Providing Flexible Capital To Address Diverse Shareholder And Company Funding Needs

Key Facts

Year of Investment: 2011
Status: Exited
Growth Capital
Improved Sales & Marketing Efficiency
Increased Share of Customer Wallet

Transaction Highlights

N-able Technologies is a global leader in remote monitoring and management automation solutions for managed service providers (“MSPs”) and IT departments. As a result of the Accel-KKR investment and ability for the company to fund key organic growth initiatives, N-able grew bookings at a CAGR of over 80% during Accel-KKR’s investment period.

RESULTS

As a result of the Accel-KKR investment and ability for the company to fund key organic growth initiatives, N-able grew bookings at a CAGR of over 80% during Accel-KKR’s investment period. The company also grew the number of devices on its software and the number of SMBs it managed by over 80% and 70%, respectively, during that same period. In May 2013, N-able was acquired by Solarwinds for $120 million.

Business Overview

N-able’s N-central® software and complementary toolsets are proven to reduce IT support costs, improve network performance and increase productivity through the proactive monitoring, management and optimization of IP-enabled devices and IT infrastructure. N-central features a hybrid licensing model that reduces the cost of remote management and accelerates the mass adoption of managed services. N-able was founded in 2000 and is headquartered in Ottawa, Canada.

Accel-KKR first met N-able in the summer of 2009, after which Accel-KKR fostered a two-plus year dialogue with the company prior to investing. Accel-KKR believed the company had a strong management team and its new monitoring product was well positioned to capitalize on ongoing outsourcing trends. Accel-KKR and N-able finalized the investment in September 2011, in large part, due to the flexible capital Accel-KKR was able to provide. Given the lifecycle of the company and requirements of existing shareholders, Accel-KKR made a minority investment with proceeds used for both shareholder liquidity and investment into the company for growth.

Value Creation

Accel-KKR and the management team believed there was an opportunity to invest in growth and effect strategic M&A through possible add-on acquisitions. Over the next two years, the team executed on:

Improving customer acquisition costs and, as a result, improving total customer lifetime value.
Expanding the sales team 30%+ and doubling the number of deals closed per quarter.
Bolstering account management function and increasing add-on module sales by over 100%.
Expanding international sales efforts with a focus on Europe and Australia.
Completing the company’s first add-on acquisition, WarrantyUpdate, a provider of automated warranty information, to build out N-able’s reporting function.

The combination of both the organic and inorganic efforts led to meaningfully improved operating performance.

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