Cavendish is delighted to have advised on the sale of sales-i, a leading provider of revenue intelligence software to Accel-KKR backed SugarCRM, an award-winning provider of an intelligence-driven sales automation platform.

The transaction, in which Cavendish acted as M&A advisor to sales-i, highlights the firm’s growing reputation and expertise within the B2B SaaS space.

The acquisition by San Francisco based SugarCRM comes nearly a year after it announced its initial partnership with sales-i, which was quickly lauded by customers as a game-changer in regard to increasing sales efficiency

The deal marks a significant development for both organisations and establishes a market-leading service offering that can improve B2B sales performance by delivering AI-powered revenue intelligence that leverages the data of a business’s enterprise resource planning (ERP) system and CRM. The combination provides businesses with actionable insights that improve sales, marketing, service and support, resulting in greater revenue and higher levels of retention.

Going forwards, the acquisition will enable sales-i to globalise its operations and benefit from more advanced sales, marketing, and service automation, leading to more efficient sales growth. For SugarCRM, its customers will be able to unlock large volumes of rich sales data stored in their ERP systems by utilising the revenue intelligence capabilities of the sales-i solution. Both customer bases will also benefit from the combined and continued investment by SugarCRM and sales-i in AI, machine learning and generative AI technologies.

The deal marks Cavendish’s fifth software transaction of 2024, as well as its fifth technology transaction in the same period involving a US-based strategic acquirer.

Anthony Platt, Partner and Head of Technology at Cavendish, said: “”Working with sales-i on its acquisition by Accel-KKR-backed SugarCRM has been an exciting opportunity for the Cavendish team. AI and machine learning present a significant opportunity to unlock data within sales led organisations. This acquisition proves how combining forces can effectively future-proof and drive innovation now and in the years to come. I look forward to seeing how this journey continues to evolve.”.”

Robbie Wirdnam, Associate Director at Cavendish, said: “It has been a pleasure working with Paul Black and the sales-i team, who over the last 15 years have developed the platform into a leading revenue intelligence and sales enablement software offering. We wish the business all the best as part of SugarCRM.”