Bregal Milestone Announces the Sale of Epassi to TA Associates and Warburg Pincus
Bregal Milestone, a leading pan-European technology growth private equity firm, today announced the sale of Epassi Group ("Epassi"), a market leader in the provision of employee benefits within the Nordics, and a leading player in the UK, Ireland, and Italy, to TA Associates and Warburg Pincus LLC.
Founded in 2007 and based in Espoo, Finland, Epassi is a leading provider of mobile payment solutions for the provision of employee benefits and other services. With over 13 million users, Epassi's mobile payment solution allows employees to easily access their employee benefits, such as meal vouchers, gym memberships, and parking passes, with a single app. In addition, the Epassi app can be used to pay for goods and services at over 59,000 service providers. As one of the fastest growing Nordic companies, Epassi was named to the Financial Times' 1000 Fastest Growing Companies in Europe in 2019, 2022 and 2023.
Since Bregal Milestone's initial investment in 2019, Epassi has cemented its leadership position and undergone a period of accelerated growth, including:
- Increasing revenue (GMV) 9x
- Increasing net revenues 6x
- Increasing EBITDA 7x
- Completing five add-on acquisitions across Europe
- Expanding its global footprint into Sweden, the UK, Ireland, and Italy
- Recruiting key C-level leadership including CEO Pekka Rantala and CFO Regina Duzanskaj
- Optimizing sales and profitability via our in-house data analytics capabilities delivered by Bregal Milestone's in-house value creation team, Milestone Performance Partners
- Executing ESG-positive actions which resulted in a 38% improvement in Scope 1 & 2 emissions, and an independent rating as "best practice" against KPIs for 4 key ESG focus areas - Board Oversight, Cybersecurity and Privacy policies, Social Impact actions, and Business Integrity policies and results
"Bregal Milestone has been instrumental to our growth over the past several years and we believe that the timing of passing the ownership torch is ideal. With Bregal Milestone's help, we have successfully expanded beyond the Nordics, and outside of our core business in the provision of employee benefits. We believe that with the scalable technology we have in place, we are sufficiently prepared to continue to scale into additional geographies and adjacent business areas in our next stage of growth," says Pekka Rantala, CEO of Epassi.
"It has been a tremendous privilege to work with Risto, Pekka, and the talented Epassi leadership team to help build enormous value for the company's passionate customers, employees, and shareholders. We are proud to have helped build one of Europe's leading employee benefits disruptors, exponentially growing revenues and profitability since our initial investment in 2019. From day one this partnership had a relentless focus on teamwork, high performance, and excellence," added Cyrus Shey, co-founder and Managing Partner at Bregal Milestone.
"During our ownership, our successful M&A activity helped to expand Epassi's business into five European markets, cementing our position as one of the leading pan-European employee benefits payments providers," said Saachi Oza, Principal at Bregal Milestone.
In addition to our M&A activity, we were pleased to have worked with Pekka to build a talented leadership team and provide stewardship and support across several areas including the Epassi go-to-market strategy, their technology evolution, operational integration, and ESG. We wish Epassi continued success in their next stage of growth," added Rob Hetherington, Epassi Chairman, Partner, and Head of Milestone Performance Partners (Bregal Milestone's in-house value creation team).
Terms of the transaction were not disclosed. The transaction is subject to customary closing conditions. J.P. Morgan acted as exclusive financial advisor and White & Case acted as legal counsel to Bregal Milestone and Epassi.
About Epassi
Epassi, founded in 2007 in Helsinki, is a market leader in the provision of employee benefits within the Nordics, Italy, and the UK. The unique and scalable solution drives mobile tech and payment solutions to open up a world of health and well-being possibilities, combining all benefits in one user-friendly service. Epassi Group is Europe's leading digital solution for employee benefits, with a reach of nearly 13 million users, over 13,500 employers, and more than 59 000 service providers. Epassi is a trailblazer fintech company in the Nordic countries and has been awarded by the Financial Times as one of the fastest growing companies in Europe in 2022 and 2023.
Epassi ? Boosting everyday well-being.
www.epassi.com
About Bregal Milestone
Bregal Milestone is a leading technology growth private equity firm with c.?1.3 billion of capital raised since inception. The firm provides growth capital and strategic assistance to support market-leading technology companies. Bregal Milestone is part of Bregal Investments, a leading global investment platform with over ?16 billion in assets under management. For more information, visit www.bregalmilestone.com or follow us on LinkedIn.
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