More specific to the literacy market in which Actively Learn operates, the last 12 months have been more challenging with opportunistic asset deals for start-ups like LightSail or rational cash flow multiple deals for older bootstrapped companies like Mondo Publishing (acquired by Carnegie Learning). But the intervening years have been less frothy, with healthy exits generally averaging 2-3x revenue. More recently, the edtech cluster of Minneapolis has seen two richly valued, nine figure K-12 exits with myON representing as much as 5x revenue and Flipgrid an infinite multiple of revenue (at least on a post-deal basis, as Microsoft planned to make their platform free). To be sure, we have seen robust SaaS multiples in K-12 edtech before, most notably the 2010-11 era of notable exits Schoolnet, Global Scholar, Wireless Generation, Synaptic Mash and Education City (all valued from 6-19x revenue). Sobiloff currently serves on the board of directors at Achieve3000, Anaqua, DrillingInfo, Kinnser Software, Kony Solutions, Overdrive, Shunra, Syncsort, and Mediaspectrum.Upon reading of my client Actively Learn's "healthy price" in their sale to Insight Venture Partners' portfolio company Achieve 3000 last week, I have been asked by several investors and founders for key lessons learned. Some of these investments include Achieve3000, an education company that utilizes the internet to provide the reading level equivalent of content to its users Anaqua, a company that provides intellectual asset management software and maintenance services to patent and trademark holders and Drilling Info, a company that accelerates workflows and business critical decision processes for the oil and gas industry. Other notable previous investments include Argus Software (acquired by Altus Group), DWL (acquired by IBM), GETPAID (acquired by Sunguard), Netsmart Technologies (acquired by Genstar Financial), iMany (IPO), Nistevo (acquired by Sterling Software), Paisley (acquired by Thomson Reuters), PerTrac (acquired by eVestment), Primavera (acquired by Oracle), and Rockport Trade Systems (acquired by QRS Corp).Īt Insight, Sobiloff invests in B2B and Application Software development. He was a member of the Board of Directors of Medidata Solutions (NASDAQ: MDSO) for seven years, the final two after it was a public company. He served as Chairman of Greenfield Online (NASDAQ: SRVY) for six years, three of which while it was a public company. Solbioff is well known in the software industry and often speaks on industry panels. As President of Datalogix, he led the sale of the company to Oracle Corporation. He was part of the management teams that executed IPOs for both companies. Sobiloff was also President of Datalogix, a vendor of enterprise application software for process manufacturers, and held senior executive roles at Ross Systems, a provider of financial application software. Before joining Insight, he was president of Think Systems, and when it was acquired by i2 Technologies, he served as the Vice President of Business Technologies. Peter Sobiloff joined Insight Venture Partners in 1998 as Managing Director, bringing 20 years of operational experience in executive leadership positions, sales management and worldwide operations to the firm.
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