FFL invests in Abacus

IT managed services provider Abacus Group has received a growth investment from private equity firm FFL Partners.

Founded in 2008, Abacus is a global IT services firm for alternative investment firms. It provides an enterprise technology platform to manage clients’ entire tech stacks. Founded in San Francisco and headquartered in New York City, Abacus has more than 250 employees. It currently serves more than 650 clients with on-site support teams across the US and the UK.

Abacus confirmed to The Drawdown that FFL’s investment marks the exit for previous backers Westview Capital Partners, which initially provided a minority growth investment to Abacus in 2017.

“We have evaluated over 25 MSPs in the last three years and Abacus is the clear leader in the industry due to the strength of its management team, leading cloud platform, and service approach purpose-built for financial services companies that cannot afford to compromise on compliance and cybersecurity,” said Jonathon Bunt, director at FFL. “We look forward to partnering with Abacus founder and CEO Chris Grandi and his management team as they invest further in supporting their existing clients and expand to new clients both organically and through strategic acquisitions.”

For the transaction, Abacus and Westview were assisted by Guggenheim Securities and Lazard (sell-side advisors) as well as Latham & Watkins and Lowenstein Sandler (legal counsel). FFL was advised by Kirkland and Ellis (legal counsel).