Portfolio News| February 2022
RapidRatings Announces $200 Million Growth Investment Led by Spectrum Equity
RapidRatings (“The Company”), the leading provider of financial health data and analytics, today announced that it received a $200 million strategic investment led by Spectrum Equity, a leading growth equity firm focused on software and data services companies, along with 22C Capital. This new investment will support RapidRatings’ mission of helping its customers identify and mitigate risk within their networks by providing greater visibility into the financial health of suppliers and other third-parties. FTV Capital, which led a $30 million investment in RapidRatings in 2018, will remain on the board and continue to support the company as an investor.
RapidRatings’ Financial Health System is transforming the way the world’s leading companies manage supply chain and third-party risk. The platform provides the most sophisticated analysis available to measure the financial health of public and private companies, with predictive insights for third-party partners, suppliers, vendors, customers and securities issuers. Its secure membership platform, The FHR Exchange™, fosters transparency in business, where all companies, from large public enterprises to private suppliers and vendors, can share and access financial health ratings, analytics, and other critical information—to grow and protect their businesses.
“The need for greater insight between companies and the financial health of their suppliers will only grow as global supply chains continue to see strain and credit markets tighten,” said James Gellert, who will continue in his role as CEO and Chairman of RapidRatings. “With FTV’s and LLR’s partnership over the last several years, we have significantly expanded our offering and achieved tremendous growth. The new investment from Spectrum and 22C gives our firm a mandate to strategically double down on our promise to create better financial visibility between our clients and the companies they depend on every day.”
“We have a long history investing in companies that help their customers manage risk,” said Chris Mitchell, Managing Director of Spectrum Equity. “RapidRatings occupies a unique position in the financial ratings ecosystem, as a result of its insight into both public and private companies and its ability to access private company data. We see enormous opportunity to help both Fortune 1000s and smaller businesses assess the health of their counterparties, and we’re looking forward to supporting the company’s continued growth trajectory.”
“Helping companies deal with public and private company financial data is a long-time passion for our firm,” said Randall Winn, Managing Partner of 22C. “Alongside Spectrum and FTV, we are excited to support RapidRatings’ management team by leveraging 22C’s expertise and resources in scaling data collection, product innovation and commercial operations.”
“I’ve long admired Spectrum’s track record of successful investments in financial analytics and counterparty risk companies. Similarly, the 22C Capital team brings us a roadmap for success in the space, one grounded in their founding and scaling of Capital IQ, that will be invaluable as we execute on our strategic vision,” added Gellert. “I look forward to working closely with Chris Mitchell and Mike Farrell from Spectrum and Colleen Coda from 22C, all of whom will be joining the company’s Board of Directors.”
Kirkland & Ellis LLP and Bryan Cave acted as legal advisors and Raymond James acted as financial advisor to RapidRatings. Latham & Watkins LLP acted as legal advisors to Spectrum Equity and Sidley Austin LLP acted as legal advisors to 22C Capital.
Further terms of the transaction were not disclosed.
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