Cloud & SaaS Acquisitions in Wisconsin

Denver-based private equity firm Crest Rock Partners announced a strategic growth investment in Productive Programming Inc. (PPi), a Verona, Wisconsin–headquartered provider of the Care Compass SaaS platform and tech-enabled services for care management, EHR, and TPA operations. The capital will be used to accelerate product development, expand Care Compass nationwide, and advance AI/ML capabilities; PPi's founder and executive team rolled/invested alongside Crest Rock.

ECI Software Solutions has acquired Avid Ratings, a Madison, Wisconsin-based provider of customer experience software for the homebuilding industry. The acquisition expands ECI's industry-specific homebuilder offerings by adding Avid's AvidCX platform, HomeKeep, and AI-powered AvidWarranty capabilities to enhance customer experience, analytics and integration across ECI's construction solutions.

Comply365 (Beloit, Wis.) and Vistair (Bristol, England) completed a merger to form a combined provider of compliance, safety and data intelligence technologies for the aviation, defense and rail industries. The transaction is accompanied by a strategic growth investment from Insight Partners and Liberty Hall Capital Partners to support integration and product/capability expansion across global markets.

Aquiline Capital Partners has made a growth investment in LeaseCrunch LLC, a lease accounting and lease management SaaS provider for CPA firms. The capital will be used to scale LeaseCrunch’s product capabilities, pursue M&A opportunities, and support continued growth; the deal closed in Q4 2023 with Marks Baughan as exclusive sell-side advisor.

Mitratech has acquired Milwaukee-based Circa (Infosoft Group d/b/a Circa) from Gauge Capital and concurrently acquired Trakstar, expanding its HR compliance, DEI, workforce analytics, and talent management capabilities. The transactions bring OFCCP compliance, DEI sourcing, workforce analytics, and performance management technologies into Mitratech’s existing legal, risk, compliance, and HR software platform.

Schneider Geospatial, a portfolio company of Align Capital Partners, acquired the WebGUIDE Xtreme product from Applied Data Consultants to expand its GovTech SaaS footprint in Wisconsin. The WGX portal will be integrated into Schneider Geospatial's Beacon SaaS platform, increasing the company's local government customer base and representing its first add-on since ACP's 2022 investment.

HR Acuity has acquired Speakfully, an anonymous workplace reporting and employee-voice platform, to extend its employee relations SaaS offering with anonymous reporting, real-time analytics and secure case intake. The acquisition integrates Speakfully's reporting capabilities into HR Acuity's investigations and case-management platform, expanding HR Acuity's end-to-end employee relations solution.

QuestionPro has acquired Digsite's qualitative research capabilities and collaborative insights platform to integrate agile qualitative solutions into its enterprise research and survey offerings. The deal expands QuestionPro's qual+quant capabilities, enabling customers to combine Digsite's exploratory research and rapid ‘Sprints’ with QuestionPro's survey, CX and analytics platforms.

TCP Software, a provider of cloud-based workforce management and time & attendance solutions, acquired Aladtec, a River Falls, Wisconsin–based online employee scheduling and workforce management system focused on public safety. The Aladtec platform will be integrated into TCP’s suite (and maintained as a standalone product) to expand TCP’s scheduling capabilities and better serve public safety, healthcare and dispatch customers.

Baird Capital's venture team led a growth-stage financing in Forj, a Milwaukee-headquartered virtual events and member experience platform, with participation from GCI. The new capital will be used to accelerate Forj's growth and further develop its platform for associations and professional member organizations.

InvestCloud has acquired Advicent, the provider of the NaviPlan financial planning platform, from Vista Equity Partners. The deal combines Advicent's cash-flow, trust and tax planning engines with InvestCloud's cloud-based digital advisor platform to create an integrated financial planning solution for wealth managers and advisors.

Datadog, the cloud monitoring and security SaaS provider, has acquired Timber Technologies, the developer of Vector, a high-performance, vendor-agnostic observability data pipeline. The Timber leadership team (including CEO Zach Sherman and CTO Ben Johnson) and the core Timber team will join Datadog to integrate Vector’s capabilities for collecting, enriching, transforming and routing logs, metrics and traces into Datadog’s platform.

Liberty Hall Capital Partners acquired Comply365, a Beloit, Wisconsin-based provider of SaaS operational content and compliance management solutions, from investment funds managed by Luminate Capital Partners. Comply365's management team will remain in place and Liberty Hall said the acquisition advances its digitalization strategy to build an integrated, scaled provider for the aerospace and rail markets.

Clearlake Capital completed its acquisition of Zywave and also acquired Advisen, combining Zywave's front-office insurance SaaS with Advisen's insurance data and analytics to form a buy-and-build InsurTech platform. Aurora Capital Partners (the prior majority owner of Zywave) is investing alongside Clearlake to support accelerated organic and inorganic growth; the combined company will be led by Zywave CEO Jason Liu. Financial terms were not disclosed.

Constellation1, part of Constellation Real Estate Group (CREG), has acquired Midwest-based real estate technology provider Virtual Properties. The deal is an add-on to Constellation1's real estate software platform and aims to expand its vertical SaaS product offerings, customer relationships, and MLS/IDX capabilities.

N. Harris Computer Corporation (a subsidiary of Constellation Software) has acquired Connecture, Inc., a Milwaukee-based provider of web-based Medicare shopping, quoting and enrollment solutions. Connecture was a portfolio company of Francisco Partners and was advised by Brentwood Capital Advisors; the deal expands Harris’s healthcare software capabilities and customer-facing Medicare enrollment offerings.

Luminate Capital Partners made a strategic growth investment in MSI Data to support product development, scale the team, and accelerate go-to-market efforts for MSI’s field service management SaaS platform. Financial terms were not disclosed; Luminate partners joined MSI’s board and advisors to the transaction included GrowthPoint Technology Partners (financial advisor to MSI) and Kirkland & Ellis (legal advisor to Luminate).

Applied Systems acquired TechCanary, a Milwaukee-based provider of an insurance-focused CRM built on the Salesforce platform, to expand its sales and marketing automation capabilities. TechCanary's CRM will be integrated with Applied Epic to provide agencies, insurers and MGAs enhanced front-office sales and marketing automation and access to the Salesforce AppExchange ecosystem.

Ascentis, a Minneapolis-based provider of cloud-based human capital management (HCM) solutions, has acquired Integrated Time Systems (ITS), a Wisconsin-based time and attendance solutions provider. The deal strengthens Ascentis' workforce management capabilities, expands its geographic presence in the U.S. Midwest, and enhances its customer service and HCM product suite.

ARI Network Services, a provider of SaaS and marketing solutions for dealers, equipment manufacturers and distributors, received a strategic growth investment from TA Associates. True Wind Capital, which took ARI private in 2017, will remain the largest shareholder; financial terms were not disclosed. TA Associates will join ARI's board and plans to support organic growth and strategic add-on acquisitions.