LONDON
— The Foundry (www.thefoundry.co.uk) has announced a new majority investment from HgCapital, a UK private equity firm that’s perceived as one of the top investors in European software and comprised of experts from technology and business sectors. The Foundry will sit within HgCapital’s Technology, Media & Telecommunications (‘TMT’) sector. Under the terms of the deal, HgCapital will assume majority ownership from The Carlyle Group for an enterprise value of £200 million ($312 million USD).
“Knowing the direction we plan to take The Foundry, we identified that HgCapital was the ideal partner to build on what The Carlyle Group have helped us achieve,” says Bill Collis, chief executive officer, The Foundry. “Nic [Humphries, managing partner of HgCapital] and his team have such deep software experience, take a long term view on investing and have an amazing track record in taking already solid companies to even greater levels of success. HgCapital achieve this through investment, both in R&D and people, with a deep respect for customer loyalty and satisfaction.”
The Foundry reports that this new majority ownership with HgCapital still allows its continued development in visual effects, design and games as well as research in emerging trends around collaborative ideation, the automation of creativity, concurrent marketing and manufacturing, as well as new behaviours in storytelling, media collaboration, creation and consumption, such as VR and AR.