New Funding to Support Continued Organic Expansion and Acquisition Strategy
MENLO PARK, CA AND BUENOS AIRES, ARGENTINA – December 2, 2008 – Globant, the Latin American leader in software product development, R&D, and IT maintenance outsourcing, today announced that Riverwood Capital, a private equity firm that invests in high-growth businesses in the global technology and technology-enabled industries, and FTVentures, a growth equity investor with over $1 billion in assets under management, have invested approximately $13 million in the Company. The funding will help Globant continue its strong organic growth and will support its strategic acquisition plan throughout Latin America, the U.S., and Europe.
Globant, a company with nearly 1,000 employees based in seven delivery centers across Latin America and commercial offices in the U.S. and the U.K., has extensive experience developing high quality software applications for a blue chip customer base that includes Electronic Arts, Coca Cola, SABRE, and Citi. Globant’s software and infrastructure teams work together with the Creative Studios and Innovation Labs to produce world-class software products. Agile development methodologies allow the Company to collaborate with clients on cost effective technology solutions. Globant utilizes a rational blend of Open Source combined with proprietary software, which brings flexibility, mitigates risk and further reduces costs. In addition to the competitive development costs in Latin America, Globant offers a wide range of benefits to its customers in the U.S. and Europe, including geographic proximity and compatible time zones, a sizeable world class talent pool with low attrition rates, strong language skills at all levels, cultural affinity with its customers, and a unique culture of teamwork, quality, and customer service.
“Riverwood Capital is excited to continue its active support of Globant and looks forward to its partnership with FTVentures,” explained Francisco Alvarez-Demalde, Partner at Riverwood Capital, the first institutional investor in the Company. “We have been greatly impressed with Globant’s achievements during the past 18 months as the Company has more than doubled in size and expanded its world-class portfolio of services and clients. The Company has developed a culture of innovation, productivity and efficiency, which has produced high employee morale and differentiated Globant from global competitors. We are glad to increase our investment in this strong and profitable company, which has now expanded its resources to accelerate its remarkable expansion path. The current macroeconomic environment offers attractive and unique growth opportunities for Globant, both in terms of acquisitions and investments to expand our relationships with customers.”
“Globant is extremely well-positioned to accelerate its growth and continue its dominance as a highly respected market leading Latin American IT outsourcer,” said Brad Bernstein, FTVentures Partner and new board member at Globant. “Our strategic limited partners, including many of the world’s leading financial institutions, are looking to reduce geographic risk away from India and domestic vendors, and most importantly, are seeking lower cost, adaptable IT providers with strong domain expertise in areas such as virtualization, web services, content management, open source and other next generation technologies to partner with them on high priority IT development projects. Globant offers an exceptionally compelling value proposition to the global financial services industry as well as to other key industry verticals such as high-tech, telecom, travel and entertainment.”
According to Globant’s CEO Martin Migoya, “Given the challenging times, closing this transaction reinforces our success in executing on Globant’s vision of creating the leading IT vendor in Latin America. We provide our clients with a dynamic project management and staffing framework that drives increased efficiencies in the cost effective delivery of IT solutions.” Migoya added, “We are extremely pleased with the strong continuing confidence of Riverwood Capital and we gladly welcome FTVentures as partners because they bring relevant domain expertise and a successful track record in helping to grow outsourcing companies. This financing will help drive our strategic expansion and accelerate our growth in a global context that reinforces Globant’s value proposition, allowing us to scale our business through targeted acquisitions and investments to deliver further value to our clients.”
About Globant
Globant is the Latin American leader in software product development, R&D, and maintenance outsourcing. Globant utilizes a rational blend of Open Source combined with proprietary software, which brings flexibility, mitigates risk and further reduces costs. Globant’s proprietary SmartStaffing TechnologyTM yields high performance teams that enable companies to quickly develop their software products and gain an edge in the competitive landscape with the lowest total cost. Globant is a privately held, privately funded company headquartered in Buenos Aires, Argentina with offices in Tandil, Cordoba and La Plata in Argentina, Palo Alto, Austin and Boston in the United States, Mexico City, Bogota, Santiago de Chile and London. For more information, visit www.globant.com.
About Riverwood Capital LLC
Riverwood Capital LLC is a globally-focused private equity firm that invests in high-growth businesses in the technology and services industries, across a variety of verticals and geographies. Riverwood was established by a talented group of private equity and technology industry executives, which gives Riverwood a unique combination of operational, strategic, financial and technical insight into investment candidates. The founders group includes Michael Marks (former Technology Partner at KKR; Chairman & CEO of Flextronics) and Chris Varelas (Former Global Head of TMT Group and National Investment Bank at Citigroup), among others. Riverwood has offices in Menlo Park, CA and New York, NY and currently has more than 20 investments in North America, Latin America, China and India.
About FTV Ventures
FTVentures provides growth equity to companies seeking to finance organic expansion, recapitalizations, build-ups and buyouts. The firm invests in business services and software companies that derive value from its unmatched Global Partner Network, which includes the world’s leading financial institutions. FTVentures’ Global Partner Network provides the firm with a unique vantage point into the business driven and operating challenges of the global enterprise. Founded in 1998, FTVentures currently has over $1 billion under management with offices in San Francisco and New York. For more information, please visit www.ftventures.com.
Contacts
Wanda Weigert
GLOBANT
(212) 400-7686
wanda.weigert@globant.com
Angela Murray
RIVERWOOD CAPITAL
(650) 618-7300
angela.murray@rwcm.com
Karen Derr Gilbert
FTVENTURES
(415) 229-3000
kgilbert@ftventures.com