Business Created
October, 2014 - (10 years old)
Listing Number
Listing Price
Monthly Revenue
Monthly Net Profit
Cashflow Volatility
Cash Yield
Business Name: Confidential
Business Start Date: 2014
Business Valuation: $5,950,000 USD
Percentage Being Sold: 100%
Sales (TTM): $1,062,834 USD
Net Profit (SDE): $266,842 USD
Business Multiple (ARR or EBITDA): around 5.6x ARR
Users (TTM): 200K users from 150 paying clients
____________________________________________
Summary
The listing is a 9-year-old cybersecurity company located in Lausanne, Switzerland, with a strong track record of recognition, loyalty, and an established customer base of over 150 clients across diverse industries in the Swiss market. The company's solution has achieved an exceptional level of maturity and boasts strong unique selling points. The business is well-positioned for growth and compelling opportunity to expand into larger markets.
The Opportunity
The business bootstrapped its operation since entering the Swiss market in 2015. Over the years, the company has served more than 200K users and has acquired 150+ customers across various sectors including the public sector, industry, digital banking, retail, and telecom.
The company's cutting-edge solution and unique offerings for multi-client Managed Service Providers (MSP) hold significant potential for international growth in digital banking security and Identity and Access Management (IAM). Compliant with the latest regulations and standards, the company's offering allows for a strong focus on the digital banking sector where it is at the forefront of the market because of its exceptional all-in-one solution, that delivers a secure and seamless onboarding and transaction security.
Moreover, the company presents a distinctive opportunity for expansion into larger markets, capitalizing on its demonstrated success in Switzerland. The company reinvested in innovation and product enhancement with reliance more on its reseller network performance than marketing.
The company believes that strengthening marketing and sales in broader markets will accelerate growth with a significant ARR increase. Its multi-tenant & REST API-based technology is purpose-built to integrate seamlessly into a cloud service infrastructure or software with minimal disruption and maximum flexibility for enhancement and adaptability. The company can leverage its strong value proposition and grow building a network of MSP & Software house channels to facilitate and accelerate new market penetration and ARR growth.
The company expects that in 2024, its 3 MSP partners in Switzerland will generate 300K/year and are expected to grow to 500K/year by 2025. An MSP can generate from 50K USD (small, < 5,000 users) to 200K (average, 30K users) to 500K+ USD (big, 100K+ users) yearly. Thus, with a marketing focus on MSP channels and banks, ARR can be increased significantly to reach 2M+ in 2026.
Considering the investments made over the past 10 years in their products and the rapid growth in ARR revenues, the company estimates a valuation of 6M USD, i.e. around 20x EBITDA (2022) or 10x ARR revenue.
General Highlights
The company offers a remote trust-enabled solution, that effectively addresses the challenges of IAM in a secure and practical manner, leveraging a no/low code platform. The solution can be easily deployed as a turn-key system on-premises or SaaS.
The company's solution targets businesses from diverse sectors, including industry, public sector, digital banking, retail, telecom, services, web, etc., that offer digital access and transaction services to users, both known and unknown.
Its strategic partnerships with three MSPs, now integrated with the company’s platform, have paved the way for ARR growth in Switzerland. Starting in 2023, these MSPs will initiate the solution rollout to their customers, thus accelerating ARR growth in the region.
Niche
The company's customers and partners chose them because:
The company offers a single platform for all access security scenarios. It offers rich and unique functionality addressing most of the actual and emerging access security scenarios.
The company's digital banking security solution is cutting-edge and provides a unique EU-certified framework, mobile onboarding, and access and signature solution for new and existing bank clients, to enable end-to-end e/mobile banking
The purpose-built design (REST API & Mobile SDK) for seamless integration across infrastructures and software signifies the company’s solution's adaptability and flexibility.
The company's offering has an ideal value proposition for MSPs. The multi-tenant technology ensures a seamless integration and option for self-hosted solutions to provide full control and meet regulations.
Customer Base
The solution can be sold to any type of industry for the purpose of identity verification, access security, or digital signatures. Customers are from different sectors and sizes, including
Banks, public sectors, Telco, Insurance, Services, Retail, etc.
Bank customers utilize the solution for onboarding with ID verification, secured biometric authentication, secured transaction signature, and digital signature of bank forms and documents.
Two of the biggest retail companies are also using the unique biometric authentication solution for seamless and secure access to shared devices in points of sale all across Switzerland.
The company has licensed products with specific pricelist:
Authentication license (all use cases)
Signature license (for digital banking use cases)
Messaging license (for digital banking use cases)
Password reset portal license (all use cases)
Branded apps yearly maintenance (for customers using branded mobile apps)
Recurrent margin on 3rd party components such as (liveness detection, face recognition)
Software licenses ( which generate 95%+ of total revenue)
Monthly or yearly subscription (main business model starting from 2022)
Yearly maintenance on perpetual license sales
Perpetual licenses (progressively eliminating this model)
Other revenue drivers:
Professional services: paid development (mainly for product enhancements paid by customers/partners)
HW tokens: insignificant revenue. Product maintained for very specific use cases of some customers
The large majority of its customers use the platform for a minimum of 5 years or more. The churn rate is very low as since 2015 less than 5% of its customers ended up using it after 5 years of usage.
Revenue Sources
The company's business model has been focused on perpetual licenses and yearly maintenance until 2021, with the purpose of generating cash to finance R&D since there's no external investment.
In 2022, the cash position, recurrent revenue from maintenance, and recurrent revenue generated by new MSP/OEM deals have enabled the progressive shift to the recurrent revenue model.
Value-added resellers (VAR) take a 10-30% margin. They combine perpetual license yearly maintenance and subscription sales models.
The MSP business model is based on specific pricing agreements fully recurrent with a Monthly price per user per month.
Here are the company’s customers' revenue metrics
Example 1
Perpetual license & maintenance
The company’s customer since 2018
Use case: digital banking customers
Licensed products: Authentication, Transaction & digital signature, Messaging, Identity verification
Total users: 4,000
Use a branded mobile app
Perpetual licenses sold: USD 154,000
Yearly maintenance: USD 48,000
Example 2
Perpetual license & maintenance
The company’s customers since 2018
Use cases: Internal staff biometric authentication, shared devices face recognition based for teams in points of sale, internal mobile apps biometric authentication
Licensed products: Authentication, Face recognition with liveness detection
Total users: 45,000
Use a branded mobile app
Perpetual licenses sold: USD 400,000
Yearly maintenance: USD 55,000
Example 3
SaaS, Monthly subscription/user
The company’s customers since 2023
Use cases: authentication, internal staff
Licensed products: Authentication
Total users: 1,200
Pricing is structured according to total SaaS platform users/Mont/active user
Yearly revenue generated for this case: USD 13,200
Financials
Since 2018, the company’s sales have been growing steadily. In 2023, the company organized itself around the arrival of a full-time CEO and the gradual establishment of a development team.
All profits have been invested in the development of its solutions and have not been capitalized on the balance sheet.
All revenues are made up of the platform licenses, maintenance, SaaS subscriptions, and services. Token sales are classified under hardware. The purchaser will be able to take over 100% of revenues.
Sales (USD)
2018 - 376,923
2019 - 622,968
2020 - 895,749
2021 - 928,304
2022 - 1,128,381
2023 (YeTD) - 1,157,000
The 2023 revenue slowdown is attributed to rollout delays by its MSP partners. Nonetheless, the company anticipates substantial growth in ARR (Annual Recurring Revenue) from MSPs starting in 2024 when most of their customers will be migrated to the platform.
Profit/SDE (USD)
2018 - 68,079
2019 - 156,825
2020 - 274,045
2021 - 172,220
2022 - 261,721
2023 (YTD) - 231,599
Operations
The company operates entirely in the cloud, without physical offices or on-premise services. The cloud-centric approach allows the company to remotely deliver its software product and customer services while also benefitting from a distributed staff across various geographical areas.
Its flagship software platform can be delivered as a virtual appliance or via Docker services, aligning with its customer's distributed layout. Customers have the flexibility to install the platform on their infrastructure or on private/public clouds.
Since 2022, its partner Swisscom, has offered the platform (multi-tenant version) from its SaaS infrastructure that is operated 24/7 by Swisscom.
The company's delivery, software development, and release process are customer-focused and iterative:
Development and QA: The distributed teams of mobile and server-side software engineers work on the platform’s development. Documentation and QA teams work in parallel to ensure a well-tested and documented product
Official release: Major releases of the platform are prepared annually, including server-side and mobile application updates
Upload to download site: The major release is uploaded to its download site, providing customers with easy access
Announcement: Through its mailing list, official announcements are made to inform customers/resellers about the releases, highlighting new feature
Ongoing support: The company provides ongoing customer support through its support portal and email, accompanied by continuously updated knowledge base articles
To sum up, the company’s cloud-based business model and operational processes are designed to serve customers efficiently and remotely. No physical assets or offices are required, aligning with its cloud-centric approach. The company's customer-facing services, including the product download site, support portal, and company website, ensure a seamless customer journey, while internal tools and processes enhance operational efficiency.
Team
The company has 11 full-time employees and external tech partners and consultants for non-core tech development. The founders and managers have mastered the key know-how on the products.
It has 5 shareholders including the CEO, CTO, Chief of Development, Chief Architect, and Admin/Finance Manager.
The company staff gathers outstanding know-how in cybersecurity and new technologies.
Founder & CEO. He's in charge of Sales and Operations.
Founder & CTO. His roles include CTO, Operations, Pre-sales, and Support.
Founder & Chief Architect. His roles include core development, platform design, and platform development supervision.
Founder & R&D Manager. His roles include Core development, platform design, platform development supervision (server and mobile)
Mobile development. His role is in mobile app branding and development.
Senior Software Engineer. He is in charge of the server development.
DevOps. His roles include post-sales support and integration.
Mobile Dev - He is in charge of mobile app branding and development, and QA automation.
QA Software Engineer. He's in charge of QA Automation.
QA Team Leader
Senior Software Engineer. His roles include core server development and platform design.
Shareholder & Administrator.
Channel Manager (contractor)
Company 1 - a highly specialized company in mobile tech. This is a contractor company that advises on mobile development and occasional hands-on.
Sales/Marketing
To date, the company has placed a significant emphasis on R&D. Without external investment, the company has chosen to allocate its financial resources toward expanding its technical team and infrastructure to strengthen the USPs of its products.
Marketing expenses are allocated mainly for the creation of marketing and sales material such as videos, web, and product presentations, among others.
Main differentiators for Digital banking security
In the digital banking security solutions market, there is a high level of fragmentation, with different players, specializing in specific areas such as identity verification, authentication, and digital signatures. The company sets itself apart by offering a comprehensive integrated product that encompasses it all. Its all-inclusive solution encompasses mobile onboarding, access management, and digital signatures, all seamlessly integrated within a single branded application. This ensures a streamlined user experience throughout the entire process.
It provides a secure and hassle-free onboarding journey with an all-in-one banking access and signature App and everything bank customers need to securely interact with the bank activated with a single identity scan
It is designed to meet compliance with new regulations with an EU-certified framework for onboarding and execution of digital signatures.
With this, the company has allowed increased profitability and competitiveness in the market for its customers
Main differentiators for other industries
Scalable, rich functionality, rapid deployment, flexible integration, adaptable architectures, designed for rapid evolution
A single platform that addresses multiple different requirements scenarios use cases, and specific problems throughout the onboarding access & transactions security lifecycle
Differentiated Mobile Passwordless capability for improved user experience with biometric authentication on Desktop as well as on mobile access
Single platform to secure access through all channels (PC, Mobile, Mobile apps, Web, etc)
The platform server optimized flexibility for automation, integration, and functionality use from third-party software with its REST API design
Mobile SDK for easy and fast integration into third-party Mobile apps (mobile banking, Corporate apps, SW vendor apps, etc.)
Main differentiators for MSP channel integration
Growth strategy focuses on developing a network of MSP channels to facilitate and accelerate new market penetration reaching their customers under a known brand. The company differentiates with a strong value proposition to MSPs:
Enriches partners’ portfolio with end-to-end consistent and compliant security functionality, enhancing service or software MSPs to address complex security challenges
The platform (REST API, white label) is designed for fast, flexible & easy integration into third-party Software or Cloud service infrastructure, providing full control and adaptability to progressively scale and adapt to MSP’s needs
The platform multi-tenant technology allows the management of MSP’s customers in a single instance of the server, thus minimizing operational costs and with total customer data isolation
Partners
Since its inception, the company has relied essentially on an indirect sales approach which is its resellers' network for sales performance. The partner network comprises of
Technology Partners
For specific functionalities such as Identity verification, face recognition, or Liveness detection, the company has integrated third-party technology or services. These 3rd party technologies cover specific functions that complete specific workflows. For instance, the use of the company’s digital banking mobile app during a new customer onboarding process. A specialized service of Identity document verification is integrated into its mobile app for a step of the process.
The company takes a recurrent revenue margin on top of the integrated services.
Value Added Resellers (VAR)
The company has 5 active VARS in Switzerland and 2 in Israel. They are trained and certified on the platform.
The VARS are responsible for sales, set up, and support levels 1 and 2
VARs have standard VAR agreements with standard price lists giving VAR price and MSRP price (30% margin to VAR)
Managed Service Providers (MSP) (since 2022)
MSPs are trained and certified on the platform.
MSPs integrate the platform within their MSP cloud infrastructure or software. The platform multi-tenant version of the server provides unique benefits and low operational cost).
Sell the platform products under the SaaS model together with their MSP services or Software
The company has specific MSP agreements including support SLAs and monthly subscription/user price list
In 2023, the company signed with the following 3 MSP partners. This demonstrates its successful MSP integration strategy to reach new markets abroad and accelerate ARR growth.
Example 1
Switzerland’s leading Managed Services Provider
Since 2023, operated a SaaS platform to offer the platform products to their customers (Finance, Enterprise, Public sector, Healthcare,…)
Generates USD 80K ARR in 2023 that is expected to grow to over USD 200K by 2024
Example 2
OEM
Cloud service offering a customer-tailored IAM platform
Since 2023, has fully integrated the platform for its access management functionality
Offers the platform products to their customers in the field of Banking, Aviation companies, and other industries
They will start a large international marketing campaign in Q1 2024
Generates 75K ARR in 2023. The company expects significant growth acceleration once Reist Telecom starts scaling in international markets
Example 3
OEM
Fast-growing cutting-edge e-banking software vendor
Has integrated the platform into its cloud e-banking platform for its innovative digital banking security functionality
Expersoft started the migration to the platform digital banking security solution for its Bank customers in Q3 2023
The company expects Expersoft to generate USD 200K+ ARR by the end of 2024 with strong ARR growth due to Expertsoft's market success.
Main Expenses
The company's main expense category is employee salaries.
Developers: They are based in Argentina and their salaries range from USD 700/month to USD 3,000/month. However, the two founders and managers of the dev and QA staff earn USD5,500/month.
CEO & CTO: They each earn USD 14,500 a month.
A new buyer could reduce the actual cost by allocating its existing infrastructure/management/staff to some of the company's tasks/processes.
Work and Skills Required
The following are the company owners.
CEO
Owns 29%
Full-time employee
Unique person in charge of business development
Open to staying in his position or changing his role or quitting following a hand-over period with compensation to be negotiated
CTO
Owns 29%
Full-time employee
Open to staying in his position or changing his role
Chief of Development
Owns 15%
Full-time employee
Open to staying in his position or changing his role
Chief Architect
Owns 15%
Full-time employee
Open to staying in his position or changing his role
The 5th owner
Owns 12%
In charge of admin
No salary and not directly involved in the business
The owners that have the key skillsets or know-how will commit to staying for a minimum period to ensure business continuity and proper handover if and when necessary.
The technical knowledge required to run or manage the business would include:
For the CEO: An understanding of the Identity and Access Management (IAM) market
For the CTO: A strong knowledge of IAM market solutions, technology, and trends
For the Developers: Modern software development (Python) and mobile dev as well as cybersecurity infrastructure and landscape
Who is the ideal buyer for this business?
The ideal strategic buyers for the company are:
A Software house seeking a product like this platform for a functional fit to extend their portfolio of solutions or to complete their functional offering. Furthermore, the platform has been designed for easy and full white-label integration with minimal operational cost. Such a buyer could leverage its own resources such as marketing and sales, partner network, customer base, and developers for massive sales growth (new sales, cross/up sales) and get the best ROI.
There is a strong potential fit for a banking software vendor as the company’s digital banking solution stands out at the forefront of banking security, offering a unique and innovative onboarding and transaction security solution. This presents an excellent opportunity for buyers in the digital banking or banking software sector to leverage the company’s products that come with strong unique selling points (USPs) and differentiators. Furthermore, a banking software company can seamlessly integrate the company’s digital banking security solution into its own software and/or MSP infrastructure, ensuring a comprehensive and technologically advanced offering
An MSP seeking a product like the platform for a functional fit, to extend its portfolio of services/solutions, or to substitute a costly 3rd party solution. Furthermore, the platform has been designed for easy and full white-label integration with minimal operational cost. Such a buyer could leverage its own resources and SaaS infrastructure such as marketing and sales, partner network, customer base, and developers for massive sales growth (new sales, cross/up sales) and get the best ROI
A private equity fund with a good portfolio of companies in similar or complementary SW or cybersecurity fields seeking a product like the platform for a functional fit or to extend their portfolio of services/solutions. Such a buyer could leverage its own resources and synergies within its portfolio of companies such as marketing and sales, partner network, developers, and customer base of its network of companies for massive sales growth (new sales, cross/up sales) and get the best ROI
An investor entrepreneur who is willing to invest to strengthen the company’s capacity in marketing & sales and to accelerate the product roadmap to address emerging requirements and new market opportunities with strong and innovative differentiators. Thus, making a significant profit with a much higher exit within x years timeframe
The company has demonstrated the potential and USPs of its solution in several market segments. The company has reached a good level of proof and development without investing in sales and marketing in a small market like Switzerland. Its team is highly skilled, professional, and committed to innovation, productivity, and customer-driven. A new buyer can leverage these achievements and assets and scale to significantly increase the value of the company in a reasonable timeframe.
Certainly, so far the company has very poorly invested in marketing & sales. The CEO joined full time in the company in 2019 and started developing a partner network. Most of the investment so far has been on R&D.
A buyer with financial capacity for marketing & sales could significantly contribute to fast growth acceleration considering that the actual revenue is generated in a small market like Switzerland only.
There are no restrictions on who the new owner could be. The owners collaborate in excellent harmony, very efficiently, and are very complementary. They have a good vision on the roadmap to differentiate with innovative products and services derived from the actual solution, differentiate and grab new market opportunities due to emerging standards and market shifts in the field of IAM.
What (if any) post sale support is included with the sale?
For post-sale support,1 owner is willing to stay on long term after the sale while the other main owner will stay for 6 months to help make the transition a success.
Valuation
With its product value and future earnings potential, the company expects a valuation of 6M USD corresponding to 20 x EBITDA or 10 x current ARR.
With expected international expansion, the company expects EBITDA to increase by a factor of 5 in 3 years' time, as the profitability of ARR becomes increasingly important. However, the EBITDA multiple should not fall below 12.
The proposed price should be compared with the investments made by the team over the last 10 years. The buyer will gain time and know-how to deploy perfectly up-to-date products right away.
SEO/ASO Analysis:
Web
Authority Score: 11
Backlinks: 153
Referring Domains: 31
Ranking Keywords: 1
Percentage of Links that “Do Follow”: 83%
Social Media
LinkedIn - 164 followers
Expansion Opportunities for New Owner
The business revenue can be expanded through MSP target partners. This would include
Software houses (Banking, ERP, CRM solution vendors)
MSSPs (Managed Service Security providers)
IDaaS (Identity as a Service)
Digital signature service providers
Implementing an MSP channel strategy does not require important marketing expenses as it brings a competitive advantage to grow in new markets with:
An attractive offer for MSP players to extend their service/product portfolio with strong and modern IAM-integrated products
Facilitated and accelerated new market penetration through a network of established partners reaching their customers under a known brand or trusted services
A strong partner and customer retention due to technological integration and the partner’s ownership of the product
To reduce costs, the owners suggest focusing on niches such as SaaS and MSP only. A buyer with an existing SaaS or MSP infrastructure can significantly optimize revenue generation while minimizing costs and accelerating customer & partner base growth. The platform could then be offered to MSPs or to end customers in SaaS, accelerating delivery and reducing intermediates. The company’s cost structure is optimal with low-cost development and a highly skilled, committed, and efficient development team located in Argentina and managed by two of its founders (Chief of Development and Chief Architect).
In terms of pricing, the business model has shifted from perpetual license & maintenance to a recurrent model since 2022. The release of the the platform multi-tenant version enabled them to successfully engage with 3 MSP partners in Switzerland with strong growth potential of recurrent revenue. This strategy can be exported to penetrate new markets abroad and accelerate recurrent revenue growth.
An acquirer can gain a unique opportunity to fast-track growth and substantially enhance the company's value:
Strengthen marketing and sales. The company expenditure in marketing and sales has been very limited so far with most of the benefits reinvested to finance R&D staff and infrastructure growth. It has relied essentially on its resellers' network as it adopted since the beginning an indirect sales approach. The company is about to launch the first lead generation campaign aiming to engage new MSP partners abroad and start accelerating recurrent revenue growth. With a new and strong marketing focus, an acquirer should rapidly and significantly increase revenue and ARR.
Growth in larger markets than Switzerland. An acquirer with the right infrastructure, resources, and network can leverage the platform’s USPs, versatility, and success stories to grow in much larger markets than Switzerland such as the USA, EU, and beyond.
Focus on MSP channel integration to facilitate new market penetration with a strong and unique value proposition. The company’s solution has been designed for off-the-shelf deployment or flexible white-label integration into third-party software or cloud service infrastructure. Therefore, the platform’s multi-tenant technology offers unique capabilities to reach new markets through MSP integration channels facilitating new market penetration and customer reach. The company has demonstrated a successful MSP/OEM strategy in Switzerland leveraging its unique technology with high-growth potential new partners including MSP, IDaaS, and a Banking Software vendor.
Strong opportunity to focus on the Digital banking security niche. There is a strong growth potential in the field of digital banking that is experiencing robust growth as banks increasingly strive to undergo digital transformation. The company offers very innovative and strong USPs for digital banking security, allowing bank customers to seamlessly onboard and securely conduct transactions from anywhere.
Barriers to Entry
Entering the business from scratch, despite having some capital and time, presents significant barriers and challenges due to the following factors:
Extensive Development and Experience: Developing a dynamic and flexible platform like the company platform’s IAM solution took more than 8 years of dedicated effort and market-driven development. The accumulated experience and expertise in this field are invaluable. Starting from scratch would require a substantial investment in time, resources, and expertise to match the level of development and innovation already achieved
High Skill Requirement: The field of identity and access management (IAM) demands a high level of skill and technical knowledge. It involves complex security challenges and evolving technologies. Building such a platform without the requisite skills and experience is extremely challenging and poses a substantial barrier to entry
Market Competitiveness: The company platform’s IAM solution has already demonstrated competitiveness and innovation capacity in the Swiss market all with almost zero investment in sales and marketing. With over 200K users, 150+ customers, accredited resellers, and strategic partners, it has established a strong presence. Entering this niche market would require not only substantial resources but also the ability to compete effectively against established players with a track record of success
Diverse Sector Coverage: The platform IAM solution serves a wide range of sectors, including industry, public sector, digital banking, retail, telecom, services, and more. This diversification provides a competitive advantage and protects the business from competitors taking market share. Potential entrants would need to replicate this broad coverage to compete effectively
User Trust: Building trust among users is crucial in the IAM field, where security and privacy are paramount. The company’s established user base and track record contribute to user trust. A new player would need to invest time and effort to build a similar level of trust among users
In summary, the major barriers to entry in this niche include the extensive development and experience required, the high skill demands of the field, strong market competitiveness, diverse sector coverage, and the establishment of user trust.
Reason for Sale
The co-founders, who have been instrumental in creating and nurturing the business to its current stage, firmly believe that new management, supported by a stronger structure, will be more appropriate to boost the company’s development.
Miscellaneous Details
There are no licensing requirements for the business.
Stock vs asset sale could be considered partially and/or by some shareholders.
Lastly, there have been no lawsuits or threats so far.
___________________________
All Assets Included with Sale
The sale includes all the company’s assets
100% of shares
All IPs belonging to the company
All proprietary software products
All proprietary source code (along with repositories and GitHub accounts)
Source code documentation
All IP-related documentation
All Marketing material
All partner and customer contracts, contacts, accounts, and information
All 3rd party tools and software contracts
All Bank accounts at BCV (Banque cantonale vaudoise, CH)
All employee and sub-contractor contracts
Web site and its contents
Web and email domains
Corporate emails and content
All operations services, including
Internal ticketing system and project management (account and content)
All labs (for QA, development, and integration)
Support Portal (account and content)
CRM system (account and content)
___________________________
About the Agent
FIH.com is a Manhattan-based M&A advisory firm specializing in the sale of remotely-run successful digital companies (around the world) from $1M-100M in revenue, including apps, marketplaces, freemium + enterprise SaaS, ecommerce, affiliate/advertising groups, and more! We are proud to work with the very best entrepreneurs and investors, so if that’s you and you are in the market to acquire or sell a relevant business, then we encourage you to reach out for a complimentary consultation
October, 2014 - (10 years old)
The following are included in the sale of this business:
The following are the company owners.
CEO
Owns 29%
Full-time employee
Unique person in charge of business development
Open to staying in his position or changing his role or quitting following a hand-over period with compensation to be negotiated
CTO
Owns 29%
Full-time employee
Open to staying in his position or changing his role
Chief of Development
Owns 15%
Full-time employee
Open to staying in his position or changing his role
Chief Architect
Owns 15%
Full-time employee
Open to staying in his position or changing his role
The 5th owner
Owns 12%
In charge of admin
No salary and not directly involved in the business
The owners that have the key skillsets or know-how will commit to staying for a minimum period to ensure business continuity and proper handover if and when necessary.
The technical knowledge required to run or manage the business would include:
For the CEO: An understanding of the Identity and Access Management (IAM) market
For the CTO: A strong knowledge of IAM market solutions, technology, and trends
For the Developers: Modern software development (Python) and mobile dev as well as cybersecurity infrastructure and landscape
There are no licensing requirements for the business.
Stock vs asset sale could be considered partially and/or by some shareholders.
Lastly, there have been no lawsuits or threats so far.
For post-sale support,1 owner is willing to stay on long term after the sale while the other main owner will stay for 6 months to help make the transition a success.
The co-founders, who have been instrumental in creating and nurturing the business to its current stage, firmly believe that new management, supported by a stronger structure, will be more appropriate to boost the company’s development.
The ideal strategic buyers for the company are:
A Software house seeking a product like this platform for a functional fit to extend their portfolio of solutions or to complete their functional offering. Furthermore, the platform has been designed for easy and full white-label integration with minimal operational cost. Such a buyer could leverage its own resources such as marketing and sales, partner network, customer base, and developers for massive sales growth (new sales, cross/up sales) and get the best ROI.
There is a strong potential fit for a banking software vendor as the company’s digital banking solution stands out at the forefront of banking security, offering a unique and innovative onboarding and transaction security solution. This presents an excellent opportunity for buyers in the digital banking or banking software sector to leverage the company’s products that come with strong unique selling points (USPs) and differentiators. Furthermore, a banking software company can seamlessly integrate the company’s digital banking security solution into its own software and/or MSP infrastructure, ensuring a comprehensive and technologically advanced offering
An MSP seeking a product like the platform for a functional fit, to extend its portfolio of services/solutions, or to substitute a costly 3rd party solution. Furthermore, the platform has been designed for easy and full white-label integration with minimal operational cost. Such a buyer could leverage its own resources and SaaS infrastructure such as marketing and sales, partner network, customer base, and developers for massive sales growth (new sales, cross/up sales) and get the best ROI
A private equity fund with a good portfolio of companies in similar or complementary SW or cybersecurity fields seeking a product like the platform for a functional fit or to extend their portfolio of services/solutions. Such a buyer could leverage its own resources and synergies within its portfolio of companies such as marketing and sales, partner network, developers, and customer base of its network of companies for massive sales growth (new sales, cross/up sales) and get the best ROI
An investor entrepreneur who is willing to invest to strengthen the company’s capacity in marketing & sales and to accelerate the product roadmap to address emerging requirements and new market opportunities with strong and innovative differentiators. Thus, making a significant profit with a much higher exit within x years timeframe
The company has demonstrated the potential and USPs of its solution in several market segments. The company has reached a good level of proof and development without investing in sales and marketing in a small market like Switzerland. Its team is highly skilled, professional, and committed to innovation, productivity, and customer-driven. A new buyer can leverage these achievements and assets and scale to significantly increase the value of the company in a reasonable timeframe.
Certainly, so far the company has very poorly invested in marketing & sales. The CEO joined full time in the company in 2019 and started developing a partner network. Most of the investment so far has been on R&D.
A buyer with financial capacity for marketing & sales could significantly contribute to fast growth acceleration considering that the actual revenue is generated in a small market like Switzerland only.
There are no restrictions on who the new owner could be. The owners collaborate in excellent harmony, very efficiently, and are very complementary. They have a good vision on the roadmap to differentiate with innovative products and services derived from the actual solution, differentiate and grab new market opportunities due to emerging standards and market shifts in the field of IAM.