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$230 million investment positions construction technology firm for more growth

By: Jeff McDonald//April 22, 2014//

$230 million investment positions construction technology firm for more growth

Jeff McDonald//April 22, 2014//

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upstart Viewpoint Software announced Tuesday that Bain Capital will invest $230 million into the company by the end of the week.

The deal has been in the works since October as Viewpoint looked to expand its reach into the global construction software market, said , Viewpoint’s chairman and CEO.

“By any measure, it is a large investment,” he said.

Demand for greater construction technology is fueling the company’s revenues, which were $19 million in 2009 and are projected to be $140 million in 2014, according to Haladay.

“We’re going to be a much larger business three or four years out, and the construction market is compatible with us being a much larger business,” he said.

The investment by Bain Capital, a private firm with holdings in companies as varied as The Weather Channel, LinkedIn and SurveyMonkey, is expected to increase Viewpoint’s growth potential in the next three or four years. The next step, Haladay said, will be for the company to go public.

“What we’re saying is Bain is investing in our business, but they expect to invest more in our growth,” he said. “This is just the starting point.”

In July 2012, global private equity firm TA Associates invested $76 million in Viewpoint, then known as Coaxis Inc. The company also received $10 million from Updata Partners in 2010.

Eighteen months ago, Haladay had thought future growth would come from one of his company’s current investors. But the company’s growth had him reconsider, he said.

Updata Partners typically invests in companies in early stages, and has an investment capacity of between $10 million and $25 million, Haladay said. TA Associates typically invests between $50 million and $125 million. Bain has a minimum investment of $200 million.

Both companies are selling their interest to Bain as part of the deal, Haladay said.

“It’s a little like having banking relationships,” he said. “As you grow, your needs of your financial institutions change.”

The time frame for Viewpoint to go public, Haladay said, will depend on the markets and the company’s ability to create a predictable business model, he said.

“The important thing about our relationship with Bain is that they are aligned very similarly to us,” he said. “We don’t have a predetermined time frame. It could be a year. It could be three years.”

Most of Viewpoint’s growth is expected to come from its building information modeling software products. The industry is going through a paradigm shift that parallels what happened in the auto industry around the time of the Model T, Haladay said.

“We are right at the threshold of being an industry that goes through a lot of automation,” he said. “Construction is going to go through that same kind of revamping over the course of the next 15 to 25 years. We have positioned ourselves to be very relevant in that conversation.”



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