With eighteen consecutive years of growth under its belt, it's not surprising that one of the oldest private equity firms in the world Apax Partners would want to invest in Paycor, the human capital management software and services company. After all, Apax Partners has long searched for those tech companies that have the potential to grow and transform industries and has been successful at it.
Earlier this month, Apax Partners invested an undisclosed amount in the company that provides human resources, payroll, benefits administration and recruiting services to more than 38,000 medium and small businesses. Both sides wouldn’t say how much Apax is investing but the PE’s partner Jason Wright is upbeat about the market Paycor operates in. “We have been tracking the payroll and HCM software market for some time due to its size and healthy growth rate. Paycor stood out for the breadth of its product offering, track record of organic growth, and customer-centric approach,” Wright said in a press release in announcing the investment.
Apax Eye More Tech Investments
Paycor isn’t the first and undoubtedly won’t be the last tech investment the U.K. PE firm will make. Apax was founded in 1969 and calls London home for its headquarters. The firm has around $51 billion in assets and has operations across the globe including in New York, Hong Kong, Mumbai, Tel Aviv, Munich, and Shanghai. Apax funds are invested in companies operating throughout the world in the technology, telecommunications, healthcare, and consumer markets. It was an early investor in NXP Semiconductors, the automotive chip maker that Intel tried to purchase and Sophos, the security software company and more recently invested in Genius Sports, the sports data technology company and Global-e, which provides cross-border eCommerce services.
The PE Firm is gearing up to make more investments in the technology space, announcing in late December the closing of its Apax Digital fund with $1 billion in funding, exceeding its initial target to raise $800 million. The fund made its first investment at the time in Moda Operandi, an eCommerce company hawking luxury goods. More is expected to come given the fund is focused on high growth enterprise technology and consumer internet companies located throughout the world. Apax is concentrating its investments in the fund in software, data, and analytics, tech-powered services, marketplaces, digital media and eCommerce that is disruptive. The equity investments will range from $30 million to $150 million. "As the technology industry has become one of the most important contributors to global growth, we see an opportunity to back its market leaders in achieving their next phase of development,” Daniel O’Keefe, managing partner at Apax Digital said in a press release at the time. “We're excited to bring all of Apax Partners' substantial global capabilities to the growth equity market, and to our partner companies."
