February 2024
Sophos
Canaccord Genuity Advises Sophos Solutions, a Portfolio Company of Advent International, on its Sale to GFT
Acquisition will expand combined companies’ core banking expertise, client base, footprint, and team by almost 20%
Canaccord Genuity has advised Colombia-based core banking expert Sophos Solutions S.A.S. on its sale to global digital transformation pioneer GFT Technologies SE. With the acquisition of Sophos, GFT will become one of the top three banking IT services providers across Latin America1, while also increasing its global delivery capability. Sophos was previously a portfolio company of Advent International, one of the largest and most experienced global private equity investors.
Sophos Solutions is a multinational IT firm based in Colombia that supports the technological transformation of key financial institutions across several markets worldwide. The company offers solutions for banking transformation, cloud services, data intelligence, and AI, as well as digital solutions with vast expertise in core banking. Sophos was founded in Colombia in 2006 by a group of innovators from India with the goal of providing cutting-edge software solutions to financial institutions. In 2020, private equity firm Advent International invested in the company.
Over the years, Sophos has grown significantly to more than 1,700 employees worldwide with subsidiaries in six different countries, including the United States, Mexico, Colombia, Chile, Panama, and India. The company operates in more than 14 countries, providing digital transformation and software product engineering to major top-tier banks and financial institutions.
GFT is a digital transformation pioneer. By leveraging next-generation technologies, the company enables clients to boost their productivity with intelligent software solutions. GFT focuses on Digital Finance, Enterprise AI & Data Solutions, and Platform Modernisation. GFT's strengths include deep technological excellence, a strong ecosystem of partners, and industry expertise. The company is agile@scale and boosts digital transformation for clients from the finance and insurance sectors, as well as the manufacturing industry. GFT talents create, implement, and manage software applications to enable innovative businesses while complying with regulations. With locations in more than 15 markets around the globe, GFT ensures proximity to its clients. The company draws on more than 35 years of experience and a global team of more than 10,000 determined talents. GFT provides them with career opportunities in the most innovative areas of software engineering. The GFT Technologies SE share is listed in the SDAX index of the German Stock Exchange (ticker: GFT-XE).
Sophos is especially renowned for its core banking, AI, and cloud modernisation expertise, as well as innovation and digital transformation. GFT clients will benefit from expanded delivery capacity and access to new expertise, including in solutions for core banking with Sophos’ established partners. For Sophos’ clients, which include Colombia’s most relevant financial institutions, the acquisition means access to the additional large GFT talent pool, extensive experience in successfully implementing next generation technology, more partners like Thought Machine, and pre-built solutions – all of which combined translates into a shorter time to market and effective services delivery for all clients.
With the acquisition of Sophos, GFT is increasing its presence to 20 countries, six of which are in Latin America: Brazil, Mexico, and Costa Rica are now complemented by Colombia, Chile, and Panama. The combined impact of both companies will result in GFT ranking as a top three provider of IT services for banking across Latin America1. In addition, GFT’s global headcount will grow by almost 20 percent to more than 12,000. This is the largest number of talents ever added in a GFT acquisition.
In 2022, Sophos generated revenues of approximately 257 billion Colombian pesos (currently approximately 60 million euros), and GFT reported €730.14 million euros worldwide.
1) Market Share Analysis: IT Services, Worldwide, 2022 (gartner.com); Forecast: Enterprise IT Spending by Vertical Industry Market, Worldwide, 2021-2027, 4Q23 Update (gartner.com)
