San Francisco, CA – February 20, 2018 - Serent Capital, a San Francisco-based private equity firm focused on investing in fast-growing software and services businesses, announced that its portfolio company Knowland has acquired Strategic Data Resources (“SDR”), a provider of data and industry reporting to hotels and Convention and Visitor Bureaus (“CVBs”). SDR is best known for its TAP Report product, which helps CVBs track and benchmark sales performance against peers.
Knowland’s acquisition of SDR solidifies its entrance into the CVB market. “SDR’s experience in working with CVBs allows Knowland to take a larger role within the ecosystem,” said Tim Hart, CEO of Knowland. “SDR has a presence in every major CVB in the US and Canada, and the partnership with Knowland will serve to further expand this footprint.”
SDR’s data and analytics are also complementary with Knowland’s product offerings. “We are excited to partner with Knowland to bring a more comprehensive and robust product offering to our customers in the hospitality space,” said Jeff Eastman, CEO of SDR. “By leveraging our market data, we see an opportunity to improve Knowland’s lead generation and hotel property analytics.”
“We also anticipate revenue synergies from the cross-sell opportunity of hotel-oriented SDR products into the Knowland customer base of over 3,300 hotels,” said Tim Hart. TAP Hotel Report and TAP Data Source are the SDR products that target other players in the hospitality ecosystem outside of CVBs.
“The strong strategic fit makes Knowland a natural partner of SDR,” shared Serent Capital Partner Lance Fenton. “We look forward to the future growth prospects of the combined business.”
This is Knowland’s second acquisition in 2018 and fourth acquisition in the last two years. Knowland acquired Meeting Intelligence (formerly known as HIS) from Amadeus in July 2016, Philadelphia Reader Board in June 2017, and Competitive Marketing Exchange in February 2018.
SDR represents Serent’s ninth investment in the Restaurant and Hospitality Technology space — including Knowland (2012), FranConnect (2014), Compeat (2015), Meeting Intelligence (2016), Philadelphia Reader Board (2017), Ctuit (2017), BirchStreet Systems (2017), and Competitive Marketing Exchange (2018).
About Knowland
Knowland Group provides technology, data and analytics to the hospitality industry. Knowland's cloud-based sales and catering solution and its competitive intelligence tools help hotels to maximize revenue from meeting and conference space. Knowland's technology is powered by an extensive database of events, of organizations that hold these events, and of the key contacts who book them.
About Serent Capital
Serent Capital invests in growing businesses that it believes have developed compelling solutions that address their customers' needs. As those businesses grow and evolve, the opportunities and challenges that they face change with them. Principals at Serent Capital have firsthand experience at capturing those opportunities and navigating these difficulties through their experiences as CEOs, strategic advisors and board members to growing businesses. By bringing its expertise and capital to bear, Serent strives to help growing businesses thrive. For more information on Serent Capital, visit www.serentcapital.com.
