RALEIGH – Some Pendo employees and early-stage investors in rapidly growing software startup Pendo are selling shares to outside investor Thoma Bravo in a deal worth a total of $110 million.
Pendo announced the deal early Friday.
Those selling shares cashed in on Pendo’s ever-growing valuation as a so-called “unicorn” in excess of $1 billion. The latest investment deal valued Pendo at $2.6 billion. However, a spokesperson for Pendo notes the investment came from a “growth fund,” not private equity.
Pendo is also preparing to move into its new headquarters in a Raleigh skyscraper.
Pendo’s CEO also says Thoma Bravo brings several strengths to boost Pendo’s future as it becomes a stakeholder.
“Thoma Bravo is a world-class investor with tremendous experience and insight in our sector and we are so excited to partner with them on the next phase of our growth journey,” said Todd Olson, CEO and co-founder of Pendo, in a statement. “Through this investment, we are pleased to have given our employees and early-stage investors an attractive liquidity opportunity in recognition of their support and tremendous contributions to Pendo’s success.”
Pendo describes Thoma Bravo as “one of the largest and most experienced software investors in the world.” It is based in San Francisco.
One of Thoma Bravo’s portfolio customers – Venafi – is a Pendo customers.
“Over the last four years our partnership with Pendo has completely transformed our understanding of the way our customers use our products and services,” said Aaron Hixson, group manager of product management for Venafi, a Thoma Bravo portfolio company. “Today, Venafi uses Pendo to make data-driven decisions across every layer of our organization. Pendo has also substantially improved the way we interact with our machine identity management customers – it has been instrumental in increasing adoption and utilization in the fast-paced rollout of new functionality.”
Pendo launched in 2013 and is riding the growing way of digitialization taking place at companies around the world, a pace that has only increased in breadth and speed since the COVID-19 pandemic began in 2019.
“As digital transformation has escalated across all industries, efficient and easy-to-use software is a business imperative. Pendo is a clear and proven leader, addressing the growing market need for excellent software experiences,” said Robert (Tre) Sayle, a partner at Thoma Bravo, in the announcement. “We are excited to work with Pendo and its talented leadership team and to leverage our software and operational expertise to build on their successes and hypercharge their growth.”
