William Blair acted as the exclusive financial advisor to Lightspeed Systems in connection with its pending strategic growth investment from Madison Dearborn Partners. The transaction was announced on March 29, 2019.
Transaction Highlights
- Deep education technology sector expertise: Lightspeed recognized William Blair’s extensive knowledge and industry experience advising leading education technology and vertical software companies. By drawing upon its unrivaled domain expertise, William Blair was able to expertly position the business and effectively communicate its investment merits to the optimal universe of buyers.
- Premier technology M&A advisor: William Blair has completed more than 90 technology M&A transactions since 2017, representing nearly $40 billion in total transaction value. Lightspeed represents the seventh technology M&A transaction signed and/or closed in 2019.
- Unmatched buyer relationships and insights: William Blair brought to bear deep relationships with–and unique insights into–the best prospective partners for a mission-driven, founder-owned business. The transaction team was integrally involved throughout each step of the process, ultimately matching Lightspeed with the partner best suited to execute upon the company’s growth strategy and yielding an outstanding outcome for shareholders.
About the Companies
Lightspeed Systems partners with schools to make learning safe, mobile and easily managed. Partnered with 6,500 districts in the United States and 28,000 schools around the world, Lightspeed Systems offers integrated filtering, management, monitoring, and protection for schools through its groundbreaking platform, Relay. Headquartered in Austin, TX (with offices in Portland and the U.K.), Lightspeed serves over 15 million students in 35 countries.
Madison Dearborn Partners, LLC (MDP), based in Chicago, is a leading private equity investment firm in the United States. Since MDP’s formation in 1992, the firm has raised seven funds with aggregate capital of approximately $23 billion and has completed over 140 investments. MDP is currently investing out of its most recent fund, $4.4 billion MDCP Fund VII, in businesses across a broad spectrum of industries, including businesses and government software and services; financial and transaction services; basic industries; health care; and telecom, media and technology services.
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