Susquehanna Growth Equity, an investment arm of quantitative trading and technology firm Susquehanna International Group (SIG), invested in in US-based work management platform developer Workfront yesterday through a $280m secondary share purchase.
Private equity firm W Capital Partners and AB Private Credit Investors, the debt financing division of asset management firm AllianceBernstein, also participated in the transaction. The selling shareholders were not identified.
Founded in 2001 as AtTask, Workfront provides workplace management software aimed at the knowledge economy. The platform provides a unified interface for staff to automate projects and processes, measure resources and outcomes, and manage collaborations.
Workfront’s clients include mass media group Comcast, networking equipment supplier Cisco, telecommunications firm BT, financial services provider TSB and guitar manufacturer Fender.
Martin Anger, director of Susquehanna Growth Equity, and Blake Heston, managing director of W Capital, will join Workfront’s board of directors in connection with the deal.
Workfront had previously raised $95m in equity funding, most recently closing a $33m series E round in 2015 led by JMI Equity, with participation from Greenspring Global Partners and Atlas Peak.
JMI Equity, GreenSpring Associates, Escalate Capital and University Venture Fund had provided the company’s earlier funding, and Workforce confirmed that JMI Equity, OpenView and Greenspring remained “significant” investors following the secondary purchase.
Alex Shootman, CEO of Workfront, said: “Workfront is ideally positioned as the world’s largest companies move quickly to support knowledge work with the same kind of purpose-built, enterprise application platform they already have in place for critical functions like human resources, sales and support.
“We are pleased to partner with W Capital, Susquehanna, and AB Private Credit to support the next phase in our growth and innovation mission, helping people around the world get their best work done.”
