Generis will support Watsoft to accelerate its organic development and seize external growth opportunities

May 2022 — Watsoft has completed an LBO alongside Generis Capital Partners.

Founded in 2001, Watsoft is a distributor of high value-added security, backup, archiving, IT outsourcing, messaging and telephony software solutions under license and SaaS module. The company has established long-term partnerships with +15 best-in-class software publishers (e.g. Kaspersky, Solarwinds N-Able, Cortex IT, Ringover and Altarro) and distributes its product offering to more than 4,000 faithful ​managed service providers (MSPs) and value-added resellers (VARs), mainly in France. Watsoft also provides services, such as webinars, certified training, technical support and consulting – a complementary service offering that the company is willing to develop in the short term. In 2006, Watsoft shifted from a B2B to a SaaS business model, providing a high level of recurring revenue and cash visibility (>65% ARR). Today, the company is considered a point of reference within the MSP ecosystem and benefits from strong market dynamics, such as the massive shift to cloud services, extensive use of SaaS-based collaboration services and acceleration of Infrastructure-as-a-Service inducing more risk exposure in terms of data protection.

Generis Capital Partners is an independent investment firm dedicated to private equity. Founded by Thibaut de Roux in 2008 and owned by entrepreneurs, Generis Capital Partners supports the growth of SMEs in France and abroad. In 2009, the firm created the first venture loan funds in France, and in 2011, the first private equity fund to share and redistribute profits for the benefit of entrepreneurs’ associations working to create jobs and develop entrepreneurship in France and abroad. With more than 14 years of experience, Generis Capital Partners has supported more than 130 companies in various sectors with US$1–10 million tickets.

Our role in the transaction

Oaklins’ team in France assisted Watsoft and its shareholders throughout a dual-track process to structure the most attractive transaction.