New Delhi: India-focused private equity firm Everstone Group has agreed to acquire US-based global CRM solutions provider C3 (CustomerContactChannels) through its Singapore-based arm Everise Services, along with Sunrise BPO Pte Ltd as co-investor, the company statement said.
Sources close the transaction told Mint while requesting anonymity as they are not authorized to speak to media, that the deal value stands at $150 million. The business has been bought by Stone Point Capital and senior leadership of C3, they added.
Stone Point Capital is a private equity firm that makes investments in businesses within the global financial services industry. Stone Point has raised and managed six private equity funds—the Trident Funds—with aggregate committed capital of approximately $13 billion. Stone Point Capital’s investment activities are led by Charles A. Davis, Stephen Friedman—both have worked together for more than 20 years at Goldman, Sachs & Co.
As part of this strategy, Sunrise BPO will take the leading role in operating the business, in addition to bringing capital. Everstone will be the largest financial investor and it will take the lead in C3’s India operational build-out to grow the company.
Current president & COO of C3, Rick Ferry, along with C3’s experienced leadership team, will continue as part of the leadership in his new role as CEO-USA.
Everise is targeting to make C3 into a $500-plus million revenue company over the next five years, from current $200 million. Over the past six years, C3 has clocked a revenue CAGR of more than 60%.
Sudhir Agarwal, the founder of Sunrise BPO, will become the new CEO of Everise. Besides, Prateek Dhawan, who is managing director, private equity of Everstone Group will join the Everise board.
This marks Everstone’s third investment through its latest private equity fund, ECP III, which raised $730 million last year, and the second investment into the ITes-enabled space after it acquired a controlling stake Servion Global Solutions, a Customer Engagement Management firm, in 2014 along with Solmark.
“We are excited to partner with Sunrise in the acquisition of this marquee business. I look forward leveraging our deep understanding of the sector and strong presence in India to further build C3’s global business,” said Sameer Sain, co-founder & managing partner of the Everstone Group.
Founded in 2010, C3 expanded operations in the Philippines and Guatemala and has a marquee list of over 20 clients in healthcare, telecommunications & media, consumer internet, logistics, retail, travel & hospitality and financial services.
C3 also provides training and consulting in the customer management solutions space, as well as sales, performance optimization, reputation management and complete customer lifecycle management via traditional, web, and emerging communication channels. The company offers multi-lingual support to clients and has seven operating centers across the US, the Philippines, and Guatemala, with nearly 8,000 employees. C3’s US headquarters is in Plantation, Florida.
“Sunrise BPO not only brings capital, along with our key partner Everstone, but we also bring in the capability to rapidly scale C3’s business in the US and Asia and greatly improve customer experience working closely with all of C3’s amazingly skilled employees and agents,” Agarwal added.
Everstone Capital, co-founded by Sameer Sain and Atul Kapur-founded by former Goldman Sachs executives, has been an active PE investor in the country. With assets under management of $3.3 billion, Everstone has around 200 people working across five offices including Mumbai, Delhi, Bengaluru, and Mauritius.
