Shackleton Ventures, the specialist direct secondaries venture investor, has successfully exited its investment in Creditcall, a payments solutions company, headquartered in Bristol, UK.
CreditCall, which gives its clients market-leading payment acceptance functionality, and processes over $5bn of transactions per year was acquired by NMI Inc, a leading US technology provider of payments enablement.
When Shackleton first invested in CreditCall, the company was primarily involved in payments systems for telephony. Shackleton played the role of supportive investor and board member, helping the company to broaden its offering and grow its business in parking, ticketing, transportation and vending industry verticals.
In 2012, Shackleton sold the majority of its interest in Creditcall to FPE Capital and Bestport, who invested further to help the company to develop its technology platform. Consequently, CreditCall’s omni-channel payment gateway is now recognised as the payment middleware of choice for major ISVs, ISOs and payment institutions; and the company’s client base has now broadened further to encompass the world of retail and hospitality. Creditcall has expanded internationally most significantly in the USA, trebled the number of employees, and more than tripled its revenues. In these markets, payment functionality and transactional data capture is increasingly required in an omni-channel format.
Creditcall now operates in 37 countries and has over 100 employees. Its contribution to the UK economy and international trade has previously been recognised with a Queen’s Award for Enterprise.
NMI, CreditCall’s acquirer, is backed by global private equity firms, Francisco Partners and Great Hill Partners, both of which specialize in investments in technology and technology-enabled businesses. NMI offers its customers complete control and choice over the payment experience.
This transition was driven by an experienced team, led by CEO, Lars Pedersen, who joined the business in 2014 and refocused the company onto the opportunities presented by the USA transition to EMV payment standards. Consequently, at the time of NMI’s acquisition, the growth rate of Creditcall’s recurring revenues was approaching 40% p.a.
Hugh Stewart, Managing Partner at Shackleton Ventures, commented: “We are delighted to have enjoyed more than a decade of profitable investment in Creditcall and to have witnessed the strong acceleration of the business in the last few years under the leadership of Lars Pedersen and his team. We wish them well for the future.”
Shackleton’s investment in Creditcall was from its first fund, Shackleton Secondaries Limited Partnership. This fund has achieved a cash return of over 1.9 times cost, putting it in the top decile for funds of its type and vintage, and has a number of assets still to realise. In total Shackleton has had seventeen profitable exits since its formation in late 2006.
