LONDON & TEL AVIV, Israel--(BUSINESS WIRE)--KKR, a leading global investment firm, today announced that it is leading a $42 million growth equity investment in Optimal+, a big data analytics company that provides highly actionable insights to the semiconductor industry. KKR makes its investment alongside the existing lead investors Carmel Ventures and Pitango, two of Israel’s most preeminent venture capital funds. KKR will support the global expansion plans of Optimal+ with primary capital as well as access to its global network of companies and technology experts.
Optimal+ was founded in 2005 in Tel Aviv by its CEO Dan Glotter, and after several years of R&D investments, has been rolling out its current suite of products over the last four years.
Optimal+ provides an end-to-end solution that delivers actionable business intelligence to the semiconductor industry through a cutting-edge big data solution that analyzes and processes more than 25 billion chips per year. The enterprise software solution collects, cleans and aggregates large amounts of data from multiple manufacturing locations and delivers insights that allow customers to significantly improve their product quality, output yields and processing times with complete supply chain visibility. The product thereby delivers significant cost savings and a high return on investment to its end users.
Dan Glotter, Founder and CEO of Optimal+, commented: “KKR is the perfect partner for Optimal+ as we look to accelerate our global growth and expand the capabilities of our platform beyond semiconductor into the electronics market segment. Our technology delivers huge ROI to customers through increased product yield, higher quality and greater manufacturing efficiency. We are seeing very strong demand for the actionable intelligence that our solutions provide.”
Lucian Schönefelder, Director of the European Technology and Digital Media Investment team at KKR, said: “We are very proud to partner with a world-class founder like Dan and some of Israel’s smartest investors to further accelerate the global development of Optimal+. As chips become ever more embedded in our daily lives and the number of mobile and IoT devices continues to skyrocket, Optimal+ is performing a critical function to help its clients attain ever higher quality standards. KKR’s deep experience in semiconductors & electronics, combined with our strong B2B software investment track-record and our global network, gives us a unique position to help Optimal+ write the next chapter of its story. We are also very excited to make our second tech investment in the world-class technology hub of Israel this year.”
Aaron Mankovski, Managing General Partner of Pitango Venture Capital states: “Optimal+ is practically re-connecting the global supply chain for the semiconductors and electronics industry with its robust big data analytics solutions. The company is the market leader in its category and with the addition of KKR and this significant financing round, we are well-positioned to build a world class company that will be the essential building block of the information highway for the electronics industry that will allow its customers to gain substantial financial and operational benefits from using the Optimal+ solutions.”
KKR has a long-established track record of supporting technology companies, having invested more than $13 billion of equity in more than 49 companies across software, internet, media and IT-infrastructure since 2000.
The investment in Optimal+ is part of KKR’s growth equity effort, which focuses on selective investments in fast-growing, technology-enabled companies that sell differentiated products with global market potential and which are led by outstanding founders. Recent growth equity investments by KKR include ClickTale (behavioral big data analytics business for web & mobile), Ping Identity (identity security software), arago (AI-based IT automation software), Next Issue Media (digital magazine subscription marketplace) and others.
KKR is funding the investment primarily from its own balance sheet. No financial terms were disclosed.
-ends-
About Optimal+
Optimal+ is a global provider of Manufacturing Intelligence software solutions, enabling semiconductor and electronics companies to seamlessly aggregate, organize and act upon the global manufacturing and test data generated across their internal and external supply chains to measurably improve yield, quality and productivity. The company’s real-time, Big Data analytics solutions are deployed in virtually every major foundry and OSAT currently serving the semiconductor ecosystem, processing over 25 billion chips every year on behalf of its customers and ushering in an era of unprecedented supply chain visibility that translates into strong and measurable ROI. For more information, visit www.optimalplus.com.
About KKR
KKR is a leading global investment firm that manages investments across multiple asset classes including private equity, energy, infrastructure, real estate, credit and hedge funds. KKR aims to generate attractive investment returns by following a patient and disciplined investment approach, employing world‐class people, and driving growth and value creation at the asset level. KKR invests its own capital alongside its partners' capital and brings opportunities to others through its capital markets business. References to KKR's investments may include the activities of its sponsored funds. For additional information about KKR & Co. L.P. (NYSE:KKR), please visit KKR's website at www.kkr.com.