Peter Larsson Joins as CEO

Amadeus Capital Partners and Northzone Ventures have, together with serial entrepreneur Peter Larsson, through Monterro Holdings, acquired a majority stake in EPiServer, a Stockholm-based web content management provider, in a $23.5 million transaction. Peter Larsson, who built and recently sold Protect Data to CheckPoint for over $600 million, joins the Company as CEO.  

EPiServer has established clear market leadership in Scandinavia with its award winning web content management system, which provides developers with a technically outstanding and functionally simple development platform. EPiServer is today deployed by over 50,000 users in more than 1,800 companies, supported by some 200 partners and systems integrators. 

The company is profitable and is significantly exceeding estimated industry growth of 13% per annum*. With new equity finance as part of the buyout funding, EPiServer will accelerate growth by significantly scaling up its international operations and expanding its global partner network. 

Today’s corporate web and portal environments are changing rapidly with ever more functions being added and web content management systems (WCM) becoming the primary control hubs for business. 

Peter Larsson, who joins the Board as CEO, was formerly CEO of Protect Data until its purchase this year by CheckPoint for over $600 million. Before that, Peter had held senior management positions with Sunguard and Ericsson and gone on to found and build Common Agenda, a consultancy advising early stage software companies. Founder, Mikael Runhem, remains a shareholder and will be the company’s CTO.

Commenting on the buyout, Amadeus’ Jeppe Zink, who joins the EPiServer Board, said: “Corporate websites are rapidly changing from static corporate brochures to mission critical, interactive, customer relations tools. EPiServer is strongly positioned in this transformation”.

Hans Otterling of Northzone Ventures, who also joins the Company’s Board, added: “I have tracked EPiServer during the past few years. The company’s rapid growth and profit margins are very impressive. EPiServer is well positioned to expand internationally with a strong product portfolio and a team of extraordinarily talented people.” 

Michael Runhem, Founder and CTO added: “Having established market leadership in Scandinavia, it is now time for the company to realise its international ambitions, which this transaction enables through the addition of experienced investors and Peter Larsson.”

Advisers on the transaction were, for the investors, Hamilton and Grant Thornton and, for EPiServer, Keystone Advisors and Wistrand

*source: IDC 

www.episerver.com