employees due to its continued focus on customer service and the expansion of offering to provide support across organizations. For more information, please visit leanstaffingsolutions.com.
About FTV Capital
FTV Capital is a growth equity investment firm that has raised nearly $4 billion to invest in high-growth companies offering a range of innovative solutions in three sectors: enterprise technology and services, financial services, and payments and transaction processing. FTV’s experienced team leverages its domain expertise and proven track record in each of these sectors to help motivated management teams accelerate growth. FTV also provides companies with access to its Global Partner Network®, a group of the world’s leading enterprises and executives who have helped FTV portfolio companies for two decades. Founded in 1998, FTV Capital has invested in more than 115 portfolio companies, including Centaur, CloudFactory, Derivative Path, Docupace, Enfusion Systems, InvestCloud, Liberis, Riskalyze, Strata Fund Services, Sunlight Financial and successfully exited companies including Empyrean Benefits (acquired by Securian Financial), ExlServices (IPO), Fleet One (acquired by WEX), Globant (NYSE IPO), Health Credit Services (acquired by Ally Financial), MedSynergies (acquired by Optum), Mu Sigma (acquired by shareholders), and WorldFirst (acquired by Ant Financial). FTV has offices in San Francisco and New York. For more information, please visit ftvcapital.com.