North East equity firm exits “pioneering” transport technology company

A North East based private equity firm has exited its investment in transport management software provider Mandata to Tenzing.

LDC supported the Newcastle-headquartered Mandata to complete two significant acquisitions and invest in new product development.

The firm’s support helped Mandata to double its revenue and headcount, grow its customer base from 300 to over 2000 and position the business as a leading provider of transport management software solutions to the UK SME market.

Mandata’s pioneering SaaS-based solution allows the UK’s carrier and haulage businesses to manage workflow and data more effectively, with products including traffic planning and management, tracking, telematics, and invoicing.

The company employs 120 people across its offices in Newcastle, Leeds, London and Leicestershire. It supports its base of 2,000 customers with compliance, improving productivity, delivering efficiency savings, reducing carbon emissions and provides real-time visibility of their operations.

Chris Rigg, CEO of Mandata, said: “LDC’s support has been invaluable to the growth of Mandata. Gareth and his team completely backed our growth strategy and worked alongside our management team to provide operational support and help us to complete two significant acquisitions.

“LDC’s local presence in the North East was important to our close working relationship with the team and it has been incredibly helpful to draw on their tech and software expertise. We now have a strong foundation in place to succeed in the next stage of our growth journey.”

Gareth Marshall, head of LDC North East, added: “We’re proud to have helped an exciting North East business to grow by supporting strategic acquisitions and investing in its operations.”

Guy Gillon, co-founder and joint managing partner of Tenzing, commented: “There’s a lot of potential in Mandata’s niche and we’ll be leveraging the full extent of our Growth Team to help Chris and team achieve our shared vision.”

The financial terms of the transaction are undisclosed.