Following their initial investment in March 2023, lower mid-market private equity firm, NorthEdge, has today (March 12) announced it has supported Cezanne HR to acquire recruitment technology business, Occupop, for an undisclosed sum.
Cezanne, based in London and with an office in Glasgow, provides HR and payroll software for growing businesses across the UK and internationally, helping clients to automate and streamline every aspect of HR and payroll processes, provide better insights, improve employee engagement and reduce data administration.
The business has acquired Dublin-based recruitment technology business, Occupop, which is well regarded for its innovative and sophisticated platform, providing seamless end-to-end solutions for attracting, managing and retaining talent.
The deal, which represents Cezanne’s first strategic acquisition, forms part of the firm’s wider growth plan to provide best-in-class products for its customer base, employ high quality talent and expand into additional markets.
Occupop’s technology will be integrated into the Cezanne platform, resulting in an enhanced offering for both Cezanne and Occupop clients, and will support the firm to expand into the Irish market.
Co-founders Caroline Gleeson and David Banaghan, will join the Cezanne management team to support the continued growth of the combined business.
The acquisition follows a hugely successful 2024, which has seen Cezanne deliver strong organic growth, which included the promotion of Simon Noble to CEO.
Noble said: “Being a part of the NorthEdge community over the last two years has been fantastic.
“The support we have received has been invaluable, with the acquisition of Occupop being the latest example of NorthEdge working closely alongside us and enabling us to accelerate growth.”
He added: “The combination of Cezanne and Occupop is hugely powerful and very exciting for all of our people and our clients – particularly as customers continue to focus on platforms that provide a comprehensive and high quality suite of HR solutions.
“I’m really looking forward to working with Caroline, David and the wider team to deliver on our collective vision of building the most loved and trusted HR and payroll platform in the market.”
Dan Matkin, director at NorthEdge’s Manchester office, said: “Occupop enhances the Cezanne offering through bringing additional product, people and scale – all key components of the value creation plan.
“We’re always looking for ways to support the ambitious management teams we work with to accelerate growth. Cezanne has gone from strength to strength since joining our portfolio and we’re excited to continue supporting the team and the business to realise their potential.”
In the past couple of years the private equity firm, which has offices in Manchester and Birmingham, has continued to build on its strong technology track record, completing four platform investments and three exits in the sector, alongside supporting its technology portfolio to complete nine acquisitions.
NorthEdge has £900m of assets under management across four regionally focused funds.
The deal was funded by NorthEdge and Santander.
Occupop was advised by Charnwood (corporate finance); Philip Lee (legals) and HPCS (tax).
NorthEdge and Cezanne HR were advised by BDO (FDD and tax); DWF (legals); KPMG (tax) and ReThought Solutions (technology DD).