Cipio sells Swedish software firm to Nordic Capital

The firm has held Cint for about three years and its sale marks the 19th exit from its latest secondaries fund.

Cipio Partners, a direct secondaries firm, has exited its investment in Swedish market research software company Cint AB, marking the firm’s 19th exit from its latest fund.

Munich-based Cipio, which specialises in direct investments in private high-quality growth businesses, sold its investment to Nordic Capital. The stake had been held through its Cipio Partners Fund VI since 2013, according to Roland Dennert, a managing partner at Cipio.

The Cint exit is a good illustration of how Cipio Partners has capitalised on the current strength of the technology asset class,” Dennert said in a statement.

Speaking to Secondaries Investor, Dennert said the current exit environment was very positive.

“We have a mature portfolio in our current fund which by and large is exitable,” he said. “The maturity of the portfolio and the positive market means we might have another two or three exits this year.”

Cipio held 15 to 25 percent of Cint, with two other investors, Prime Ventures and Creandum, holding similar-sized investments, and the exit marks a total sale to Nordic for all investors, Dennert said.

Cipio Partners Fund VI is a €137 million vehicle that closed in January 2011 after launching in 2008, according to PEI’s Research and Analytics division. The sale of Cint leaves about 19 investments left in fund VI, which is performing strongly, Dennert said.

Cint provides access to market research through its platform, OpinionHUB, reaching 19 million people in over 65 countries, according to its website.

Cipio’s last exit was the April 2015 sale of French network optimisation firm Ipanema Technologies to Infrovista, a French technology company backed by US mid-market private equity firm Thoma Bravo.

Stockholm-based Nordic acquired the stakes from Cipio, Prime Ventures, Creandum, Cint’s founder and a group of individual investors and employees, through its Nordic Capital Fund VIII, according to a statement from Nordic. The fund is a 2012-vintage €3.5 billion vehicle, according to PEI data.

Cipio was founded in 2003 and acquires portfolios of direct private equity investments across late stage, venture capital, growth capital and mid-market funds. The firm has €300 million in assets under management, according to PEI data.