Axon closes its third exit of the year after selling its stake in Adsmurai. The transaction has consisted of a management buy-out (MBO) in which the founders have taken 100% of the company.
Adsmurai is a technology company founded in 2014 in Barcelona. Through its software, it helps companies around the world to manage all their social media advertising. Adsmurai’s leadership has led it to be the preferred supplier of large multinationals worldwide, and it is also a pioneer in Spain as a marketing developer (PMD) of Facebook. The company had sustained growth, positive EBITDA and generated profits for several years, so much so that this year they have beaten their revenue highs month after month.
Axon invested in the company through two direct investment funds, Axon ICT II and ICT III, which invested approximately €3m between 2015 and 2016.
During these years, Axon has helped the company grow, especially in its international expansion in Latin America. Although the company was considering different alternatives, the founders themselves have preferred to put together an MBO operation and exit to financial investors, who will now lead the next stage of growth.
This operation is a very favourable deal for Axon as it generates attractive returns and demonstrates that technology companies with real financial sustainability can make exits even when the market is cautious.
Axon’s investment thesis is geared towards investing in profitability-oriented technology companies, as it not only makes the options for capital gains more flexible but also allows entrepreneurs, by not being forced to make successive financing rounds, to maintain ownership of their company and generate national or European champions.
We are very proud to have invested in a company with positive returns for funds. It is a company we bet on since its inception and in which we have remained less than six years since the first investment. One of the reasons we invested in Adsmurai was our confidence in the founders, whom we knew from previous projects and who have overcome difficulties over the years, including COVID. We are very proud to have contributed to its growth, to have seen how, since our entry, the company has internationalised, has multiplied its revenue by more than eighteen times, is profitable and has become one of the benchmarks of advertising on social networks. The exit has been closed through a management buy-out (“MBO”). The founders have taken over 100% of the company, being in charge of taking the company to the next stage.
Javier Martínez de Irujo, Principal Direct Investment
