London, UK – September 12, 2016 — Smart Communications, the leader in enterprise customer and business communications, today announced that it has completed its spinoff from Thunderhead and has launched as an independent company led by its existing management team and backed by Accel-KKR, a leading technology focused private equity firm.
As an independent company, Smart Communications will continue to define and lead the next generation of cloud-enabled customer communications management (CCM) by focusing on scaling its growth in new and existing markets, broadening its industry reach, and accelerating innovation and product development.
Smart Communications is recognized by industry analysts as a category leader with its cloud-based solutions for customer and business communications. Its blue-chip customer base spans three continents and includes over 300 customers from a diverse range of industry sectors, including banking, insurance, healthcare, telecoms and retail, as well as the G15 investment banks and the U.S. Federal Government.
Smart Communications also offers simple, out-of-the-box integrations with vertical and ecosystem solution providers allowing them to provide Correspondence-as-a-Service (CaaS) to their industries and ecosystems.
The Smart Communications senior management team is led by George Wright, the company’s chief executive officer and former SVP & General Manager of the Smart Communications Division. Smart Communications, which is headquartered in London, serves its customers from its offices located in North America, Europe and Asia Pacific.
“This is an exciting day for Smart Communications. The investment in our business by Accel-KKR validates our strategy for CCM and enterprise communication solutions built for the modern cloud-era,” commented George Wright, the CEO of Smart Communications. “With Accel-KKR, Smart Communications will benefit from rapid growth into new markets and continued investment in its unique cloud offering. The Smart Communications team is looking forward to this new phase where we will focus on broadening the solution reach and further scaling our business to the benefit of our customers and partners.”
“Smart Communications’ cloud-based software provides an elegant solution for companies who need to communicate with their customers through multiple channels in a fully compliant way,” said Jason Klein, Managing Director at Accel-KKR. “We are looking forward to working with the team to enter new verticals, extend its partnerships and continue to innovate its cloud solutions.”
“Accel-KKR continues to look to Europe to find strong platform and add-on investments,” according to Tom Barnds, Managing Director of Accel-KKR. “Smart Communications joins a growing number of Accel-KKR portfolio companies in the UK and across the Continent.”
Kirkland & Ellis International LLP served as legal advisor to Accel-KKR. Financing for the transaction was provided by Goldman Sachs Private Capital.
About Smart Communications™
Businesses around the world engage with their customers and each other everyday. As communications and interactions with customers and partners become more complex, businesses now recognize that communications increasingly take place in an interactive and real-time context and are critical to success.
The Smart Communications suite of solutions helps businesses to move beyond traditional enterprise communications using the most modern architecture and cloud capabilities.
Today, hundreds of brands globally from a diverse range of demanding industry segments including banking, insurance, government, retail and telecoms are using Smart Communications to deliver the new generation of customer and business communications.
Smart Communications is headquartered in London and serves its customers from offices located in North America, Europe and Asia Pacific. To learn more, please visit www.smartcommunications.com.
About Accel-KKR
Accel-KKR is a technology-focused investment firm with $4 billion in capital commitments. The firm invests in software and IT enabled businesses well-positioned for topline and bottom-line growth. At the core of Accel-KKR’s investment strategy is a commitment to developing strong partnerships with the management teams of its portfolio companies and a focus on building value through significant resources available through the Accel-KKR network. Accel-KKR focuses on middle-market companies and provides a broad range of capital solutions from minority-growth investments to buyouts, recapitalizations, divisional carve-outs and going-private transactions. The firm has offices in Menlo Park, Atlanta and London. For more information, please visit www.accel-kkr.com.
Media Contact:
Todd Fogarty
Kekst and Company
+1 212 521 4854
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