Maven achieves return of up to 5.1x on sale of MirrorWeb

Maven has realised a significant majority of its investment in award-winning compliance and preservation software provider MirrorWeb, through a sale to MainSail Partners, a US growth equity firm. The profitable realisation has generated a 4.0x return on cost for the Maven VCTs, including the value of a retained minority holding in the business and a 5.1x return on cost for NPIF Maven Equity Finance (which has exited its holding in full).

Manchester based MirrorWeb has built significant momentum in the US thanks to the company’s leading proprietary technology. Through its platform, the business enables financial services institutions to communicate via native channels, capturing and archiving in a fully compliant way enabling the world’s largest financial institutions to meet strict record-keeping requirements. 

MirrorWeb helps businesses, multinationals, institutions and government departments manage and evidence changes in their digital content via its unified communications surveillance platform. The requirement for digital preservation is high on the compliance agenda driven by increased regulation. This has resulted in increased demand for MirrorWeb’s robust solution, particularly in financial services, where monitoring and archiving content across websites, social media platforms, email and business communications such as Microsoft Teams and Slack, is demanded.

Maven first supported MirrorWeb in 2018, through NPIF Maven Equity Finance to enable the business to roll-out its innovative technology. At that point MirrorWeb was an emerging business with low revenues and high customer concentration but had developed a cutting-edge compliance focused solution and a clear and credible business strategy to build scale. Over multiple funding rounds, which latterly included investment from the Maven VCTs, the business grew rapidly, taking Maven’s total investment in MirrorWeb to over £6.2 million. 

The funding has enabled MirrorWeb to enter the US market, with CEO David Clee relocating to Austin, Texas to lead the Company’s go to market strategy and invest heavily in product development to further enhance the functionality of its technology. Helping MirrorWeb to consistently achieve year-on-year recurring revenue growth, and significantly grow its headcount. 

“This transaction is an excellent outcome for Maven’s client funds, the management team and the business. MirrorWeb’s story demonstrates what an ambitious Manchester-based business can achieve when a talented leadership team is provided with the right support and funding. As well as generating significant cash proceeds, the structure of the deal also allows the Maven VCTs to retain an equity stake in MirrorWeb post-transaction, this was a key objective based on our knowledge of the business and the team who we expect to continue to deliver strong growth and shareholder value. 

It has been an absolute privilege to work with this team, led by David Clee, who have successfully opened up the US market. David’s decision to relocate to the US demonstrates his entrepreneurial drive and is a testament to his leadership.” 

Jeremy Thompson, Partner at Maven

“Maven supported us when we were a small start-up business, they believed in us as a management team and could see the potential in what we were trying to build. Following that original investment, they continued to support us through multiple follow-on funding rounds which were critical to the development of both our product and our commercial strategy. Throughout the six years we have worked together, Maven have provided genuine and valuable advice that has helped us to grow the business. The relationship between Maven and MirrorWeb has been a true partnership and I’m proud of what we have achieved together.”

David Clee, CEO at MirrorWeb