AMSTERDAM, 28 SEPTEMBER 2021 – Capital A has acquired a stake in QS solutions, a company working with a worldwide partner network of distributors including ALSO, Ingram Micro and Tech Data to sell their proprietary software products: the Cyber Security Assessment Tool (CSAT) and PortalTalk – a Security & Governance add-on for Microsoft Teams. QS solutions also delivers implementation consultancy services for Microsoft Cloud products including Microsoft 365, Azure and Dynamics 365.
With this portfolio of products and services, QS solutions is ideally positioned to take advantage of the current trend in investment in IT Security, which has dramatically increased since the outbreak of Corona. QS solutions services her most important markets: Europe, the United States, Middle East, Africa, Australia and Asia from offices in Amersfoort, Cologne and Vietnam and is one of the certified Independent Software Vendors (ISV) in the Microsoft Partner channel. Their CSAT product is also one of the standard tools included in the Microsoft Solution Assessment program. The ambition for the next few years is to grow the company’s subscriptions base to 6 million global users.
Accelerating international ambitions
Capital A made the acquisition to accelerate QS solutions’ international growth strategy and explore the opportunities for European takeovers. Paul Dols, CEO of QS solutions, believes that the acquisition of growth capital is an important step towards realising the ambitions of QS solutions. “We have achieved significant growth over the last few years and QS solutions now has a strong market position. The next step is to accelerate that growth together with our new partner.” The current management team retains a shareholding and will continue to work towards further expansion. In a recent transaction, the same management team successfully sold DBS Business Solutions, a developer of Payroll, HR and accounting software, to Visma. Friso Janmaat, Managing Partner at Capital A, is delighted with the new partnership with QS solutions: “We believe in the market in which QS solutions operates, have faith in the management team which has proven itself in the past and we can actively support the company in Europe with our buy-and-build expertise.”
About Capital A
Capital A is one of the oldest private equity companies in the Netherlands and was originally part of ABN AMRO in the 80’s as an investment fund focussing on Small- and Medium sized businesses (SMB). Capital A has been operating independently since 2018 with the same strategy and focus adopted in 2012: investments in extremely fast-growing companies (autonomously and through acquisitions). From their offices in Amsterdam and Antwerp, Capital A manages around 700 million euro’s worth of assets and has a portfolio of more than 30 fast-growing companies predominantly active in Europe. Among the investors in Capital A are ABN AMRO, Five Arrows, Alpinvest, Bregal, LGT, entrepreneurs from previous portfolio companies and the Capital A team themselves.