Houlihan Lokey Advises Exadel

Houlihan Lokey is pleased to announce that Exadel, Inc., a founder-owned, global provider of digital software engineering solutions and services, has been acquired by an affiliate of Sun Capital Partners, Inc. The transaction closed on March 2, 2021.

Founded in 1998 and headquartered in Walnut Creek, California, Exadel builds critical enterprise-wide platforms with a focus on accelerating digital transformation for blue-chip customers around the world. With more than 20 locations and delivery centers across the U.S. and Europe, Exadel uses agile practices to solve complex engineering problems for clients such as Deloitte, Google, HP, McKesson, and Mercer.

Sun Capital Partners is a global private equity firm focused on partnering with outstanding management teams to accelerate value creation. Since 1995, Sun Capital has invested in more than 420 companies worldwide with revenues in excess of $50 billion across a broad range of industries and transaction structures. The firm has built a reputation as a trusted partner, recognized for its operational experience. Sun Capital focuses on defensible businesses in growing markets with tangible performance improvement opportunities in the business services, consumer, healthcare, industrial, and technology sectors.

Exadel is well positioned to seize the significant opportunities created by an outsourced software development market that is accelerating at 18%–20% annually as companies seek better engineering talent to deliver more cost effective, higher quality solutions. Sun Capital plans to support the company’s continued organic growth strategy and provide capital for Exadel to make acquisitions in a highly fragmented market.

“The Houlihan Lokey team was essential in finding the right partner for our future growth. From beginning to end, they demonstrated a deep understanding of our business model and the overall digital engineering market and ensured that we were fully prepared to share our story with the most qualified set of potential investors. Their knowledge of the market was key to our successful process,” said Fima Katz, Founder, President, and CEO of Exadel.

Houlihan Lokey served as the financial advisor to Exadel and assisted in initiating, structuring, and negotiating the transaction.

Exadel marks the fourth digital engineering transaction completed by Houlihan Lokey’s IT Services team over the past six months.