Private equity firm Thoma Bravo has acquired a stake in financial services automation firm SMA Technologies — although ownership percentage details and dollar figures were not disclosed.
This is the 873rd technology M&A deal covered by ChannelE2E so far in 2022. See more than 2,000 technology M&A transactions involving MSPs, MSSPs and IT service providers listed here.
SMA Technologies: Workload Automation Software Capabilities
SMA Technologies was founded in 1980 and is headquartered in Houston, Texas. The company lists 139 employees on LinkedIn.
SMA has developed OpCon, an enterprise workload automation platform, for financial services companies, banks, insurance companies, credit unions and retailers. Workload automation and orchestration software can “eliminate manual tasks and manage workloads in critical business operations.” The software is available for numerous third-party cloud, virtualization, database management, ERP, identity management, IT service management (ITSM) and operating system platforms.
In addition to software, SMA also provides automation consulting and managed automation services.
We don’t know if SMA plans to compete in some way with ServiceNow’s workflow automation or third-party robotic process automation (RPA) software.
ParkerGale Capital, SMA Technologies’ previous major shareholder, will retain a minority stake in the software business, the parties said. When ParkerGale acquired the SMA stake in September 2020, the software company had 600 customers in 27 countries.Fast forward to October 2022, ChannelE2E doesn’t know if the installed base has changed significantly
The private equity firm said Thoma Bravo’s investment “is expected to enable SMA to significantly expand the automation solutions it offers its clients, while accelerating geographic and tangential industry growth over time”.
Thoma Bravo Invests in SMA Technologies: An Executive Perspective
SMA CEO Todd Dauchy said in a prepared statement about Thoma Bravo’s deal with SMA:
“SMA has been a pioneer in workload automation for over four decades, and we are delighted to continue our journey with Thoma Bravo. With Thoma Bravo’s operational expertise and financial resources, we will be better positioned to drive global growth while continuing to Provide our customers and their employees with seamless solutions to automate processes, applications and workflows.”
Added Adam Solomon, Partner at Thoma Bravo:
“As an increasingly digital workplace increases IT workloads, SMA is critical to helping businesses smoothly manage today’s complex IT environments. Todd and the SMA team work together by consistently delivering products that meet customers’ changing business needs and priorities. and solutions that build extraordinary trust. We are delighted to be working with a company that values innovation and operational excellence, as well as building strong relationships with customers.”
ParkerGale partner and co-founder Kristina Heinze concluded:
“Through its evolution, SMA has been a product-driven, employee-driven software business with a focus on customer experience. We are proud of what we have accomplished with a majority stake in Todd Dauchy and the SMA team, and Looking forward to continuing to work with Thoma Bravo to support the company.”
Thoma Bravo: Business and Technical Automation Expertise
Thoma Bravo has extensive experience in the IT automation software market.
For example, Thoma Bravo also holds stakes in information management software provider Hyland Software and intelligent process automation provider Nintex. In turn, these software companies made RPA (Robotic Process Automation) and DPA (Digital Process Automation) acquisitions in 2020.
Thoma Bravo also owns ConnectWise, which develops IT management and business automation software for MSPs in the SMB market. Thoma also owns a minority stake in N-able, another MSP-focused software provider.