We advised Vista Equity Partners in their majority investment in Pipedrive, a CRM platform for sales and marketing teams. We advised the client in relation to Estonian and Latvian aspects of the deal, acting as local counsel in the Baltics through the Kirkland & Ellis Palo Alto office.
Fifth unicorn in Estonia
As a result of this deal the Estonian-born startup is now valued at USD 1.5 billion and reaches unicorn status, being the fifth company in Estonia to do so. The deal at hand was Estonia’s second-biggest exit yet after Skype, which was acquired by eBay in 2005 for USD 2.6 billion.
Pipedrive’s existing investors Bessemer Venture Partners, Insight Partners, Atomico, DTCP, and Rembrandt Venture Partners, will continue as minority investors in the company and will partner with Vista and the Pipedrive team to accelerate the company’s growth trajectory.
Looking to optimise its product portfolio
Pipedrive is rated one of the most popular CRMs with its users, being the go-to software for over 95,0000 sales teams around the world. Vista’s investment and partnership will further fuel Pipedrive’s expansion by helping the company grow and optimise its product portfolio, expand internationally and increase its customer base globally through continued investment in its Go-to-Market engine.
Said Raj Sabhlok, CEO at Pipedrive: “Reaching ‘unicorn’ status and partnering with Vista will enable us to accelerate our mission to support SMBs as they continue to digitize their businesses in order to grow. Our goal is to successfully deliver on the bold vision that Pipedrive set earlier this year – to provide our users with powerful tools that cover the whole customer journey. This means developing a holistic set of products for various customer-facing teams – from helping marketers find leads, supporting sales teams to close deals, to serving customers success professionals to upsell and nurture relationships.”
“Pipedrive’s industry accolades are well-deserved, but nothing is more telling about the strength of the company and its technology than the tremendous demand for its solutions and the loyalty of its customers,” added Monti Saroya, Co-Head of the Vista Flagship Fund and Senior Managing Director at Vista Equity Partners.
Our services and client team
Our team advised the client on Estonian and Latvian law aspects of the deal.
Our Estonian project team was led by partner Piret Jesse, counsel Pirkko-Liis Harkmaa, senior associate Kaido Künnapas and also included senior associates Tanel Molok, Robin Teever and Piibe Lehtsaar.
Our Latvian team was led by country managing partner Eva Berlaus, partner Janis Taukacs, counsel Andis Burkevics and senior associate Aija Lasmane, associate Līva Aleksejeva and also included legal assistants Ērika Bužinska and Kate Berlaua.
