Battery Ventures announced it has acquired a majority interest in software firm Newforma, which makes project information management software to help companies complete complex architectural, engineering, and construction projects more efficiently and cost-effectively.
Newforma, based in Manchester, New Hampshire, and formed in 2003, makes a suite of software tools to help its customers better organize and manage project communications and documents; improve collaboration among team members working on projects; and archive key documents and other project-related materials for legal, compliance and regulatory reasons. Today, many AECO companies (architecture, engineering, construction, and project owners) are still battling to manage numerous data silos in their businesses, which contribute to project overruns and missed deadlines. By using an integrated software suite like Newforma’s, AECO firms can save time, reduce risk, and deliver more successful projects.
Newforma’s software is used at 192 of the Engineering News-Record’s ENR Top 500 Design Firms, which includes firms like HOK, Perkins+Will, Affiliated Engineers, Thornton Tomasetti, Skender Construction and others. Newforma’s software has been used to manage project information and documents for more than 2.5 million projects around the world.
As part of the transaction, Battery General Partner Michael Brown and Battery Vice President Sanjiv Kalevar will join Newforma’s board, joining existing board member Rich D’Amore from North Bridge Venture Partners. In addition, longtime business-software executive Brock Philp, who has spent more than 15 years leading a variety of industry-specific software companies including Doc.It, Iron Data/Versa Systems, and Jonas Software – an operating group of publicly-traded Constellation Software (CSU) – has been named chief executive officer of Newforma.
“We are excited to announce our investment in Newforma, which has built an extremely strong business focused on the AECO market, and we believe the business can scale even further in the coming years,” said Battery’s Brown. “This is a long-term partnership for Battery, and we believe our new CEO, Brock Philp, has the software industry experience to help deliver and grow the value we provide our customers.”
“Over the last couple years, we realized that Newforma was entering a new phase of growth,” said Rich D’Amore, who has served on the board since 2005. “We also realized that new, experienced leadership, along with new capital partners, would help us scale our people, processes and technology to improve our ability to deliver world-class software and service for our clients. Battery was our partner of choice because of the firm’s history in B2B software investing, its knowledge of our target markets and the team’s skill in accelerating growth and acquisitions. I look forward to working with Battery and our new leadership going forward.”
Added new CEO Philp: “I am thrilled to join Newforma and get to work immediately on investments in the product, including new and requested features for current customers, as well as investments in customer care. We are excited about helping the AECO industry move into the cloud, and helping our customers make the most of whichever Newforma products they are already using. The potential here is great and I look forward to talking to more customers directly at our Newforma World conference in September.”
To view the original press release, please click here.
