TA Associates Makes a $100 Million Strategic Investment in Appfire to Partner With Silversmith Capital Partners to Accelerate Company’s Growth

Leader in Atlassian Ecosystem Secures Growth Stage Financing to Support Continued Expansion and Accelerate the Broad Adoption of its Digital Transformation Apps

BOSTON--()--Appfire, a leading provider of apps that help teams solve modern challenges with digital solutions, today announced that it has received a $100 million investment from TA Associates, a leading global growth private equity firm. With this investment, Appfire intends to continue its leadership within the Atlassian ecosystem with more than 85 purpose-built products on the Atlassian Marketplace and over 110,000 active installations worldwide.

TA’s investment in Appfire comes on the heels of a $49 million strategic investment from Silversmith Capital Partners in May 2020. Since Silversmith’s investment, Appfire has made six acquisitions within the Atlassian ecosystem—Artemis, Beecom, Bolo, Botron, Innovalog and Navarambh—significantly expanding the company’s footprint.

“TA's commitment to growth and innovation aligns with our passion for helping teams everywhere drive efficiency and productivity,” said Randall Ward, CEO of Appfire. “We believe this investment is a testament to Appfire’s outstanding team and a clear validation of our vision, strategy and execution. We are excited to continue our partnership with Silversmith and welcome TA as a strategic growth partner.”

Founded in 2005 as a professional services company, Appfire was one of the first Atlassian partners and transitioned to a product company in 2013. The Appfire team has developed domain expertise in creating, launching and distributing apps through the Atlassian Marketplace. The company’s growing portfolio of apps empowers teams worldwide with workflow automation, business intelligence, publishing and administrative tools, at companies, including Google, Amazon and Starbucks.

“We are thrilled to complete this strategic investment in Appfire and to support Randall and his team in the next stage of the company’s evolution,” said Michael Libert, a principal at TA Associates, and Hythem El-Nazer, a managing director at TA Associates. “We look forward to working closely with the Appfire and Silversmith teams in driving organic growth, leveraging the company’s robust M&A platform and supporting Atlassian’s goal of having best-of-breed products.”

“Since our investment a year ago, Appfire’s exceptional team, unique culture and strong products have helped leading companies around the world navigate an accelerated need for digital-first, cloud-native solutions. Customers leverage Appfire’s workflow automation, data integration, administration and reporting apps to do their best work,” said Sri Rao, general partner, Silversmith Capital Partners. “We are thrilled to partner with Hythem, Michael and the TA team as Appfire enters an exciting next phase of evolution.”

As part of the investment, Michael Libert and Hythem El-Nazer of TA have joined Appfire’s Board of Directors.

“Appfire is a great example of the incredible innovation occurring in the Atlassian marketplace and how our ecosystem can provide customers with the tools and technologies they need to unleash the potential of every team,” said Martin Musierowicz, head of channel, Atlassian. “Appfire continues to deliver great capabilities for our customers, and we’re excited to support their continued growth.”

Kirkland & Ellis LLP served as legal counsel to Appfire and TA Associates. Baird served as the exclusive financial advisor to Appfire.

About Appfire

Appfire is an award-winning Atlassian Platinum Marketplace Partner and has been a global authority in the Atlassian ecosystem for more than 15 years. Appfire’s popular Artemis, Beecom, Bob Swift, Bolo, Botron, Feed Three, Innovalog and Wittified product brands comprise the largest portfolio of apps on the Atlassian Marketplace with 85+ purpose-built products and over 110,000 active installations worldwide. Learn more at www.appfire.com.

About TA Associates

TA is a leading global growth private equity firm. Focused on targeted sectors within five industries – technology, healthcare, financial services, consumer and business services – the firm invests in profitable, growing companies with opportunities for sustained growth, and has invested in more than 500 companies around the world. Investing as either a majority or minority investor, TA employs a long-term approach, utilizing its strategic resources to help management teams build lasting value in high quality growth companies. TA has raised $33.5 billion in capital since its founding in 1968 and is committing to new investments at the pace of over $3 billion per year. The firm’s more than 100 investment professionals are based in Boston, Menlo Park, London, Mumbai and Hong Kong. More information about TA can be found at www.ta.com.

About Silversmith Capital Partners

Founded in 2015, Silversmith Capital Partners is a Boston-based growth equity firm with $2.0 billion of capital under management. Silversmith’s mission is to partner with and support the best entrepreneurs in growing, profitable technology and healthcare companies. Representative investments include ActiveCampaign, Appfire, Centauri Health Solutions, DistroKid, Impact, LifeStance Health, MediQuant, Panalgo, Unily, Validity, and Webflow. The partners have over 75 years of collective investing experience and have served on the boards of numerous successful growth companies including ABILITY Network, Archer Technologies, Dealer.com, Liazon, Liberty Dialysis, MedHOK, Passport Health, SurveyMonkey, and Wrike. For more information about Silversmith, please visit www.silversmith.com

Contacts

For TA Associates:
Marcia O’Carroll
TA Associates
617-574-6796
mocarroll@ta.com

Phil Nunes
BackBay Communications
617-391-0792
phil.nunes@backbaycommunications.com

For Appfire:
Kim Pegnato
Appfire
(781) 835-7118
MediaRelations@appfire.com

Contacts

For TA Associates:
Marcia O’Carroll
TA Associates
617-574-6796
mocarroll@ta.com

Phil Nunes
BackBay Communications
617-391-0792
phil.nunes@backbaycommunications.com

For Appfire:
Kim Pegnato
Appfire
(781) 835-7118
MediaRelations@appfire.com