Suma Capital Invests in NPAW to Bolster Its Growth

Suma Capital has become a shareholder of the technological company Nice People at Work (NPAW, www.nicepeopleatwork.com) - founded in 2008 by the entrepreneurs Ferran Gutiérrez (CEO), Sergi Vergés (COO) and Otto Wüst - with the aim of supporting an ambitious international expansion plan. Its managers Ferrán and Sergi will remain the majority shareholders and oversee the growth of the business from their offices in Barcelona and New York.

NPAW is a global technological leader in the video analytics sector. Its platform in SaaS format (Software As A Service, a model of recurring income through large companies’ subscriptions to its software) is based on Big Data and Business Intelligence. It allows for real-time monitoring of a wide variety of indicators for their clients, companies that that emit online video content, with regards to video quality, service quality, and subscribers’ behaviour patterns.

With a turnover forecast of over 15 million euros for 2020 (95% internationally and with high recurrence), the company has a hundred large clients in Europe, the Americas, and Asia. Customers include clients in the video sector, such as Rakuten, Pluto, and Hulu; mass media, such as TF1, Fox and Bein; and telecommunications operators, such as Orange, Telefónica and Vodafone. NPAW boasts a profitable business model, with EBITDA above 20% on sales, and has been a cash generator for years.

NPAW has been growing at rates above 50% annually. With the support of Suma Capital, NPAW intends to continue its profitable growth, relying on a video content sector that has multiplied its growth due to its transition to digital television, the explosion of social media, and the ubiquity of video on mobile devices of all kinds. In such a dynamic market, growing at rates above 25% globally, the Company has reinforced its SaaS platform (called YOUBORA) with a new 6.0 version successfully launched in April, during the confinement due to COVID-19.

NPAW's growth strategy will focus on increased penetration in its current media and telecom clients, the launch of new modules for its YOUBORA platform, and growth focused on telecommunication operators in Europe, Asia and the Americas. The business plan mainly calls for heavy investments in internal developments to expand offerings to its clients and offer a 360º service to the customer, in addition to incorporating talent and new technologies that will accelerate the achievement of these objectives.

For all this, NPAW will have the support of SC Growth Fund II; the new capital expansion fund managed by Suma Capital that carries on its predecessor’s work and seeks to help profitable and growing companies to accelerate their business plans. Suma Capital has been advised on this investment by Deloitte and the ESG specialist Attalea Partners, as well as PwC, on contracts and operations. The founders of NPAW have been advised by Across Legal.

CEO and co-founder Ferran Gutiérrez has stated: “We have chosen Suma Capital as the ideal partner in this phase of international growth, with financial muscle and a clear commitment to our expansion strategy”

“NPAW is an example of solid and profitable growth internationally, with a team that impressed us from day one with its dynamism and commitment. We are very excited to be able to support the new stage of expansion of its SaaS video analytics tool, particularly in Asia and the Americas”, stated Pau Bermúdez-Cañete, Partner of Suma Capital.