LDC INVESTS OVER £17M IN DEVELOPER OF MARKETING PROCUREMENT PLATFORM RIGHTSPEND

LDC, the leading mid-market private equity investor, has invested more than £17million into Beekman Associates, the developer and provider of the data-driven marketing procurement platform RightSpend. The deal will help the management team to drive organic growth, further develop its software as a service (SaaS) offering and continue to expand into new international markets.

Headquartered in London and with a second office in New York, Beekman Associates and its industry-leading software platform RightSpend supports global brands in the assessment of their marketing activity in real time, to help save and optimise marketing spend and manage agency relationships more effectively. The business has an extensive blue-chip client base which includes many of the world’s largest brands.

RightSpend provides an unrivalled database across 75 different international markets, and 10 marketing specialisms including creative, digital, design, PR, production and events. The software enables clients to reduce costs, drive efficiencies and increase transparency within the procurement process. Information can be accessed directly by its customers in real time. RightSpend currently assesses more than £8billion of marketing spend each year and saves customers on average between 10 and 20 per cent of their marketing spend.

LDC is backing the business’ experienced management team, led by CEO Iain Seers, who has more than 25 years industry experience.

The investment was led by LDC Director David Andrews and Investment Manager Dan Gluckman, who will both join the board. The deal will also see TMT expert former CEO at EMAP and Informa, and ex-Procurement Leaders Chairman David Gilbertson join as Chairman and former COO of the NEC Group John Hornby join as Non-Executive Director.

Iain Seers, CEO of Beekman Associates, said: “We have developed a unique market-leading software tool to help companies better manage their marketing agency relationships and deliver material cost savings and transparency around spend. While we have grown significantly in recent years, there is a real opportunity for us to scale quickly, drive our technology development faster, as well as expand into new geographies.

“LDC’s experience of backing tech and media companies gives us great confidence in our future partnership with the private equity house. LDC will help us capitalise on the huge opportunity we have to further develop our software offering to become a world-leading marketing procurement platform.”

David Andrews, Director at LDC, added: “The impressive client base and track record that Iain and his team have developed speaks for itself. The business model and proprietary technology, coupled with a highly scalable proposition, means the business is well-placed to expand and build on its success to date. We look forward to partnering with on the business on the next stage of their growth journey.”

LDC has a strong heritage of supporting fast growing tech and media businesses. The private equity firm has invested more than £1bn in UK tech, media and telecoms companies. In addition to Beekman Associates, this year LDC has invested in Kerv, Aker Systems, James and James and 3D software reseller Solid Solutions.