Crest Rock Partners Portfolio Company CloudNine Acquires ESI Analyst

Denver, CO – November 2, 2021 – Crest Rock Partners (“Crest Rock”) is excited to announce that CloudNine, a leading electronic discovery (“eDiscovery”) software suite for legal professionals, has acquired ESI Analyst, the leader in forensic discovery software for emerging file types. The acquisition of ESI Analyst brings new analytical capabilities to CloudNine’s platform and enhances their customers’ experience navigating the evolving, complex data environment.

ESI Analyst processes and analyzes existing and modern file types such as mobile, chat, social media, text, computer activity, financial data, and more. Taking a unique approach to metadata, ESI Analyst allows for faster review by combining location, communication, and time data to create a coherent story through data visualization. The company was founded and led by Trent Livingston, who became CloudNine’s Chief Technology Officer subsequent to the transaction.

Mr. Livingston remarked, “We are absolutely thrilled to join the CloudNine family. Modern discovery is more than documents. It’s about telling the story. ESI Analyst’s leading standard for modern data combined with CloudNine’s longstanding and robust suite of discovery tools delivers a defensible, vigorous, unified platform to investigate, review and analyze both modern and traditional data. CloudNine’s large and sophisticated customer base will benefit immediately with the support of mobile, chat, social, and other modern data.”

“CloudNine’s customers continue to voice their need for a single platform to defensibly process, analyze, review, and produce both modern and traditional data.  With the inclusion of ESI Analyst’s technology, we are very excited to now provide these important capabilities to the market”, said Georges Sabongui, CEO of CloudNine. “Law firms, legal service providers, corporate legal departments, law enforcement, and government agencies can leverage the platform in the cloud, on-premise, or as a hybrid to reduce costs, optimize cost recovery, and mitigate risk,” added Steve Vranas, CloudNine’s SVP of Sales & Strategy.

Crest Rock completed its investment in CloudNine in June 2021. Since then, the business has been investing in additional headcount across all departments in the organization and is accelerating product development initiatives to solve customer challenges across the EDRM lifecycle.

Please visit: ESI Analyst.

About Crest Rock Partners

Crest Rock is a Denver-based private equity firm focused on the lower middle market. Founded in 2019, the firm seeks investment opportunities where it can leverage its principals’ extensive operating and investing experience to help companies execute on their strategic initiatives. Through the team’s completion of over 50 acquisitions, divestitures, mergers, and integrations, Crest Rock has developed a differentiated investment process and partnership approach, working with management, founders, and other stakeholders to establish alignment and achieve mutual objectives. Crest Rock targets control investments across multiple industry verticals, including software, technology, IT services, tech-enabled business services, and manufacturing, with enterprise values ranging from $15 million to $150 million. For more information about Crest Rock, please visit www.crestrockpartners.com.

About CloudNine

Founded in 2002 and based in Houston, Texas, CloudNine is a technology company with expertise in simplifying the data discovery process for corporations, law firms and legal service professionals nationwide. Through its on and off-premise software brands, including CloudNine Explore™, LAW™, Concordance® and Review™, the company helps its customers gain insight and intelligence on data. CloudNine has been highlighted by industry experts in reports, reviews, and surveys including Gartner, 451 Research, Blue Hill Research, Corporate Counsel Magazine, the New York Law Journal, and Texas Lawyer. CloudNine also publishes the eDiscovery Daily blog, a popular, trusted source for legal industry information. For more information, visit www.cloudnine.com.

Crest Rock Partners Invests in CloudNine

Denver, CO – June 30, 2021 – Crest Rock Partners (“Crest Rock”), a Denver-based private equity firm investing in lower middle market software, technology, services and manufacturing businesses, today proudly announced a majority investment in CloudNine (“CloudNine” or the “Company”). Founded in 2002 and headquartered in Houston, Texas, CloudNine is a leading eDiscovery software suite for legal professionals nationwide.

The CloudNine platform is comprised of a suite of eDiscovery products that provide processing, review, and production capabilities to help organizations efficiently manage and perform key steps in the discovery process. The Company offers both cloud-based and on-premise software for a variety of customer needs varying on size of case, speed of case, and technology preferences. The software’s ease-of-use and CloudNine’s top-notch customer team have built a dedicated user base of legal service providers, law firms, corporations, and government entities that continues to expand over time.

“We look forward to partnering with the team at Crest Rock, who bring meaningful software and technology experience, in addition to capital, to support our strategic goals and help determine the future strategy of the business,” said Tony Caputo, CEO of CloudNine. “We are always improving our value proposition and product to serve more customers, and Crest Rock will help guide our strategic initiatives and set goals for how to get there.”

“CloudNine’s suite of software products provides great value to its customers,” commented Steve Johnson, co-founder and Partner at Crest Rock. “The Company’s reliable technology with easy-to-use features and capabilities has created many satisfied and long-standing customer relationships. The litigation environment is becoming increasingly complex with the growth and proliferation of electronic data. CloudNine is well-positioned to address its customers’ needs with its long-established expertise and differentiated software suite. We are excited to partner with CloudNine as they continue to help a growing list of legal professionals navigate their eDiscovery needs.”

Canaccord Genuity acted as the financial advisor for CloudNine and Kutak Rock LLP acted as the legal advisor to Crest Rock on the transaction.

About Crest Rock Partners

Crest Rock is a Denver-based private equity firm focused on the lower middle market. Founded in 2019, the firm seeks investment opportunities where it can leverage its principals’ extensive operating and investing experience to help companies execute on their strategic initiatives. Through the team’s completion of over 45 acquisitions, divestitures, mergers, and integrations, Crest Rock has developed a differentiated investment process and partnership approach, working with management, founders, and other stakeholders to establish alignment and achieve mutual objectives. Crest Rock targets control investments across multiple industry verticals, including software, technology, IT services, tech-enabled business services, and manufacturing, with enterprise values ranging from $15 million to $150 million. For more information about Crest Rock, please visit www.crestrockpartners.com.

About CloudNine

Founded in 2002 and based in Houston, Texas, CloudNine is a technology company with expertise in simplifying the data discovery process for corporations, law firms and legal service professionals nationwide. Through its on and off-premise software brands, including CloudNine Explore™, LAW™, Concordance® and Review™, the company helps its customers gain insight and intelligence on data. CloudNine has been highlighted by industry experts in reports, reviews, and surveys including Gartner, 451 Research, Blue Hill Research, Corporate Counsel Magazine, the New York Law Journal, and Texas Lawyer. CloudNine also publishes the eDiscovery Daily blog, a popular, trusted source for legal industry information. For more information, visit www.cloudnine.com.

Crest Rock Partners Portfolio Company Unbounce Acquires Snazzy AI

Denver, CO – May 26, 2021 – Crest Rock Partners is proud to share the news that Unbounce, the global leader in landing page and conversion intelligence software, has acquired Snazzy AI, the AI powered copywriting tool running on GPT-3. The addition of Snazzy AI furthers Unbounce’s mission of providing AI-powered conversion intelligence technologies to small businesses and expands the Unbounce platform beyond landing pages into the AI-powered copywriting space.

Founded by Chris Frantz and Adam Kaczmarek, Snazzy AI generates copy for ads, emails, landing pages, and many other channels, within minutes and with minimal human input. Since its launch, Snazzy AI has grown its customer base to 30,000 and continues to bring on thousands of new customers each month.

“Writing copy can be a burden. And yet, what we know by having studied the conversions across millions of landing pages, is that copy is one of the biggest predictors of whether a customer will convert or not. Acquiring Snazzy in this post-pandemic world positions us to better meet the needs of small businesses getting back on their feet, by helping them launch campaigns faster,” said Tamara Grominsky, Chief Strategy Officer at Unbounce. “From early on at Unbounce, we’ve been focused on helping small businesses to grow through the use of landing pages. We’ve come to realize that landing pages alone are not enough. We see a future where people never have to start writing from a blank slate.”

“As a marketer turned entrepreneur, I know how important writing content can be, and also how difficult that first step of putting pen to paper can be,” said Chris Frantz, co-founder of Snazzy AI. “We founded Snazzy with the goal of ending writer’s block for good and making the process of writing compelling content easier for everyone, from entrepreneurs at upstarts to marketing leaders at big brands. Unbounce is the clear leader in the conversion intelligence space and we’re excited to partner with them to expand and accelerate Snazzy’s growth.”

“With this strategic acquisition, Unbounce is positioned to move beyond landing pages, advance the company’s conversion intelligence strategy and continue to help small businesses grow smarter,” commented Crest Rock Co-Founder and Partner, Steve Johnson. “The Unbounce team continues to impress us and we’re excited to build on the company’s momentum by welcoming Chris and Adam to the Unbounce family.”

Unbounce has powered more than 1.3 billion conversions to date and built a community of hundreds of thousands of small business marketers globally. Crest Rock completed its investment in the company in June 2020, alongside the Unbounce co-founders. Since then, the business has been on a hiring spree and is continuing to invest in product development and accelerators to help small businesses build, grow and scale through conversion intelligence software.

To access Snazzy AI, please visit: Snazzy.ai.

About Crest Rock Partners

Crest Rock is a Denver-based private equity firm focused on the lower middle market. Founded in 2019, the firm seeks investment opportunities where it can leverage its principals’ extensive operating and investing experience to help companies execute on their strategic initiatives. Through the team’s completion of over 45 acquisitions, divestitures, mergers, and integrations, Crest Rock has developed a differentiated investment process and partnership approach, working with management, founders, and other stakeholders to establish alignment and achieve mutual objectives. Crest Rock targets control investments across multiple industry verticals, including software, technology, IT services, tech-enabled business services, and manufacturing, with enterprise values ranging from $15 million to $150 million. For more information about Crest Rock, please visit www.crestrockpartners.com.

About Unbounce

Unbounce is the global leader in landing page and conversion intelligence software empowering marketers to build and test landing pages without a web developer. As part of the company’s pursuit to give small businesses a competitive growth advantage, the landing page platform is helping marketers increase their conversions by leveraging Unbounce’s conversion intelligence technology. Founded in Vancouver, B.C., Unbounce is a people-first business, one of Canada’s most admired corporate cultures and has powered over 1 billion conversions worldwide.

Crest Rock Partners Announces Strategic Investment in Jelecos

Denver, CO – May 4, 2021 – Crest Rock Partners, a Denver-based private equity firm investing in lower middle market software, technology, services and manufacturing companies, today announced a strategic investment in Jelecos. Founded in 2000 and headquartered in Omaha, Nebraska, with additional offices in Overland Park, Kansas and St. Louis, Missouri, Jelecos is a technology consulting company and leading AWS Advanced Tier Consulting Partner. Financial terms of the investment were not disclosed.

Jelecos provides digital transformation, compliance-driven migrations, cloud-first application development, cloud management, and DevOps-as-a-Service. Jelecos is a highly respected leader in the AWS ecosystem and prides itself on building long term relationships, consistently producing superior results, and passionately driving innovative solutions.

“We are thrilled to partner with the team at Crest Rock, who bring complementary expertise, sound guidance, and capital as we continue along our trajectory. Crest Rock’s backing will allow Jelecos to invest in growing our team of AWS certified technical experts, adding additional AWS competencies, and further capitalizing on additional AWS market opportunities,” said Leon Thomas, CEO of Jelecos. “The strategic partnership with Crest Rock enables us to expand our service offerings, enter new geographies, and emphasize our customer-first approach.”

The investment by Crest Rock will accelerate strategic initiatives and growth opportunities as Jelecos continues to deliver lasting value for clients, partners, and shareholders.

“The Jelecos team has built a top tier organization centered around a singular goal – providing leading technology solutions to their customers,” commented Jeff Carnes, Crest Rock co-founder and Partner. “As hybrid and public cloud adoption continues to accelerate, we believe the company’s deep technical expertise, range of AWS competencies, and passion for customer service will continue to be a strong differentiator in the market. We are excited to partner with Jelecos in accelerating their growth through investments in people, process, and products, all for the benefit of their existing and future customers.”

Layer 7 Capital arranged the transaction between Crest Rock Partners and Jelecos. 

About Crest Rock Partners

Crest Rock is a Denver-based private equity firm focused on the lower middle market. Founded in 2019, the firm seeks investment opportunities where it can leverage its principals’ extensive operating and investing experience to help companies execute on their strategic initiatives. Through the team’s completion of over 45 acquisitions, divestitures, mergers, and integrations, Crest Rock has developed a differentiated investment process and partnership approach, working with management, founders, and other stakeholders to establish alignment and achieve mutual objectives. Crest Rock targets control investments across multiple industry verticals, including software, technology, IT services, tech-enabled business services, and manufacturing, with enterprise values ranging from $15 million to $150 million.

For more information about Crest Rock, please visit www.crestrockpartners.com.

About Jelecos

Jelecos is a technology consulting company headquartered in Omaha, NE that specializes in AWS cloud solutions. As an AWS Advanced Consulting Partner and Certified Solution Provider, the company is focused on migration, optimization, transformation, and cloud-first application consulting.

Since its inception in 2000, Jelecos has been focused on putting business first and technology second. The company began with custom application development services, added infrastructure and cloud services in 2003, and became an AWS Partner in 2016.

To learn more about the company, visit https://jelecos.com, and connect on LinkedIn and Twitter.

Crest Rock Partners Invests in Cloud Service Provider Webair

Denver, CO – January 11, 2021 – Crest Rock Partners (“Crest Rock”), a Denver-based private equity firm investing in lower middle market software, technology, services and manufacturing businesses, today proudly announced a majority investment in Webair Internet Development Company, Inc. (“Webair” or the “Company”). Founded in 1998 and headquartered in Garden City, New York, Webair is a leading provider of cloud-agnostic orchestration services and disaster-recovery deployments. Webair’s founders and members of management invested alongside Crest Rock.

Webair specializes in the management of complex managed private and hybrid cloud solutions and data protection. The Company provides a full suite of turnkey solutions to its customers, including managed cloud, Disaster-Recovery-as-a-Service (“DRaaS”), Backups-as-a-Service (“BaaS”), infrastructure management, colocation, and other ancillary network services. Webair’s comprehensive, customizable service offerings provide enterprises with tailored solutions that are optimized for their bespoke workload needs.

“The financial investment from Crest Rock, and their significant experience in the managed services industry, will help accelerate Webair’s growth and allow us to fulfill our strategic vision,” said Michael Ohayon, President of Webair. “We have a passion for excellence, and we built our business on providing our clients with exemplary managed services. In this next phase of growth alongside Crest Rock, we look forward to improving upon and expanding our breadth of services to meet the ever-evolving digital infrastructure and security needs of our customers.”

“Webair is an exceptional technology partner to its customers,” commented Steve Johnson, co-founder and Partner at Crest Rock. “The Company’s white-glove, partnership-oriented approach to customer service differentiates it from other managed services providers. At a time when resilient and agile technology is more valuable than ever, we believe Webair’s deep expertise, developed over more than two decades, and its breadth of capabilities, stands out amongst its peers’. We are excited to partner with the Webair team as they continue to capture opportunities to deliver valuable solutions to their customers.”

About Crest Rock Partners

Crest Rock is a Denver-based private equity firm focused on the lower middle market. Founded in 2019, the firm seeks investment opportunities where it can leverage its principals’ extensive operating and investing experience to help companies execute on their strategic initiatives. Through the team’s completion of over 45 acquisitions, divestitures, mergers, and integrations, Crest Rock has developed a differentiated investment process and partnership approach, working with management, founders, and other stakeholders to establish alignment and achieve mutual objectives. Crest Rock targets control investments across multiple industry verticals, including software, technology, IT services, tech-enabled business services, and manufacturing, with enterprise values ranging from $15 million to $150 million. For more information about Crest Rock, please visit www.crestrockpartners.com.

About Webair

Webair is a cloud-agnostic orchestration service provider that specializes in the management of complex managed private and hybrid cloud solutions and data protection deployments. Webair is headquartered in Garden City, New York, where it operates a Tier III 21,000 ft2 data center and serves customers across North America, Europe, and APAC markets. For more information about Webair, please visit www.webair.com.