Abry and Castik part with Reward Gateway in £1.15bn sale

• Abry Partners and Castik Capital acquired Reward Gateway in 2021
• Reward Gateway is a global Software as a service (Saas) employee engagement platform
• The sale amounts to £1.15 billion and values Reward Gateway at 20x EV/EBITDA 23e

Abry Partners and Castik Capital have sold 100 percent of the share capital in Reward Gateway, a global SaaS employee engagement platform, to Edenred. The sale amounts to £1.15 billion ($1.43 billion; €1.32 billion) and values Reward Gateway at 20x EV/EBITDA 23e.

Reward Gateway is currently held by funds managed by private equity firms Abry Partners and Castik Capital. The acquisition will be fully paid in cash by Edenred, to be financed by a €1 billion bridge loan to be later refinanced on the debt capital markets as well as by €300 million from available cash at hand.

Headquartered in Issy-les-Moulineaux in France, Edenred is a digital platform for employee benefits services and payments.

Abry and Castik acquired London-based Reward Gateway in 2021 and the sale to Edenred follows several years of double-digit revenue growth, according to a statement.

Through the acquisition of Reward Gateway, Edenred accesses an already sizeable market with great penetration potential and opportunity to expand further, the statement added.

“During our partnership, Reward Gateway significantly invested in building out its self-service SaaS offering and further strengthened its position in the UK, Australia and the US,” said Michael Phillips, partner at Castik Capital.

Castik Capital, founded in 2014, is a private equity firm based in Munich.

Abry Partners is a Boston-headquartered private equity firm that targets investments from $20 million to $200 million.