Cascadia Capital, one of the nation's most active independent middle-market investment banks, is pleased to announce that Ron Rivera has joined the firm as a Managing Director in the Software/Technology group. Mr. Rivera is based in Atlanta and will focus on providing M&A and corporate finance advisory to Cascadia’s clients across the broader Software/Technology industry landscape, including Enterprise Software, Mobility/Automotive Technology & Services and Tech-enabled Services.
With over 30 years of investment banking experience, Mr. Rivera has advised public and private clients, and investors on successful transactions totaling over $15 billion in value. He has closed landmark Software/Technology and Mobility transactions with notable clients and counterparties including Accenture, Belkin, The Michelin Group, Nuance Communications, Oracle, Salesforce.com, Zones, Goldman Sachs, Bregal Sagemount, The Gores Group, Marlin Equity, and many other market-leading companies and private equity firms.
“We are thrilled to add Ron to the Cascadia team,” said Michael Butler, Cascadia Chairman & CEO. “He is a respected veteran technology banker and brings with him deep relationships and extensive industry knowledge that augments the expertise of our Software/Technology team and extends our leading position in those segments. Adding a Managing Director of Ron’s caliber enhances the exceptional service and capability we deliver to our clients.”
Prior to joining Cascadia, Mr. Rivera was a Partner with Drake Star Partners and previously served as Managing Director, Head of U.S. Technology, Media & Telecom Investment banking at Deloitte Corporate Finance LLC. Previously, Mr. Rivera has served in senior advisory roles with nationally and internationally recognized investment banks and has built successful investment banking practices in key technology markets such as San Francisco/Silicon Valley, New York, Boston, and the Southeast.
“Cascadia is a premier investment bank with an exceptional track record, team, and reputation,” said Mr. Rivera. “The firm is terrifically positioned with its expanded national presence, broadened capabilities, and clear market momentum. I am honored to join Michael and his outstanding team of professionals and excited to help add to our leading franchises in Software/Technology and Mobility.”
Cascadia Capital, one of the nation's most active independent middle-market investment banks, is pleased to announce that Ron Rivera has joined the firm as a Managing Director in the Software/Technology group. Mr. Rivera is based in Atlanta and will focus on providing M&A and corporate finance advisory to Cascadia’s clients across the broader Software/Technology industry landscape, including Enterprise Software, Mobility/Automotive Technology & Services and Tech-enabled Services.
With over 30 years of investment banking experience, Mr. Rivera has advised public and private clients, and investors on successful transactions totaling over $15 billion in value. He has closed landmark Software/Technology and Mobility transactions with notable clients and counterparties including Accenture, Belkin, The Michelin Group, Nuance Communications, Oracle, Salesforce.com, Zones, Goldman Sachs, Bregal Sagemount, The Gores Group, Marlin Equity, and many other market-leading companies and private equity firms.
“We are thrilled to add Ron to the Cascadia team,” said Michael Butler, Cascadia Chairman & CEO. “He is a respected veteran technology banker and brings with him deep relationships and extensive industry knowledge that augments the expertise of our Software/Technology team and extends our leading position in those segments. Adding a Managing Director of Ron’s caliber enhances the exceptional service and capability we deliver to our clients.”
Prior to joining Cascadia, Mr. Rivera was a Partner with Drake Star Partners and previously served as Managing Director, Head of U.S. Technology, Media & Telecom Investment banking at Deloitte Corporate Finance LLC. Previously, Mr. Rivera has served in senior advisory roles with nationally and internationally recognized investment banks and has built successful investment banking practices in key technology markets such as San Francisco/Silicon Valley, New York, Boston, and the Southeast.
“Cascadia is a premier investment bank with an exceptional track record, team, and reputation,” said Mr. Rivera. “The firm is terrifically positioned with its expanded national presence, broadened capabilities, and clear market momentum. I am honored to join Michael and his outstanding team of professionals and excited to help add to our leading franchises in Software/Technology and Mobility.”
Ron Rivera is Managing Director in Cascadia Capital’s Technology/Software group and is based in Atlanta. Prior to joining Cascadia, Ron was a Partner with Drake Star Partners and previously served as Managing Director, Head of U.S. Technology, Media & Telecom Investment banking at Deloitte Corporate Finance LLC. Previously, Ron served in senior investment banking roles with nationally and internationally recognized investment banks.
Ron’s transaction experience includes over 30 years of investment banking and M&A advisory services to public and private clients, and investors within various sectors of the broad technology and software industries. Ron’s primary sector coverage focus includes enterprise software and related technology segments (“Software”) and Mobility/Automotive Technology & Services (“Mobility”). In addition, Ron has significant coverage experience in the areas of tech-enabled business services, internet/digital media, electronics, financial technology (including payments) and health care information technology & services (HCIT).
Over his career, Ron has led landmark Software and Mobility transactions with clients and counterparties including Accenture, Belkin, BlackBerry, Bose, Daimler, The Michelin Group, Nuance Communications, Oracle, Panasonic, Salesforce.com, Zones, Goldman Sachs, Bregal Sagemount, The Gores Group, Marlin Equity, and many other market-leading companies and private equity firms.
Ron holds a BA, Economics from Colorado State University, where he was also a member of its varsity baseball team.
Cascadia Capital, an investment bank serving middle market clients globally, today announced it acted as the exclusive financial advisor to Stromasys, an industry leader in enterprise-class emulation solutions for legacy systems, in its acquisition by Partner One, one of the fastest growing enterprise software conglomerates.
Founded in 1998, Stromasys has revolutionized the field of legacy system modernization, allowing businesses to run their critical applications on modern, secure hardware platforms and on the Cloud, without sacrificing performance or functionality. The company's flagship product, Charon, is widely recognized as the industry standard for emulation, with support for a wide range of legacy systems.
Partner One's acquisition marks a major milestone for Stromasys. The financial strength, resources, and expertise of Partner One will enable Stromasys to expand its reach, accelerate its growth, and continue to innovate and deliver world-class emulation solutions to its customers.
"We are excited to welcome Stromasys to the Partner One family," said Nick Riuma, Principal at Partner One. "Stromasys is a world-class company with a strong track record of innovation and customer service. We are confident that our investment will enable Stromasys to continue to grow and deliver best-in-class solutions to its customers."
"We are thrilled to join forces with Partner One," said John Prot, CEO of Stromasys. "Partner One's investment is a strong vote of confidence in our team, our products, and our vision. Partner One's support will provide a tremendous growth opportunity for Stromasys and allow us to expand our reach and continue to deliver exceptional value to our customers."
“We were pleased to assist Stromasys on this transaction as it prepares for its next stage of growth with Partner One. The company is the pioneer in legacy hardware virtualization and remains the dominant platform in the market, helping large enterprises extend the lifecycle of mission critical legacy applications, whether on-prem or in the cloud,” added Matt Riendeau, Managing Director at Cascadia Capital.
Stromasys will continue to operate as an independent company within Partner One's successful portfolio of enterprise software companies. Stromasys customers can expect the same exceptional value and experience that they have come to expect over the years.
For more information about this transaction, please contact the Cascadia Capital deal team members listed below.
The Software group has a long-standing history of working with leading software companies across the globe. They have extensive M&A and Financing transaction experience within the Technology and Media sectors, as well as prior operational and corporate development expertise.
We leverage our deep domain and sub-vertical industry expertise, to uniquely position our clients’ people, business models and technology, to optimize value and outcomes with the most appropriate strategic acquirers and private equity investors. Notable counterparties with our clients include Oracle, Nuance, Symantec, Microsoft, Google, Thomson Reuters, Rakuten, Tibco, Nice Systems, TA Associates, Technology Crossover Ventures (TCV), Great Hill Partners, JMI Equity, Providence Equity and Primus Capital.
Michael Orbach is an Executive Director and Senior Advisor, advising Cascadia’s bankers and their clients in the firm’s Technology and Robotics, Automation & Artificial Intelligence practices. With over 30 years of operational and transactional experience, Michael has closed more than 120 public, private and cross-border mergers and acquisitions and financings, in enterprise software, digital media, IT security, cloud computing, infrastructure software, industrial automation and technology-enabled services.
Michael led Cascadia’s Technology group as a Managing Director from April 2008 until March 2019. Before that, Michael was at Pagemill Partners, where he served as Managing Director, and prior to that, he was a founding member of ABB New Ventures Ltd, the corporate finance and venture capital group of ABB Ltd, where he was Managing Director of the ABB Industrial IT Venture Fund.
During his career as a software entrepreneur, Michael co-founded and managed Simulation Sciences from inception through its IPO; and then sold the business to Invensys plc (LSE: ISYS). He also led technology M&A for Aspen Technology (NASDAQ:AZPN) and co-founded Skyva International, which was later sold to ABB Ltd. (VIRTX: ABBN).
Michael holds a bachelor’s degree with honors in Chemical Engineering from the University of Witwatersrand in South Africa and an M.B.A from the University of Washington.
Michael is an avid golfer, skier and runner, as well as a lifelong supporter of Manchester United Football Club.
Jim started his 25+ year investment banking career at Montgomery Securities/Bank of America and founded and ran Converge Capital, a boutique M&A advisor firm, for 9 years. Jim was also a Partner at AGC Partners and Updata Capital. Prior to investment banking, Jim was Vice President of Corporate Development at Affiliated Computer Services (later sold to Xerox), a leading Dallas based fintech/payment processing, IT services and information storage company. Before ACS, Jim was an M&A attorney at Kirkland & Ellis, as well as WilmerHale. Prior to law school, Jim was an Associate at Citicorp Leveraged Capital in Dallas focused on private equity transactions.
Matt Riendeau is a Managing Director with Cascadia Capital, serving the firm’s technology clients. Since 2009, Matt has been providing merger, acquisition, capital raising and other advisory services to exceptional application software, infrastructure software and technology-enabled services companies. Matt has extensive domain expertise across the technology sector, particularly in DevOps; Security; Storage Management; and Sales, Marketing & Support. He leverages his expertise to uniquely position his clients to their most suitable investors or strategic acquirers and provides objective advice to help them realize their ambition of growing and maximizing the value of the companies they have spent years building.
Prior to joining Cascadia, Matt was with D.A. Davidson & Co. He graduated cum laude with a Bachelor of Arts in Business Administration, Finance from Seattle University.
Teague Collins is a Managing Director at Cascadia Capital in the firm’s Technology practice. He has over 15 years of investment banking and capital markets experience, executing a variety of M&A and financing transactions for public and private companies across the equity and debt spectrum.
Teague joined Cascadia from Goldman Sachs, where he was a part of the Investment Banking Financing Group. Teague was responsible for originating and executing alternative debt and equity transactions for healthcare, consumer, and technology clients. Prior to Goldman Sachs, Teague was with Morgan Stanley in the Global Investment Banking and Capital Markets group, where he executed debt and equity financings, as well as M&A transactions for life sciences and technology clients.
Prior to his investment banking career, Teague served as a Surface Warfare Officer in the United States Navy and completed two Middle East deployments. Teague has a B.S. from the United States Naval Academy.
Hugh Campbell is a Managing Director and co-head of Cascadia’s Business Services practice.
Before joining Cascadia in 2008, Hugh worked for IB Partners, a South American boutique M&A firm, where he executed mid-market M&A transactions throughout Latin America. Prior to business school, Hugh worked for a micro credit fund in Central America and previously spent three years at Wachovia Bank.
Hugh holds a B.A. in Economics from the University of California, Santa Barbara, and an M.B.A. with Honors from the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania.
Cascadia Capital, an investment bank serving middle market clients globally, today announced it acted as the exclusive financial advisor to Pixlee TurnTo, a US-based industry-leading provider of user-generated content (UGC), ratings and reviews, and influencer marketing solutions, in its acquisition by Emplifi, a leading unified customer experience platform and a portfolio company of Audax Group.
Pixlee TurnTo’s leading-edge, customer-powered solutions give brands the tools they need to leverage authentic customer stories to help drive sales and build community – cost-effectively and at scale. Emplifi will incorporate Pixlee TurnTo’s capabilities across its social marketing, social commerce and customer care workflows as part of its unified CX Cloud platform.
Today more than ever, purchasing decisions are influenced more by social proof and community content than traditional media. Authentic customer stories told through UGC, ratings & reviews, and social media influencers impact customer decisions with 70% considering UGC or reviews before making a purchase. At the same time marketing and ecommerce departments are stretched with budget and resources. Leveraging UGC presents a cost-effective, efficient source of content, while also amplifying the voices of a brand’s most powerful advocates, its customers. Brands turn to Pixlee TurnTo’s solutions to easily identify the right UGC content, surface highlights from positive reviews, and identify influencers to inspire and educate their digital audiences while delivering deeper engagement, higher conversion rates, and increased loyalty.
“Today marks an important milestone for Pixlee TurnTo, as we become part of the Emplifi family,” said Kyle Wong, Chairman and Co-Founder, Pixlee TurnTo. “Our vision has always been to enable community-driven brands to create outstanding experiences for their customers, and we are proud to have joined forces with a company who will enable us to take that vision even further.”
“Cascadia’s deep industry expertise helped us achieve a great outcome by effectively telling our story to the market. We are excited about the opportunities ahead as we accelerate growth and continue to serve brands by leveraging authentic customer stories,” added George Eberstadt, CEO and Co-Founder, Pixlee TurnTo.
“As two respective industry leaders in social & customer community content, Pixlee and TurnTo proved to be agile and nimble through their successful merger in 2021, recognizing a trend in industry consolidation. Now in 2022 after successfully integrating, they have decided to join forces with Emplifi to help take their product to the next level,” said Teague Collins, Managing Director, Cascadia Capital.
Pixlee TurnTo, which is headquartered in San Francisco, has over 90 employees and more than 1,000 customers including GNC, Alo Yoga, Tumi, Carnival Cruise Lines and Kimpton Hotels & Restaurants.
This acquisition represents another successful transaction for Cascadia in the sales & marketing sector. Past transactions include Ballast Point Venture’s investment in Keen Decision Systems and the sale of Influenster to Bazaarvoice.
For more information about this transaction, please contact:
Cascadia Capital, one of the nation's most active independent middle-market investment banks, is pleased to announce that Ron Rivera has joined the firm as a Managing Director in the Software/Technology group. Mr. Rivera is based in Atlanta and will focus on providing M&A and corporate finance advisory to Cascadia’s clients across the broader Software/Technology industry landscape, including Enterprise Software, Mobility/Automotive Technology & Services and Tech-enabled Services.
With over 30 years of investment banking experience, Mr. Rivera has advised public and private clients, and investors on successful transactions totaling over $15 billion in value. He has closed landmark Software/Technology and Mobility transactions with notable clients and counterparties including Accenture, Belkin, The Michelin Group, Nuance Communications, Oracle, Salesforce.com, Zones, Goldman Sachs, Bregal Sagemount, The Gores Group, Marlin Equity, and many other market-leading companies and private equity firms.
“We are thrilled to add Ron to the Cascadia team,” said Michael Butler, Cascadia Chairman & CEO. “He is a respected veteran technology banker and brings with him deep relationships and extensive industry knowledge that augments the expertise of our Software/Technology team and extends our leading position in those segments. Adding a Managing Director of Ron’s caliber enhances the exceptional service and capability we deliver to our clients.”
Prior to joining Cascadia, Mr. Rivera was a Partner with Drake Star Partners and previously served as Managing Director, Head of U.S. Technology, Media & Telecom Investment banking at Deloitte Corporate Finance LLC. Previously, Mr. Rivera has served in senior advisory roles with nationally and internationally recognized investment banks and has built successful investment banking practices in key technology markets such as San Francisco/Silicon Valley, New York, Boston, and the Southeast.
“Cascadia is a premier investment bank with an exceptional track record, team, and reputation,” said Mr. Rivera. “The firm is terrifically positioned with its expanded national presence, broadened capabilities, and clear market momentum. I am honored to join Michael and his outstanding team of professionals and excited to help add to our leading franchises in Software/Technology and Mobility.”
