Background
Calero (formerly MDSL) is a leading global provider of Technology Expense and Market Data Management solutions designed to provide clarity, control, compliance, and cost savings. Calero partners with corporations, universities, financial institutions, and government agencies to provide a unified expense management platform that supports Telecom Expense Management, Managed Mobility Services, the Internet of Things, and Financial Market Data Management.
As Sumeru Equity Partners sourced investment opportunities in corporate spend management in 2016, the firm was attracted to Telesoft – a predecessor company to Calero – because of its customer relationships, its large global market opportunity, and its team’s entrepreneurial spirit. Telesoft founder Thierry Zerbib selected Sumeru based on its success in scaling enterprise software companies and its partnership approach that keeps the focus on growth.
After acquiring Telesoft, Sumeru merged it with a U.K.-based business and renamed the combined entity MDSL. The merger led to the hiring of a new CEO and management team and put the company in a strong position for international expansion and the development of new products.
Value Creation
SEP partnered with the new management team to accelerate growth and optimize sales, operations, products, and operations.
One early area of focus was improving the customer onboarding process to accelerate time-to-value in new client relationships. Sales and marketing functions were also scaled to give the company a stronger global presence, resulting in increased lead generation and better sales pipeline management.
The company increased its managed services productivity by automating manual processes. Product innovations enabled the company to enter adjacent growth markets such as Cloud Expense Management. Sumeru also brought aboard industry veteran Charlotte Yates as a board member, which expanded the company’s telecom and CEO/CIO network.
Results
Over the period SEP held and worked closely with MDSL, its revenues grew at more than 40% compound annual growth rate. Automating MDSL’s invoice processing and adapting the company’s business model led to increases in gross margin and EBITDA. As the SEP team made substantial investments in the company, it brought on new employees and saw its total addressable market grow significantly.
In 2019, SEP sold a majority stake in MDSL to another private equity firm, which merged it with Calero to create Calero-MDSL now known as solely Calero.