Clearwater has advised internal communications software company Poppulo on a €30m investment by US-based growth equity fund SGE. The investment will fund further market-leading innovation, high-end R&D, and the expansion of sales and marketing across Europe, Middle East, Asia and North America.
Poppulo, founded and led by CEO Andrew O’Shaughnessy, has become the world’s leading employee communications platform. The company provides bespoke SaaS software specifically designed for the internal communications sector - enabling organisations to plan, target, publish and measure the impact of their communications across multiple digital channels.
Explaining how important internal communications has become, Andrew O’Shaughnessy said, “The companies and organisations who are winning, know how absolutely crucial internal communication is not only for employee engagement but also in terms of recruitment and retention - and ultimately the bottom line.” Following the investment, Andrew has retained a major shareholding, with SGE securing a significant minority stake.
Poppulo currently employs 200 people across Cork and Boston. Its customer base covers over 800 of the world’s largest organisations including; Unilever, Bank of America, Nestlé, Rolls-Royce, Boston Scientific, Aon, Honda and almost half the world’s top pharma companies.
SGE is an entrepreneur focused growth equity fund backed by Susquehanna International Group (SIG), one of the world’s largest privately-held financial services firms. SGE is focused on the software, information services, and internet verticals. To date they have invested over $1bn in market-leading companies such as Credit Karma, iCims and Payoneer.
The transaction represents the fifth completed deal by the Clearwater Ireland team in the last four months following the merger of KN with Circet, the sale of Brightwater Recruitment, BHP Community (Insurance) and the management buyout of H&MV Engineering.
