Croatian private equity fund Prosperus Growth has entered a strategic partnership with Neos, a Croatian company specializing in the most technologically advanced IT solutions, the statement said. Prosperus Growth has gained a majority stake in the company with a significant investment in Neos and confirmed its commitment to select investments in leading IT service providers and high-tech companies as one of the main directions of the fund’s development. The value of the investment is not stated.
Neos is a domestic company based in Zagreb that provides business solutions and services in the fields of Data Analytics, Rapid Application Development, System Infrastructure and Cloud Integration. He has been working with leading companies from various industries for almost 20 years with an emphasis on financial services, telecommunications, and the public sector. In 2020, Neos generated revenue of HRK 63.1 million with EBITDA of HRK 14.5 million and an EBITDA margin of more than 22 percent. This investment is the second in a series within the fund’s Prosperus Technology Group platform focused on cloud management and business analytics. Namely, Prosperus Growth private equity fund has so far invested in two high-tech IT companies, now Neos, and previously in SV Group, whose total annual revenue in 2020 would amount to HRK 106 million, with HRK 20.6 million in EBITDA. The development of the Prosperus Technology Group platform is expected to continue through organic growth and further acquisitions.
– Through a strategic partnership with Neos, we have confirmed the orientation of the Prosperus Growth fund towards successful and promising IT companies that have top knowledge, and whose owners need partners with whom they will take their business to the next level. We are convinced that Neos will achieve significant revenue growth in the coming period while maintaining the desired EBITDA margin, to the satisfaction of all our partners and investors – said Joško Miliša, President of the Management Board of Prosperus-Invest, which manages the Prosperus Growth fund. – I am convinced that Neos’ new partnership with the Prosperus Growth fund will bring a synergistic effect of the knowledge we bring from the IT perspective, and Prosperus-Invest from the perspective of the investment management company. Business development, portfolio expansion and customer base are our goals, and that is the reason why we at Prosperus Growth have recognized a strategic partner. Ensuring business continuity and personal development of our employees, as well as their education in the application of the latest concepts and technologies, are the foundations on which we base our business – said Davorin Capan, a member of the Management Board of Neos.
The Prosperus Growth private equity fund with a private offering, in which EUR 50.9 million was raised from investors, is a novelty on the Croatian financial market, and through the CROGIP program it was supported by the European Investment Fund (EIF) and the Croatian Bank for Reconstruction and Development (HBOR) 49.99 percent of the total capital of the private equity fund.
The fund headquarters and the company that manages it is in the Republic of Croatia, and half of the capital was collected from institutional investors on the domestic market. The fund is obliged to invest at least 75 percent of the capital in companies from Croatia, and the rest can be invested in companies from the region. The strategy of the Prosperus Growth fund is to invest in medium and small enterprises and companies that have the status of medium-sized companies with consolidation potential in the region, and the planned value range of each investment is between 5 and 10 million euros. The fund is targeted at companies that are expected to grow, especially those that have unique or differentiated products and services suitable for maintaining a competitive advantage and gaining significant market shares. ProsperusGrowth is a third fund managed by Prosperus Invest, a fund management company.
Prosperus Invest is a member of Croatian Private Equity and Venture Capital Association (CVCA).