The investment, exceeding EUR 30 million, will be structured in capital increase and secondary purchase of shares
We are excited to share that Integral Venture Partners (Integral), a capital investment firm, announced this week that a consortium led by it has entered into a definitive agreement with Sirma Group Holding to acquire Sirma AI, traded as Ontotext. Ontotext is a leading global vendor of enterprise semantic technology, operating in the graph database space and the Artificial Intelligence market. The consortium includes venture capital and private equity investment firm OTP Bank, PortfoLion Capital Partners, and the London-based technology investment platform Carpathian Partners LLP.
The investment will be used in a capital increase and secondary repurchase of shares; as a result, Integral will become a majority shareholder in Ontotext with 76% of the shares.
Ontotext will expand in the US, strengthen its leadership in the enterprise knowledge graph space and develop industry-specific offerings.
This investment will help Ontotext accelerate its international expansion and go-to-market operations, focusing on the US market. The company also plans to speed up the development of its products by strengthening its R&D offices in Bulgaria.
This will make it easier for us to enhance our market presence and leadership role. So far, only the excellent technology we have developed for 20 years, has allowed us to maintain our advantage over competitors with much larger engineering teams. Without a significant increase in the R&D team and intensive market expansion, we are starting to lose speed, “said Atanas Kiryakov, CEO of Ontotext.
The company will invest in further product development of end-to-end solutions for specific industries such as Life Sciences and Financial Services. They include a range of complete solutions for healthcare, biotechnology, and financial services. Ontotext has already developed a solution that helps pharmaceutical companies find new drug candidates faster.
Another strategic goal is to strengthen further Ontotext’s position as a global leader in knowledge graph technology. The company intends to focus on developing the vertical product portfolio without abandoning the horizontal product niche. “The most significant change is that we will invest more actively in solutions for end customers. At the moment, almost our entire portfolio consists of components and tools that need to be further integrated and adjusted to get a complete business solution. This slows down sales and vending because building such a solution for each client requires planning, specification, and a qualified team, ” added Kiryakov.
It wasn’t announced any changes in management. However, expanding into the US market will require a new local team. The transaction is expected to be finalized by August 2022; it is not subject to any regulatory approvals. The terms of the investment were not disclosed.
More information here
