• Seeks targets with USD 5m-USD 60m ARR
• Looking to add market share in France and Japan

Kiteworks, a private equity-backed provider of a private content network for enterprises and governments, remains acquisitive following an August minority investment, SVP of Corporate and Business Development, Amit Toren, told Mergermarket.

“We plan to do anywhere between one to four acquisitions a year,” he said of the company’s current growth strategy.

San Mateo, California-based Kiteworks, whose private content network offers secure and compliant content and communications, has a “very healthy” pipeline of potential targets and is involved in several conversations, Toren said. “I’m bullish,” he said, adding a few deals could potentially close in 1H25.

The executive said that earlier this year, CEO Jonathan Yaron told The Wall Street Journal that annual recurring revenue (ARR) was USD 130m. Kiteworks has since surpassed that, Toren said, declining to disclose specifics.

Kiteworks announced on 14 August a USD 456m minority stake and growth equity investment from global software investors Insight Partners and Sixth Street Growth. The majority investor is “us, the employees, management and former employees,” Toren said.

Its sweet spot for targets is those with ARR in the range of USD 5m to USD 60m. Kiteworks doesn’t sell services, only subscriptions, and wants the same in targets, Toren said.

The company has made five acquisitions since 2020, and all five have been Europe-based. The company slightly prefers those to North America-based targets, he said. Kiteworks took market share in Germany in 2023 through two acquisitions and would like to do the same in other places such as France and Japan, Toren said. Toren joined the company in 2020 specifically to handle M&A activity.

“In Europe, we found really good technology, really great teams, and also very good customer bases,” Toren said. In North America, valuations are usually higher, and sellers expect “a little bit more,” he said.

On 5 September, Kiteworks acquired 123FormBuilder, a Romania-based provider of advanced data collection through secure web forms and form-driven private content workflows. That integration will wrap up in early 2025, and it provided the company’s platform a “modern, sophisticated, secure solution for web forms,” Toren said.

Kiteworks reports it has more than 100 million end users for thousands of global enterprises and government agencies. Its private content network delivers security, data privacy and compliance with full audit trails, mitigating supply chain risk, Toren explained. It protects all content and communications and “anyway an organization communicates with the outside world,” he said.

Taylor Wessing, Weksler Bregman & Co., and Fischer FBC & Co. were Kiteworks’ legal advisors in its two November 2023 acquisitions in Germany of Dracoon and ownCloud, two file sharing solutions specialists, Toren said.

Moelis acted as exclusive financial advisor to Kiteworks on its minority investment, and its legal advisor was Pillsbury Winthrop Shaw Pittman.

Paul Hastings acted as legal counsel to Sixth Street Growth on the investment. Willkie Farr & Gallagher acted as legal counsel to Insight Partners.