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02/2020

SMARTTRADE TECHNOLOGIES

Acquired by

HG CAPITAL

FRANCE Software / Industry-Specific Software / Financial Services / Banking EV 300M - 700M EUR

Context

Hg has acquired a majority stake in smartTrade Technologies, facilitating the exit of minority shareholders Keensight Capital and Pléiade Venture. CEO and co-founder David Vincent, along with the broader management team, reinvested alongside Hg to maintain a significant stake in the business. The strategic rationale for the transaction was to accelerate smartTrade’s global expansion—particularly in Asia—and to strengthen its R&D capabilities in automated trading. Under Keensight’s five-year tenure, the company doubled its revenues while maintaining high profitability, leading to a successful "5x money" return for the exiting fund. This investment represents Hg’s 7th deal in the capital markets technology sector, underscoring its commitment to backing high-growth, technically advanced financial software platforms.

SMARTTRADE TECHNOLOGIES, which reported an EBITDA margin of LOGIN in 2019, is valued in this transaction at an EV/EBITDA multiple of LOGIN, a level around LOGIN higher than the average currently observed in the TMT (Tech, Media, Telecom) sector (13.4x).

Note that this data is based on contribution from our growing community, composed of M&A and Private Equity professionals, and has been verified by our team to ensure its accuracy.

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Target

Founded in 1999, SmartTrade Technologies is a leading global provider of multi-asset electronic trading and payments platforms. The company’s business model is built on an end-to-end SaaS and hosted software delivery, enabling financial institutions to develop and run high-performance trading platforms for FX, equities, cryptocurrencies, and derivatives. Its value proposition centers on technological agility and secure, cost-efficient liquidity management through its flagship modular solutions (LiquidityFX and smartFI). Strategically, smartTrade caters to a prestigious global client base, including Tier-1 banks and asset managers, with operations spanning major financial hubs in London, New York, Tokyo, and Singapore. By prioritizing R&D and localized support, the firm has established itself as a best-in-class vendor in the highly regulated and complex capital markets technology sector.

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Multiples Analysis

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Historical Financials (EUR)

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Other operations with SMARTTRADE TECHNOLOGIES

DateAcquirerTargetCountrySectorDeal Context
KACE FINANCIALUNITED KINGDOMSoftware

smartTrade Technologies has acquired kACE Financial to create a unified, multi-asset trading and payments platform. This transformational acquisition combines smartTrade’s low-latency SaaS infrastructure with kACE’s specialized expertise in FX derivatives and complex pricing analytics. The strategic rationale is to address the market's increasing demand for a single, integrated workflow that handles everything from simple spot trading to sophisticated structured products. Following the recent investment from TA Associates, this deal represents a major step in smartTrade's innovation roadmap, specifically accelerating its transition to a fully cloud-native, AI-driven offering. The merger allows the combined group to leverage a global infrastructure and an expanded technical team to deliver lower total cost of ownership (TCO) for its international banking and brokerage clients.

SMARTTRADE TECHNOLOGIESFRANCESoftware

TA Associates has entered into an agreement to make a strategic investment in smartTrade Technologies, facilitating the full exit of the previous majority investor, Hg. CEO / Co-Founder along with the broader management team, will reinvest significantly alongside TA to drive the next phase of growth. The strategic rationale for the deal centers on accelerating AI-driven product innovation, expanding smartTrade's global reach, and enhancing deployment flexibility in hosting and execution. Under Hg's five-year ownership (2020–2025), the company doubled its revenue, completed its first major North American acquisition, and established a scalable SaaS infrastructure. This transaction marks a key transition for smartTrade, aiming to solidify its leadership in the rapidly evolving digital payments and capital markets technology landscape.

REFERENCES

Valuation range: EV 300M - 700M EUR

Revenue range: 25M - 50M EUR

EBITDA range: 5M - 25M EUR

Note: Detailed and exact financial metrics (Enterprise Value, Revenue, EBITDA, and precise Multiples) are reserved for Mynth community members. Register for free to unlock full data.

Authors: mynth contributor (mynth data is contributed by M&A / PE professionals and systematically cross-verified with private deal documents and official press releases).

Acquirer: hg capital