Private equity firm Thoma Bravo has agreed to acquire Exostar, a US-based online collaboration platform developer backed by half a dozen corporates.
The transaction will be sized at about $100m, a person familiar with the situation told the Wall Street Journal.
Exostar was founded in 2000 as a joint venture between aerospace manufacturers BAE Systems, Boeing and Lockheed Martin, defence contractor Raytheon and luxury car manufacturer Rolls-Royce.
The company has built a secure, cloud-based collaboration platform that enables enterprise clients in highly regulated industries such as aerospace and defence, life sciences and healthcare to share information with external partners.
Thoma Bravo will work with Exostar’s existing management to expand the product’s capabilities, with a focus on cybersecurity, while attracting additional customers.
Pharmaceutical firm Merck & Co supplied $10m in funding for Exostar in 2015 through its Global Health Innovation Fund, following on from an initial $5m commitment it had made the previous year.
The company has not disclosed any additional funding nor how much capital its founding corporate partners may have provided. All six corporates plan on remaining customers of Exostar and will provide strategic advice on the company’s roadmap.
Exostar’s president and chief executive, Richard Addi, said: “This transaction reflects the logical next step in our company’s evolution. We can leverage Thoma Bravo’s deep technology and security experience to take full advantage of our unique market position.
“Together, we plan to accelerate time-to-market for the Exostar suite of solutions that enable global enterprises to execute their mission-critical supply chain and drug development initiatives.”
