Meltwater Lands New Investor

Meltwater, which first made its name around media monitoring and then got active in business intelligence using AI and big data analytics techniques, is picking up a new investor. Verdane, a Norwegian private equity firm that earlier this year closed a $1 billion+ fund to make investments in scaling tech companies, is taking an 11% stake in Meltwater, at a company valuation of €542 million ($592 million), valuing the stake at around $65 million. But that’s not the only deal that is going down with this transaction. The investment is coming by way of Verdane taking a substantial stake in Fountain Venture, the investment vehicle controlled by the founder and current chairman of Meltwater, Jørn Lyseggen. Meltwater, until earlier this year, was traded publicly on the Norwegian stock exchange. Lyseggen oversaw the company going private again earlier this year in a deal with two private equity firms, Altor and Marlin, and held his remaining share via Fountain. (The take-private deal was the last disclosed valuation and the one that Meltwater currently cites.) Verdane invested in Fountain Venture rather than directly in Meltwater because the plan will be to partner with Fountain to make future investments together in startups working in areas like AI.