News - 16.08.2021

The deal-by-deal team enters a partnership with management of 99x

(Oslo, 16 August 2021) A company funded by a group of reputable tech investors and managed by Fredrik Bysveen and Fredrik Kongsli, has entered into an agreement to acquire a majority stake in 99x, a fast-growing software engineering company, to satisfy the growing demand for software developers in Scandinavia and Europe.

99x employs more than 350 software engineers in Sri Lanka and specializes in building high-quality, digital products on behalf of clients in Scandinavia and Europe. 99x has grown steadily since its inception and accelerated its growth with an average annual growth rate of 30 percent in the past three years. The company reported revenues of NOK 106m in 2020.

“99x is a rapidly growing business with extremely high customer satisfaction. Until now, the company’s growth has been organic, without substantial business development presence in Scandinavia. The company’s next step is to build up a stronger presence in Norway, including initiating an active M&A strategy. We are proud of the reputable tech investors we have brought onboard to help 99x accelerate its already strong development,” says Fredrik Bysveen, partner and board member of 99x.

Among the investors that are part of the consortium is Northzone founder Karl Christian Agerup; former CEO of Get, Gunnar Evensen; founder of StartupLab and Founders Fund, Alexander Woxen; and Norwegian investment firm Watrium.

Investor and chairman of 99x, Dag Honningsvåg, reduces his ownership from 20 to 10 percent in the transaction and continues as chairman of the company he has been instrumental in developing in recent years.

“After exploring multiple approaches, we determined the best way forward was to establish a European office and raise additional capital to grow through acquisitions, both in terms of access to markets as well as to add capacity. We already have a large software engineering team, but our objective is to grow this further to offer even greater software development capacity to our customers in Norway and Europe,” says Dag Honningsvåg, chairman of 99x.
99x’s founder and CEO, Mano Sekaram, continues as CEO, board member and shareholder of the company.

“This is a significant milestone for all our employees and for the Sri Lankan IT industry. We can take pride in a Sri Lankan company being able to win the confidence and trust of such reputed Scandinavian investors,” says Mano Sekaram.

Contact:
Fredrik Bysveen, Partner and board member of 99x
Telephone: +47 98 22 85 68

Dag Honningsvåg, Chairman 99x
Telephone: +47 90 74 48 10

The buyer was advised by DLA Piper and PwC.