By KKR Apr 05, 2019
In a recent interview with Private Equity News, KKR’s Jean-Pierre Saad highlights why “KKR looks for diamonds in the European rough.” In the article, Saad said the “European tech sector is thriving” but there are “strong businesses [that are] struggling to expand beyond their home markets. KKR is aiming to fill that gap.”
KKR has been very active in the Technology sector globally over its ~43 year history and in particular in the last 10 years. As Saad notes, “we have backed companies from all over Europe such as Exact1 in the Netherlands, OVH and Ivalua in France, Darktrace and Trainline in the UK, [SoftwareONE and Scout24 in Switzerland, OutSystems in Portugal] and Getyourguide in Germany.” Our excitement for the sector, however, speaks to a broader, global strategy and is not limited to Europe - KKR’s investment in GoDaddy, Epicor, Lyft, BMC Software, Cherwell and Calabrio in the U.S. and Go-Jek in Indonesia amongst others is a testament to that approach.
As the article explains, we believe our competitive advantage is our ability to deliver to management teams, founders and entrepreneurs a unique combination of deep sector knowledge and access to a true global platform and resources. The article also highlighted our ability to invest in different stages of a company’s lifecycle, through strategies like our Next Generation Technology Growth Fund, and our flexibility to back a portfolio company for longer than the standard hold period of five years if we like; as Saad explained, “we say to ourselves, if we find the right opportunity we will find the capital for it.”
Read more from Private Equity News here.
1 Agreement in principle announced on February 26, 2019; transaction is subject to consultations with the woks council and customary closing conditions.