Even Better Together

Challenge

With a $771 million Next Generation Technology fund, KKR was looking to make a sizeable and suitable investment and identified Ivalua as a sector leader seeking to grow in the U.S. and other key markets. Founded in France in 2000 and now headquartered in Silicon Valley, Ivalua is a global provider of spend management solutions offering a single platform with functionality for all procurement and finance processes.

Approach

KKR has made three investments in French technology companies in the last several years. Given the multinational nature of the parties and the related complexities of the transaction and reflecting prior KKR work with Goodwin and Goodwin’s prominence in France, Silicon Valley and technology generally, KKR tapped Goodwin to provide legal counsel in this important project. Goodwin assembled a cross-disciplinary, cross-geography team from the firm’s Paris, Boston, Silicon Valley, San Francisco and Washington, D.C. offices, and advised on everything from corporate matters to intellectual property concerns, executive compensation and real estate issues, providing market- and tech-savvy legal advice at appropriate scale.

Outcome

The resulting investment will allow Ivalua to pursue its goal of becoming the global leader in spend management software. “KKR is very well-positioned to help Ivalua fulfill its global ambitions given our track-record of scaling European technology companies with the help of our global platform and KKR’s portfolio of more than 120 companies, many of which could benefit from Ivalua’s product,” said Lucian Schoenefelder, director at KKR.