“We are extremely grateful for the guidance and expertise received throughout the process from the Equiteq global banking and advisory teams,” commented Jean Diercxsens, Associate Director at Kartesia. Jurgen Heyman, CEO of Sales Performance International (“SPI”), added “The Equiteq team provided incredible insights which, combined with their business acumen and hard work, made this key strategic move possible for SPI.”
Equiteq, the leading M&A advisory firm for companies in the knowledge economy, is pleased to announce that it has advised Kartesia and its portfolio company, SPI, on its merger with Richardson, a global sales training leader headquartered in Philadelphia, PA, previously owned by private equity firm Clearlight Partners, to form a leading global sales training organization.
Kartesia is an independent and privately-owned provider of capital solutions focused on small and middle market companies across industries. Over the past ten years, the team has invested more than $2.2bn in more than 100 companies. Kartesia has offices in Brussels, Frankfurt, London, Luxembourg, Madrid, Munich and Paris.
Founded in 1988, SPI is the proprietary owner of the Solution Selling® sales process and methodology, which teaches sales professionals not only what to do, but how to apply new behaviours that align with the buyer journey, augmenting learning and digital reinforcement.
Richardson was founded in 1978 in Philadelphia and is globally renowned for its excellence in driving superior sales skills improvement through its best-in-class blended learning approach. The combined expertise at SPI and Richardson will result in a market-leading sales training business with over 70 years’ experience.
According to Laurent Bouvier, Managing Partner at Kartesia, “The numerous complementary assets between these two industry leaders is compelling and will provide an unrivalled suite of capabilities and global coverage. The combination of SPI and Richardson creates a comprehensive portfolio of classroom and digital learning, technology enablement, and industry expertise to drive improved sales performance and increased growth for global companies.”
John Elsey, CEO of Richardson and Jurgen Heyman, CEO of SPI said, “The sales training industry now has a strategic market leader that can provide scalable, end-to-end learning and enablement solutions that drive measurable sales results. The combination of our two companies provides our customers with globally proven sales methodologies, cutting-edge digital learning technology, CRM-based sales execution tools, and most importantly, a way to objectively measure ROI. We are delighted to join forces to drive long-term, measurable sales results for our customers around the world.”
Sam Levy, M&A Director at Equiteq (New York), commented, “Equiteq is pleased to have put our combined commercial, strategic and M&A expertise to work for Kartesia and SPI in support of this key strategic combination. Jerome Glynn-Smith, M&A Director at Equiteq (London), added, "We look forward to continuing to add value to their journey, together with the Richardson team.”
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