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Portfolio Success Stories Optimere

Optimere

Optimere (formerly ArchiveSocial) provides cloud-based social media archiving, risk management, and analytics solutions to public sector and education customers. In June 2022, Optimere was acquired by CivicPlus.

Investment Date
2019
Status
Active
Strategy
Growth Equity
Headquarters
Durham, NC
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Quick Facts

  • ~5x

    ARR Growth (~$7M to ~$33M)

  • ~68%

    ARR CAGR

  • $475M

    Exit to CivicPlus

Background

Public sector and education organizations face growing pressure to communicate transparently with constituents across social media and other digital channels, all while meeting a complex web of federal and state requirements for record keeping, public records requests, and accessibility. Optimere provides cloud-based social media archiving, risk management, and analytics solutions that help these organizations capture, manage, and safeguard their highest-volume digital communications and stay compliant as their channels grow.

The Partnership

  1. Build Out a Senior Management Team to Support the Next Stage of Growth

    Shortly after Level’s initial investment in ArchiveSocial, we hired a senior management team with the experience to manage a rapidly growing core business. The team was built not only to scale the existing business, but to execute on an M&A strategy and integrate acquired businesses into a single platform.

  2. Create a Robust Compliance Platform Through Targeted M&A

    Building on ArchiveSocial’s leading position in social media archiving, Level drove a targeted M&A effort, acquiring NextRequest, a FOIA records management provider, in June 2021 and Monsido, a web accessibility monitoring provider and Level portfolio company, in August 2021, broadening the company’s portfolio of compliance tools.

  3. Expand the Addressable Market and Position the Business for a Premium Exit

    Level focused on initiatives supporting Optimere’s TAM expansion efforts, growing the company’s addressable market by more than 10x. With a broader platform and expanded market opportunity in place, Level initiated an exploratory sale process that positioned the business for a premium exit to CivicPlus.

The Outcome

Level initially invested in ArchiveSocial, a rapidly growing market leader in social media archiving for local governments with a robust sales and marketing engine serving that end market. Through a targeted M&A strategy, Level helped the company acquire NextRequest and Monsido, unifying them under the Optimere brand to build a comprehensive compliance platform for public sector and education customers and increasing the company’s total addressable market by more than 10x.

To manage organic growth while executing on M&A and integration, Level hired an experienced management team, including a CEO, CFO, VP of Marketing (Government), and VP of Marketing (Commercial and International). This team rebuilt the company’s reporting and financial infrastructure and secured a credit facility to provide additional non-dilutive growth capital. Level then initiated an exploratory sale process that generated numerous competitive offers, resulting in a sale to strategic acquirer CivicPlus in 2022. Level continues to hold a board presence at CivicPlus.

Milestones

  1. April 2019

    Level Equity leads $53 million majority recapitalization and growth financing of ArchiveSocial.

  2. October 2019

    Ray joined as CEO after several successful exits including Astute and NeoNova Network Services.

  3. January 2020

    Level Equity invested $16 million in a majority recapitalization and growth financing of Monsido

  4. June 2021

    ArchiveSocial acquires NextRequest, deepening its capabilities in records request workflows.

  5. August 2021

    Optimere, the merger of ArchiveSocial and Monsido, creates the market leading provider of communications compliance tools to regulated organizations.

  6. June 2022

    Optimere was acquired by Insight Partners-backed CivicPlus. Level remains a significant minority investor in the combined company.

Partner Testimonial

"Level was awesome. Even NBA stars need coaches to push them to do more. Growth is hard and operators like me can easily get stuck in the day to day. Level helped us take a step back and look at the larger value creation path. From day one, Level identified the key value creation items we could improve upon and continually challenged us to execute on those. For us at Optimere, the primary leverage point was increased total addressable market. Level advised us on market landscape work, two acquisitions, debt and equity financings, integration and the subsequent exit strategy needed to drive an outstanding outcome, all in record time."

Ray Carey Former CEO of Optimere, Current Head of NextLevel Operations

Endorsement Disclosure

Mr. Carey is the former CEO of Optimere, a former portfolio company of funds managed by Level. He is currently employed by Level as Head of NextLevel Operations and is an investor in funds managed by Level. Because he is a current investor, this statement is a testimonial. Mr. Carey is compensated by Level as an employee and received no additional compensation for this statement, and has material conflicts of interest as a result of his employment by, and investment in funds managed by, Level, and Level’s prior investment in Optimere, in which he held an equity interest.

TESTIMONIAL DISCLOSURE: The statements provided herein are made by certain founders or executives of Level’s past and/or current portfolio companies. Each of these individuals is a current investor in one or more private funds managed by Level, and their statements are deemed “testimonials” because they are made by a current private fund investor and indicate approval, support, or a recommendation of Level, or describe the individual’s experience with Level. None of these individuals has been directly compensated for making these statements; however, Mr. Carey is a current Level employee and is compensated by Level for his services. However, the portfolio companies in which these individuals hold or held a significant equity interest may have received financial investment from Level through one or more funds managed by Level. As such, these individuals may have an indirect financial interest in the success of Level’s activities or in presenting Level in a favorable light. In addition, as investors in funds managed by Level, these individuals have a direct financial interest in the performance of those funds, which creates an additional conflict of interest.

These individuals’ statements reflect past, subjective experiences and are not indicative of future performance or success. Any testimonial made by these individuals does not guarantee that future clients or portfolio companies will have similar experiences or achieve similar outcomes. Investment outcomes are subject to numerous risks and uncertainties, and there can be no assurance that any investment will achieve its objectives or that investors will not experience losses. The statements made by these individuals should not be considered specific investment advice, do not take into account any specific situation, and are not intended to make an offer or solicitation for the sale or purchase of any securities or investment strategies. Investments involve risk and are not guaranteed.

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