Kartesia is pleased to announce the completion of the acquisition of Richardson, a global sales training leader headquartered in Philadelphia, PA which will merge with its existing portfolio company, Sales Performance International (SPI). The merger was supported by a bespoke financing solution provided by Kartesia’s KCO IV & V funds.

Founded in 1988, SPI is the proprietary owner of the Solution Selling® sales process and methodology, which teaches sales professionals not only what to do, but how to apply new behaviors that align with the buyer journey, augmenting learning and digital reinforcement.

Richardson was founded in 1978 in Philadelphia and is globally renowned for its excellence in driving superior sales skills improvement through its best-in-class blended learning approach. The combined expertise at SPI and Richardson will result in a market-leading sales training business with over 70 years’ experience.

Laurent Bouvier, Managing Partner at Kartesia, commented: “The synergy between these two industry leaders is highly compelling and will allow them to provide an unrivaled suite of capabilities and global coverage.  The combination of SPI and Richardson creates a comprehensive portfolio of classroom and digital learning, technology enablement, and industry expertise to drive improved sales performance and increased growth for global companies.”

John Elsey, CEO of Richardson, and Jurgen Heyman, CEO of SPI, said: “The sales training industry now has a strategic market leader that can provide scalable, end-to-end learning and enablement solutions that drive measurable sales results.  The combination of our two companies provides our customers with globally proven sales methodologies, cutting-edge digital learning technology, CRM-based sales execution tools, and most importantly, a way to objectively measure ROI.  We are delighted to join forces to drive long-term, sustainable results for our customers around the world.”

The deal team at Kartesia was comprised of Laurent Bouvier (Partner), Jean Diercxsens (Associate Director) and Gaëtan Valcke (Associate). Kartesia first invested in SPI in October 2017, providing a unitranche facility of €15m to finance the management buyout.

Equiteq served as exclusive financial, strategic and commercial advisor to SPI and Kartesia in this transaction.