Vista Equity Backs Salesloft at $2.3 Billion Valuation
The deal comes as technology-focused Vista is gearing up to raise its largest buyout fund yet
Vista Equity Partners is taking a majority stake in sales engagement software company Salesloft Inc., the latest big transaction in a record year for private-equity tech investments.
The deal gives the Atlanta-based company a valuation of $2.3 billion, according to Chief Executive Kyle Porter.
The investment underscores a huge year for private-equity firms putting money to work in the technology sector. As of mid-December, they announced some $401.71 billion of technology deals in the U.S. alone, including new purchases, sales of assets and add-on deals, according to data provider Dealogic. Last year, tech deals totaled $196.34 billion.
Salesloft provides a technology platform for sellers and sales teams that offers coaching, forecasting, outcomes dashboards and integration with inboxes and meeting schedules, among other services. Founded in 2011, the company exceeded $100 million in annual recurring revenue this summer and is on track to record a 50% increase in annual revenue, according to Salesloft.
Salesloft has around 4,000 customers, with Alphabet Inc.’s Google, International Business Machines Corp. and Microsoft Corp.’s LinkedIn Corp. among them, according to Mr. Porter.
The chief executive said the latest investment is propelling the company toward an initial public offering, although he declined to give details on timing for an IPO.
The deal comes just shy of a year since Owl Rock Capital led a $100 million investment in Salesloft at a $1.1 billion valuation. Announcing that transaction in early January, the company said its total outside investment had risen to $245 million. Other firms that backed the company in that deal included Insight Partners, HarbourVest and Emergence Capital, according to a news release at the time.
No investors are exiting the company as a result of the new deal. The new investment was made out of Vista Equity Partners Fund VII LP, according to a person familiar with the situation. The firm closed on $16 billion of outside capital for that fund in 2019.
Vista’s investment will help Salesloft expand its reach to the Asia Pacific region, Mr. Porter said, adding that the company also plans to “triple down” on its investment in Europe, the Middle East and Africa. The company’s European business is growing north of 100% year-over-year, according to Chad Gold, Salesloft’s chief financial officer.
Salesloft had an existing relationship with Vista before the most recent deal, Mr. Porter said. Mr. Gold said that as of August, the company counted 22 Vista portfolio businesses as customers.
Like many tech companies, Salesloft got a boost from the Covid-19 pandemic as more customers and their prospects began working remotely. Mr. Porter said that since the pandemic began, Salesloft’s customer base has expanded beyond its core of mainly tech companies to include healthcare, professional services and manufacturing businesses.
Austin, Texas-based Vista is capping off a busy year with the Salesloft investment.
In October, The Wall Street Journal reported that the firm was aiming to soon open a virtual data room for its next big flagship buyout fund. At the time, several people said the firm was considering a target range of the fund of $20 billion to $24 billion, though a hard cap for the fund had not been set.