ANDOVER, MA, Nov 30, 2018 – Aras, the leader in open product lifecycle management (PLM) software for the enterprise, today announced a $70 million minority investment led by Goldman Sachs Private Capital Investing group with participation from Silver Lake Kraftwerk. The Series D round of growth equity will support Aras’ expansion of global operations and rapid growth of its open PLM platform through in-house development and technology acquisition. As part of the transaction, Hillel Moerman and Holger Staude of Goldman Sachs will join Aras’ Board of Directors as a board member and as an observer, respectively.
Aras is disrupting the industrial software markets for PLM, maintenance, repair, and overhaul (MRO), and quality management systems (QMS). The company’s open software platform enables the world’s largest manufacturers to digitally transform their enterprise.
“At Goldman Sachs, our focus is on high-growth companies with significant barriers to entry, leading technology, and experienced management teams –these characteristics drove our interest in Aras,” said Hillel Moerman, head of Private Capital Investing, Goldman Sachs. “Globally, industrial businesses are wrestling with the transition to the digital era, whether refreshing mission-critical enterprise applications or positioning themselves for new opportunities. Aras’ innovative software platform enables them to execute digital transformation projects.”
Aras announced a $40 million investment round last September led by Silver Lake Kraftwerk with participation from GE Ventures. Since then, Aras has completed strategic acquisitions to grow its applications suite with the additions of Impresa MRO for in-service assets and Comet SPDM for simulation management; expanded global operations with offices in the United Kingdom and Italy; doubled office footprint at its U.S. headquarters, and grown global employee headcount by more than 50 percent. Aras was also named a Leader in the Forrester Wave for product lifecycle management for Discrete Manufacturers.
“Aras continues to transform the market and deepen its relationships with leading manufacturing enterprises,” said Martin Fichtner, managing director of Silver Lake Kraftwerk. “Aras has executed on acquiring innovative functionality to accelerate growth and on expanding its global footprint. We are very excited to welcome Goldman Sachs as a new investor and to expand our own investment in Aras.”
Peter Belillo, president, CIMdata said, “Aras has shown the ability to support some of the world’s largest manufacturers and their complex use cases, as well as to use outside investment to effectively scale its operations and capability. This sizable investment provides further validation of the company’s business model and the confidence the market has in Aras Innovator, Aras’ product innovation platform, and its ability to enable an organization’s digital transformation and deliver strategic business value.”
Peter Schroer, CEO and founder of Aras, said, “This funding round with Goldman Sachs PCI enables us to move forward rapidly on multiple fronts and deliver the critical capabilities our customers need to innovate and transform their operations. We view this additional capital as another positive step forward for our entire open PLM community so that we can deliver capability faster, on a larger scale.”
In addition to Silver Lake Kraftwerk, other participants from the Series C Silver Lake Kraftwerk-led funding round, including GE Ventures, have continued their investment in Aras in this round.
About Goldman Sachs Private Capital Investing group
Goldman Sachs Private Capital Investing is the firm’s investment platform dedicated to providing growth equity capital to middle market companies globally.
About Silver Lake Kraftwerk
Silver Lake Kraftwerk is part of Silver Lake, the global leader in technology investing with about $42.5 billion in combined assets under management and committed capital and a team of approximately 100 investment and value creation professionals located around the world. Silver Lake Kraftwerk provides growth capital to technology and tech-enabled businesses driving efficiency across the operations, energy, and resources industries. The fund targets companies globally that leverage technology and business model innovation across a number of sectors, such as transportation, logistics, manufacturing, oil and gas, power generation and transmission, energy efficiency, waste, water, and agriculture, among others.
For more information about Silver Lake Kraftwerk and its entire portfolio, please visit http://www.silverlake.com.
About Aras
Aras enables the world’s leading manufacturers of complex, connected products to transform their product lifecycle processes and gain a competitive edge. Aras’s open, flexible, scalable, and upgradable PLM platform and applications connect users in all disciplines and functions to critical product information and processes across the extended enterprise. Aras customers include Airbus, BAE Systems, GE, GM, Hitachi, Honda, Kawasaki Heavy Industries, and Microsoft.
Visit www.aras.com.
