Firm Specializes in Serving Leading Investment Management Firms Including Hedge Fund, Private Equity, Venture Capital, and Family Offices
FFL Partners (“FFL”), a private equity firm focused on growth investments in tech-enabled business services and healthcare companies, today announced that it has completed a strategic growth investment in Abacus Group (“Abacus,” or “the Company”), a leading financial services-focused IT Managed Services Provider (“MSP”) specializing in hedge fund, private equity, venture capital and family office clients. Terms of the private transaction were not disclosed.
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Founded in 2008, Abacus manages clients’ entire IT stack via a tech-enabled streamlined offering specifically designed for the unique needs of the financial services industry. The innovative and award-winning Abacus Cloud platform allows investment managers to source all technology as-a-service, offering the capacity to scale on-demand to meet current and future IT, cybersecurity, and compliance requirements. Founded in San Francisco and headquartered in New York City, Abacus has over 250 employees and serves more than 650 clients with on-site support teams in every major financial city across the U.S. and the U.K.
“We have evaluated over 25 MSPs in the last three years and Abacus is the clear leader in the industry due to the strength of its management team, leading cloud platform, and service approach purpose-built for financial services companies that cannot afford to compromise on compliance and cybersecurity,” said Jonathon Bunt, Director at FFL. “We look forward to partnering with Abacus Founder and CEO Chris Grandi and his management team as they invest further in supporting their existing clients and expand to new clients both organically and through strategic acquisitions.”
“FFL has a deep understanding of our business and our target markets and has a great reputation for partnering with founder-led businesses like Abacus to help them scale,” said Grandi. “I am confident that the resources, business acumen and energy the FFL team brings makes them the ideal partner for Abacus as we enter our next chapter of growth.”
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Abacus’ financial services IT MSP market is estimated to be over $4 billion and is projected to grow as much as 15% through 2025.
“The increasing focus on cybersecurity, transition to the cloud, need for enhanced data and analytics, and consistent difficulty of attracting and retaining IT talent only increases the importance of a world-class MSP like Abacus,” said Cas Schneller, Managing Partner at FFL. “This is even more relevant in highly regulated industries like financial services, where the specialization and deep industry knowledge Abacus brings should continue to help the company expand its private equity, venture capital, family office and wealth management client base.”
Abacus marks FFL’s third IT services investment, following ALKU, an Andover, Mass.-based leading IT & Life Sciences specialized consulting firm; and Optomi Professional Services, a specialized provider of technology consulting, team augmentation and IT outsourcing services. Furthermore, Abacus builds on FFL’s expertise in partnering with leading companies serving the alternative investment community that started with FFL’s 2018 investment in Accordion Partners, the leading financial and technology consulting firm for the private equity community.
Guggenheim Securities, LLC and Lazard served as sell-side advisors to Abacus and outgoing investment partner Westview Capital Partners. Kirkland & Ellis LLP served as legal counsel to FFL and Latham & Watkins, LLP and Lowenstein Sandler LLP served as legal counsel to Abacus and Westview on the transaction.
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