Growth Equity Firm’s first Chicago Investment is in a Fast Growing B2B Firm that Plans to Add 75 People to Chicago Operations
CHICAGO & BOSTON–(BUSINESS WIRE)–May 30, 2019–
BigTime Software, a leading provider of cloud-based software for professional services firms, today announced that it has closed a $14 million investment led by Boston-based private equity firm Wavecrest Growth Partners, with participation from MassMutual Ventures and Migration Capital.
Chicago-based BigTime Software provides more than 2,000 professional services firms with an integrated “all-in-one” solution for budgeting, tracking, managing and invoicing within project-based firms. The firm was started in 2002 and bootstrapped by University of Chicago graduate Brian Saunders, who created the firm’s first software product, quickly transforming BigTime into an industry leading SaaS company. The firm has won numerous recognitions including being included in G2 Crowd’s Top 100 Software Companies, winning the Gold Stevie Award in the Cloud ERP space and being named a top Quickbooks-integrated app by Intuit Software.
Wavecrest Growth Partners is a Boston based growth equity firm that partners with B2B technology entrepreneurs outside of Silicon Valley to accelerate growth and build sustainable operating models.
“We are excited to make the first of what we hope will be many investments in standout high-growth B2B companies in Chicago that are well run and ready to scale. BigTime has the technology platform and reputation to become the go-to solution in the professional services space,” said Vaibhav Nalwaya, Co-Founder and Managing Partner at Wavecrest. “Brian and his team have built a solid foundation with a highly capital-efficient mindset. Now — with the right senior team and a few best practices, we’re confident we can scale it up over the next several years.”
While this is the first Chicago investment for Wavecrest, its principals have been enthusiastic supporters of the Chicago tech ecosystem for many years. As an investor at his prior firm, Mr. Nalwaya built a close relationship with Godard Abel and his executive team at Chicago-based BigMachines, which was ultimately successfully acquired by Oracle. Mr. Abel is currently the CEO of Chicago-based G2.
“We made a decision in mid-2018 that the demand for our enterprise product was simply too high for us to be able to meet without significant additional investment in our sales and marketing engine. During our more than 50 discussions with investment firms, Wavecrest was a clear standout in terms of both their transparency as well as their deep knowledge around scaling companies like ours. They just got it: understood our position, and what we needed to do operationally,” said Brian Saunders, founder and CEO of BigTime Software. “Not only has the Wavecrest team helped other firms scale up, every CEO they have worked with holds them in extremely high regard.”
The new funding will be used to add depth to Big Time’s senior management team, accelerate growth in sales and marketing, and fast track additional product development hires within its Chicago team.
ABOUT BIGTIME SOFTWARE, INC.
BigTime Software, Inc. is dedicated to developing practice management tools that help growing professional services firms track, manage and invoice their time. Its award-winning industry-specific solutions are designed to speak the language of consultants of all stripes, from engineering and architecture to IT services. To see why thousands of customers rely on BigTime’s cloud-based tools to more easily manage their businesses and effectively plan for tomorrow, visit bigtime.net.
ABOUT WAVECREST GROWTH PARTNERS
Based in Boston, Wavecrest Growth Partners is a growth equity firm focused on investing in and partnering with leading B2B software and technology-enabled services companies. Wavecrest targets investments in profitable, high-growth technology companies with proven business models and brings to bear a unique combination of investing and operating expertise. Wavecrest’s co-founders have three decades of combined investing and operating experience in growth-stage B2B technology companies. For more information, visit wavecrestgrowth.com.
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Elizabeth Saunders
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