Darwin Announces the Sale of Esendex

Darwin Private Equity sells Esendex to Mobyt, an Hg Capital portfolio comapny

19 June 2017: Darwin Private Equity has sold its entire shareholding in Esendex to Mobyt, a portfolio company of Hg Capital.  The terms of this transaction were not disclosed.

Founded in 2001, Esendex provides a broad portfolio of high value business critical application-to-person messaging solutions to SMEs and corporate customers.  Esendex’s product portfolio includes SMS, voice, email, payment and IP-based products which are delivered over rich APLs and web applications.  Over 13,000 businesses in the UK, France, Spain, Ireland, Germany and Australia rely on its services to communicate with their customers and staff.  Esendex employs over 140 people across its international offices.  Esendex was acquired by Darwin Private Equity in July 2013.

On completion of the transaction, Esendex will combine with Mobyt SpA and SMS Envoi, existing HgCapital portfolio companies, which provides similar business messaging solutions in Italy and France.  The combined group will generate more than €75 million of revenue across its wide portfolio of brands and territories.  The group will be led by existing Esendex CEO, Geoff Love, and HgCapital intends to back the group to further consolidate this fast-growing sector across Europe.

Geoff Love, CEO of Esendex, commented: “This is an exciting time for mobile business messaging and the combination of these three strong businesses creates an European heavyweight in application-to-person communications.  With around 200 staff and 25,000 customers, sending some 2 billion messages a year, we are extremely well-positioned to take this fast-growing industry forward.  With HgCapital’s backing for further acquisitions, as well as continuing strong organic growth, we look forward to helping even more businesses transform their communications with their customers and staff.”