Media Release 9 July 2017
Sanari Capital (“Sanari”) is pleased to announce the conclusion of its control investment in leading geo-spatial data and solutions provider, Fernridge Solutions (“Fernridge”). The investment facilitates majority black ownership in the company and supports Fernridge’s growth and expansion strategy. Fernridge founders and executive directors hold the remaining stake.
Established in 2002 by Stephen Walters and Sybrand Strauss, Fernridge offers expert insights to inform location-based business decisions for clients such as retailers, property developers, private equity investors, and financial-, healthcare-, education-, and public-services providers. On the back of a 15 year history serving blue chip clients in South Africa, and 10 years’ mapping over 140 cities across the African continent, Fernridge has a unique and proprietary dataset from which they are able to extract rich insights for clients looking to expand, reposition or consolidate their network footprints and better engage their customers.
The transaction with Sanari is intended to help take the established and already successful company to the next level in its development, by employing Sanari’s 3S focus on Sustainability, Scalability and Saleability.
Samantha Pokroy, Sanari CEO said: “Fernridge is an exciting investment for Sanari, offering a blend of established profitability and new avenues for growth supported by trends in Big Data and an Emerging Africa. We are delighted to partner with such an accomplished and passionate founder-management team.”
Sanari Principal, Moushmi Patel, added: “We see the company further leveraging its proprietary African data assets, expanding use cases and channels to market, including rollout of its self-serve web-based research platform.”
Sybrand Strauss, Managing Director of Fernridge said: “We welcome Sanari to our business. Sanari will be an important partner for us in helping to forge new business relations and opportunities and helping to manage our growth successfully. We look forward to drawing on their experience in adding value to founder-managed businesses. The facilitation of BEE in this transaction was an important factor and we are committed to building out a truly South African business.”
ABOUT SANARI CAPITAL
Founded in 2013, Sanari Capital is a private equity investment firm focusing on opportunities in the lower- and middle-market. Sanari specialises in founder-run, owner-managed and family-owned businesses, bringing corporate best practice to entrepreneurial settings and a sense of ownership to highly corporate environments. Sanari is women-led and black-owned and as such, confers black ownership and full net value via the funds it invests in companies. Sanari is purpose-driven, promoting impact, jobs, inclusive growth and nation-building, whilst delivering superior returns to investors through advancing access to market and professional, leading-edge management practices. Visit the Sanari website.
ABOUT FERNRIDGE
Fernridge is a Level 2 B-BBEE research house and data solutions provider based in Johannesburg, South Africa. Founded in 2002 by Stephen Walters and Sybrand Strauss, the company continues to be managed by the original founder and broader executive team. Products and services range from feasibility studies through gap analyses, country development plans, demographic studies, market research, customer engagement models, retail consulting, retail income forecasts and expenditure estimates, site evaluation models, network rollout models for schools, hospitals, franchises and so forth. With expert insight and proprietary data, Fernridge clients benefit from accurate data to drive and validate important business decisions. Visit the Fernridge website.
