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Internationalization accelerates with support from Explorer Investments
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The technology company led by Miguel Salgueiro went to the market and attracted the interest of the fund manager. The two companies signed a contract worth five million euros on Wednesday.
NextBITT, a Portuguese technology company specializing in the management of physical assets (buildings and all the equipment installed in them) has a strategy underway to internationalize the operation within five years. This strategy will now accelerate with the support of Explorer Investments, a private equity manager.
NextBITT's founder partner and chief business officer, Miguel Salgueiro, told Dinheiro Vivo that the company has attracted the interest of an Explorer fund following an investment round worth five million euros. The transaction has yet to be completed for the investment in the technology to materialize, but this Wednesday "a contract was signed between Explorer and NextBITT for five million euros", according to António Rocha e Silva, a partner at the private equity manager. What is at stake is not an acquisition of NextBITT by Explorer, but a future investment operation in the development of the technology company's business.
For Miguel Salgueiro, the agreement reached "aims to make a clear commitment to technology for sustainability".
Created in 2015, the Portuguese company NextBITT operates in the areas of asset management, facility management, field service, Internet of Things (IoT) and sustainability. The first three represent the company's focus areas, while the IoT and sustainability themes are a consequence of the potential of the management platform developed by NextBITT, which is also the result of the digitalization of physical asset management. The technology company's digital platform enables professional management of other companies' physical assets. This management has the potential to optimize processes, control costs and, ultimately, increase productivity gains and better results by reducing the carbon footprint (when managing a building, for example), following environmental criteria (aka ESG), according to Miguel Salgueiro.
Explorer's bet on NextBITT's business idea gives the technology company two certainties: it provides new conditions for internationalizing the operation and increasing human resources.
"It will allow us to internationalize the company more quickly. In the first five years, we're aiming to be present in four or five geographies in the European community," reveals NextBITT's co-founder. "Spain will clearly be one of them, but we're looking at other geographies," he adds.
"We're also going to hire 60 people over the next 12 months," he said. The Portuguese technology company currently has around 40 employees. In March, it planned to exceed 50 employees by the end of 2022.
The "main objective" is to turn the technology company into an "international benchmark, something that "this merger with the Explorer Investments fund will accelerate". Along with internationalization, the company's "growth and innovation" will also have to evolve, according to Miguel Salgueiro.
On the Explorer Investments side, António Rocha e Silva, the partner responsible for the expansion capital area, explains that the interest in NextBITT arose, on the one hand, because the focus on sustainability in the technology business "is completely in line with Explorer's principles". On the other hand, because NextBITT is "a benchmark in the sector with large clients". NextBITT's clients include companies listed on the main Portuguese stock exchange index (PSI).
"On the other hand, NextBitt's great goal of starting to develop another business related to sustainability, a topic that is in vogue and concerns all companies [also aroused interest]. We think that our current positioning will allow for very promising growth in this area of ESG," said the Explorer partner.
Rocha e Silva also adds that the company's evolution is "interesting", at a time when "all companies are concerned about implementing methodologies for sustainability". Now, "NextBITT presents an asset management solution that is very well positioned to implement this module".
So what is Explorer going to do? "Support and assist in decision-making", taking into account that this could be "an asset" for the future of the technology company, considering its "experience in internationalization and M&A [mergers and acquisitions] with other companies".
The operation between NextBITT and Explorer Investments will not take away autonomy in the management of the business from the founding partners of the technology company - Miguel Salgueiro, Pedro Morais and André Calixto - "who will retain the same functions and the majority of the capital", according to Miguel Salgueiro.
Source: Dinheiro Vivo
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