SmartBear Completes Investment Transaction with Vista Equity Partners and Francisco Partners

Somerville - March 4, 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.”