Category: Uncategorized

We are expanding Enter Capital’s operating capacity by adding experienced partners and other accomplished professionals. This expansion will allow us to pursue additional acquisitions for our long-term holding company, execute more advisory mandates, and support portfolio companies in scaling their operations across our core sectors.

Our selected engagements include:

• Sell-side for a U.S.-based IT services company with 600 technology employees
• Sell-side for a U.S.-based IT services company with 2,000 technology employees
• Sell-side for a Europe-based IT services company with 100 technology employees
• Sell-side for an enterprise B2B AI SaaS company focused on software testing
• Sell-side for an AI SaaS company focused on hospitality
• Sell-side for a top-grossing B2C SaaS company ranked among the top 10 applications in its iOS category
• Sell-side for a U.S.-based video game development studio with 400 employees to an LSE-listed strategic buyer
• Sell-side for a U.S.-based video game development studio with 100 employees to a Tokyo Stock Exchange-listed strategic buyer
• Sell-side for a Europe-based video game development studio with 100 employees
• Buy-side for an NYSE-listed IT services company
• Buy-side for an Inc. 5000 IT services company
• Buy-side for a U.S. private equity firm with $15 billion in AUM, focused on SaaS
• Buy-side for a U.S. private equity firm with over $50 billion in AUM, focused on IT services and SaaS
• Multiple separate buy-side engagements for private equity firms with AUM of up to $10 billion

These engagements reflect our deep sector expertise in technology services, AI, and software, as well as our ability to work across company sizes, geographies, and buyer categories.

We are particularly interested in connecting with:

• Founders considering a full or partial sale
• Technology companies seeking an experienced M&A and strategic partner
• Owners looking to scale operations before pursuing a transaction
• Experienced M&A, investment, and operating professionals interested in joining or partnering with Enter Capital

To discuss a potential transaction, acquisition opportunity, or partnership, we would be happy to meet in person in Miami Beach or connect by phone at 650-285-3005 or by email at info@entercapital.com.

Certain engagement details have been generalized to preserve confidentiality.

Our Partners are embarking on their 7th international roadshow!

Meet us in January & February in:

🇫🇷 France
🇨🇾 Cyprus
🇮🇹 Italy
🇦🇪 UAE
🇸🇬 Singapore

To request a meeting, please reach out to info@entercapital.com with your preferred dates

Andrew Ponomar, Elena Nosova, and Enter Capital served as exclusive M&A advisors to Solvd (US) and Zebrunner on a majority investment from Siguler Guff (US)

Solvd provides technology services to leading US technology companies and Fortune 500 clients, key areas of expertise are software engineering, test automation, and DevOps.

The business will serve as a platform for acquisitions in the technology services space with a focus on new domain expertise and geographical expansion. Current delivery centers are operating in the US, Argentina, Brazil, Mexico, Poland, Georgia, and Ukraine.

Founders of Solvd will continue managing the company with the goal of strengthening the business by hiring top industry professionals for multiple senior roles. Drew Guff (former Director of EPAM Systems, NYSE: EPAM and GlobalLogic) and Shaun Khubchandani from Siguler Guff have joined Solvd’s Board of Directors.

The Enter Capital team began advising the Board of Directors of Solvd regarding strategic initiatives in 2019. Later in 2021, Solvd engaged Enter Capital to identify a partner with expertise and vision in successfully growing companies over a short time horizon.

Alex Khursevich, the CEO of Solvd remarked on the cooperation with Enter Capital: “Enter Capital has done a tremendous job for Solvd in finding a strategic investor taking into account the vision of all Founders of the Company. The Enter Capital team was professional and responsive throughout the entire period of cooperation. They helped develop the right negotiation approach and showed the high potential of the business. The successful closing of the transaction with Siguler Guff is the result of more than a year of cooperation between Solvd and Enter Capital.”

Shaun Khubchandani, Managing Director and Portfolio Manager of Siguler Guff added: “We were pleased with the role Enter Capital played in getting the transaction across the finish line despite a very challenging environment for private technology transactions. They were commercial and extremely collaborative which struck a good balance between us (Siguler Guff) and the seller group.”

Andrew Ponomar, the CEO of Enter Capital: “We are glad that the Enter Capital team contributed to the launching of this incredible partnership between such talented entrepreneurs and an investment firm with impressive domain expertise in the technology services space. We are excited to continue our cooperation with Solvd on future strategic initiatives.”

Christopher Wang, Esq and Femida.us served as legal advisors to the Solvd. EY provided buy-side tax and financial advice and Morgan Lewis served as legal advisors to Siguler Guff.

Miami Beach, Florida

Congratulations to SFL on its sale to DataArt. Our M&A team worked closely with the SFL founders on developing the exit strategy and executing the transaction.

SFL is a digital transformation specialist focused on developing mobile and web platforms for the financial industry, e-commerce, and emerging tech.

DataArt is an IT consulting firm with over 5000 employees with offices in more than 20 locations in the US, Europe, Latin America, and the Middle East. Previously, the company originated and span off a business unit that emerged into Mail.ru, one of the largest European internet companies.

Enter Capital Team
+1415-800-2814
info@entercapital.com
1688 Meridian 700
Miami Beach, FL  33139

We are excited to announce our exclusive M&A advisory role to 5518 Studios Inc (California) on its sale to PTW International, a part of Poletowin Pitcrew Holdings Inc (TSE:3657).

PTW continues on their mission to be the go-to partner for innovation in the games industry with the business acquisition of premier art studio 5518 Studios. The industry-leading video games and tech services outsourcer announced their business acquisition of Los Angeles-based 5518 Studios; PTW is a long-time industry leader with an established and diverse dossier of top-tier clients and nearly 3 decades of experience in the games industry. PTW’s work spans across all platforms and all genres.

“When it comes to game development, we will now be a one-stop shop for external partnerships”

5518’s expertise ranges from high-quality concept & illustration art to character modeling & animation, along with everything in-between; PTW’s expansion ensures a greater range of skills, depth of talent, and overall expertise for their partners across the globe. Today’s announcement is an exciting step forward in PTW’s mission to provide full end-to-end co-development services to partners in the growing global games industry.

“Our mission is to revolutionize the digital entertainment sphere; adding 5518 to our team enables us to be one of the top development studios in the world. We will merge our existing game development brand- Orange Rock Studios- with 5518 under one name; our new brand will be perfectly poised to work alongside top-notch developers and publishers, building the best games & digital experiences around the world,” said Kasturi Rangan, Chief Product Officer of PTW. “When it comes to game development, we will now be a one-stop shop for external partnerships,” Rangan concluded.

PTW will be merging both Orange Rock and 5518 under a new name- 1518 Studios. The new brand will have a much stronger offering encompassing art, end-end game development, live ops, porting, product development, and staff augmentation (across Mobile, PC & Console). Michael Casalino, CEO and Co-founder of 5518 Studios added, “Our values and mission align so well with those of PTW; we each believe in strong relationships built on trust, passion, good communication, and high-quality games services.” 5518 COO and CO-founder Maxim Miheyenko concluded, “We are so excited to join the PTW family of brands.”

PTW CEO Deborah Kirkham concluded, “We are happy to welcome 5518 Studios and our new teams in Los Angeles, St. Petersburg, and Moscow to the PTW family. Expanding our global presence in the games industry is an important step in our mission of providing the best talent and the best technology to our partners around the world. Michael, Maxim, and their teams provide a level of expertise and energy which we can’t wait to bring to our partners.”

About PTW

PTW is a leading games, digital entertainment and interactive media solutions provider with 35 offices in 11 countries worldwide. Our range of services include quality assurance, localization, customer experience, engineering and development services, and audio production services. PTW brings nearly 3 decades of experience and the infrastructure to create customized support for projects and clients of all sizes.

PTW, comprised of global subsidiaries, is a UK-based holding company formed in 2016 under the umbrella of Poletowin Pitcrew Holdings, Inc. which is listed on the 1st Section of Tokyo Stock Exchange as 3657. POLE TO WIN is a registered trademark of Pole To Win Co., Ltd. in Japan and other countries. All rights reserved. For more information, visit https://www.ptw.com/

The PTW group includes SIDE, 1518 Studios, Entalize, The Game Dev Show, and OR Esports.

Enter Capital Team has created a video overview of Enter Capital’s M&A deal tracking research within the Gaming industry for the first 4 months of 2020.

San Francisco, California

Enter Capital team is excited to announce the addition of two partners: Christopher Wang and Ruben Cortez who bring significant operational and investment experience from Electronic Arts, BioWare, Merrill Lynch’s principal investment and sponsored private equity, and various successful technology companies.

Christopher and Ruben will strengthen our private equity buyout and M&A advisory businesses in Northern America and Asia.

Enter Capital Team
+1415-800-2814
info@entercapital.com
75 Broadway 202
San Francisco, CA

Paris, France

Andrew Ponomar, the CEO of Enter Capital was presenting research on the investment and M&A trends in the video gaming industry and moderated a panel with industry leaders at the Game Connections conference in Paris.

The presentation highlighted recent M&A trends and the most active players in the game space. Keywords Studios was the most active acquirer with over 40 small to mid-size transactions, followed by Playtech and Zynga with 15 and 12 deals respectively, each spent around $2 billion on the acquisitions. While the most sizable deal was the acquisition of Supercell for $10.2B by Tencent Holdings in 2016.

Among other participants of the panel were the media and entertainment industry experts, including

• Sean Lee – Chief Corporate Development Officer of Wargaming.net & Former Director of M&A at Tencent
• Thibaud Morin – Managing Partner of Level-Up VC & Former SVP of M&A at Vivendi
• Ferdinand Pons – Director of M&A at Gameloft
• Alexei Kudriashov – Co-founder of Sperasoft Inc (sold to LSE:KWS) and Enter Capital Partner.

On the investment side, the panel discussed topics highlighted by Andreessen Horowitz in their article “State of Play: Six Trends Revolutionizing Games” where authors Jonathan Lai and Andrew Chen compared new generation games to the old school.

The 6 key differences between the next generation of games and their predecessors:

Source: State of Play: Six Trends Revolutionizing Games by Jonathan Lai and Andrew Chen https://a16z.com/2019/10/16/trends-revolutionizing-games/

Andrew, with the panel participants, went through the game trends described in the article to show where the game trends had major footprints on investment trends and significantly changed investors’ behavior.

Enter Capital Team
+1415-800-2814
info@entercapital.com
75 Broadway 202
San Francisco, CA

Andrew was speaking on the M&A panel followed by a presentation of the industry research prepared by Andrew, Enter Capital’s team, and Sam Carlisle, Senior Director, Partner Relations of Xbox Studios (Microsoft).

Andrew Ponomar was invited to present at the XDS in Vancouver organized by Electronic Arts and the Advisory Board of XDS. The panel consisted of the notable industry experts including Andrew Ponomar, CEO of Enter Capital, Andrew Brown Chief Marketing Officer of KWS, Gilles Langourieux, CEO of Virtuos, Laurent Lugbull, Category Manager – Outsourcing & External Development at Ubisoft, Ron Ashtiani, founder of Atomhawk (acquired by Sumo Digital).

Andrew and Sam discussed the most recent trends and presented the research highlighting the merger and acquisition activities over the last decade. Sam brought his attention to a slight decrease in the number of acquisitions, while the volume of each individual transaction keeps growing.

According to Andrew, we should see the growing number of acquisitions in the next couple of years in the external game development sector. It is mainly driven by the market conjuncture and how the market share is distributed between major players. Some adverse effects of macro-economic conditions might turn the trends around.

“If you are considering selling your company, probably next 12 months are a good time span” – Andrew sees that multiples are high now, and sufficient liquidity on the market makes the conditions favorable for a seller.

Based on the presented research, there is a gap between a leading acquirer – KWS (Ireland) who closed over 40 transactions since 2014, including one of the largest acquisitions of Sperasoft (the transaction represented by Enter Capital team) and Goodbye Kansas and Sumo Digital following KWS with 4 and 3 deals respectively. The gap has the potential to shrink if other acquirers in the game development space will participate in market consolidation as it was the case in the IT software development industry.

Many other important industry topics were discussed during the 3-day conference on one-on-one meetings and business lunches. The External Development Summit (XDS) is an annual, international games industry event with attendees representing 45 countries. Enter Capital team is thrilled to be a leading M&A advisory firm in the external development space.

Enter Capital Team
+1415-800-2814
info@entercapital.com
75 Broadway 202
San Francisco, CA

San Francisco, California

i-Rates, a software as a service provider that helps to set prices for popular hotel chains, has been acquired by IQWare, Inc (Colorado), a leading property management system.

The core of i-Rates is the innovative state-of-the-art algorithm based on the mathematic theory of reinforcement learning. The two technology companies have complementary product offerings aiming to better serve their customers together.

Andrew Ponomar, the CEO of Enter Capital commented: “Our team was glad to advise the founders of iRates on the exit strategy and help with the execution. We are glad to see the increasing number of acquisitions in the hospitality technology space.

We are excited to see that the hospitality technology industry is moving towards the realization of synergies between companies by combining efforts and tool sets to provide the best-in-class services to their clients.”

Enter Capital team has created a unit focused on the hotel management technology space. Andrew Ponomar will be participating at HITEC, one of the largest conferences in the industry held in Minneapolis, MN on June 30, 2019.

Enter Capital Team
+1415-800-2814
info@entercapital.com
75 Broadway 202
San Francisco, CA