SmartBear Completes Investment Transaction with Vista Equity Partners and Francisco Partners

Investment will broaden and strengthen the company’s portfolio of industry-leading commercial and open source solutions
Somerville — March 04, 2021 —

SmartBear, a leading provider of software development and quality tools, announced today that Vista Equity Partners (“Vista”), a leading global investment firm focused on enterprise software, data, and technology-enabled businesses, has successfully closed their investment in the company, originally announced in October 2020.

With its investment, Vista joins Francisco Partners, a leading global technology-focused investment firm, which acquired SmartBear in 2017. Together, Vista and Francisco Partners will partner with the SmartBear management team to accelerate growth, promote innovation, and expand the business in support of the rapidly growing DevOps market.

SmartBear solutions include modern technologies around API lifecycle management, test automation, test management, performance optimization, and collaboration. These solutions are used by leading organizations to enable the design, development, and release of higher-quality software at scale.

“We are excited to use this investment to advance our positive impact on software development teams everywhere, who are migrating to quality-driven DevOps to increase their competitive market positioning through reduced costs and quicker time to market,” said Frank Roe, CEO of SmartBear. “We completed 2020 with another record year of growth and are thrilled with the support and partnership we now have from Vista and Francisco Partners to broaden and strengthen our product offerings and also identify continued organic and inorganic growth opportunities.”

About SmartBear

SmartBear is pioneering innovation in software quality, embracing AI’s transformative potential. The company’s powerful solution hubs, including SmartBear API Hub, SmartBear Insight Hub, and SmartBear Test Hub, featuring HaloAI, give software development teams around the world visibility and automation that provide end-to-end quality. SmartBear is trusted by over 16 million developers, testers, and software engineers at 32,000+ organizations – including innovators like Adobe, JetBlue, FedEx, and Microsoft. With an active peer-to-peer community, SmartBear meets customers where they are to help make our technology-driven world a better place. The company is committed to ethical corporate practices, including responsible AI that integrates accountability and transparency across its technology stack, and to social responsibility, promoting good in all the communities it serves. Learn more at smartbear.com, or follow on LinkedIn, X, or Facebook.
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