HGGC acquires Instantly and merges it with SSI

PALO ALTO, Calif.—January 27, 2016—HGGC, a leading middle market private equity firm, today announced it has completed the acquisition of Instantly, Inc., a provider of online and mobile audiences and insights technology tools. Instantly will be immediately integrated with HGGC portfolio company Survey Sampling International (“SSI”), a leading provider of data solutions and technology for consumer and business-to-business research. Terms of the private transaction were not disclosed.

“Clients will greatly benefit from the integration of Instantly into SSI’s operations and technology portfolio,” said SSI President and CEO Chris Fanning. “This combination will create attractive scale economies and accelerate our industry-leading product development roadmap with respect to online and mobile-driven solutions.”

Instantly marks the fourth add-on investment to the SSI platform since HGGC’s investment in December 2014. SSI added MRops in April 2015, and Australia-based MyOpinions and New Zealand-based SmileCity in July 2015.
“We’re very proud of the progress made over the past 12 months in strengthening SSI’s market position, which is completely aligned with the plan we and management laid out for the business from day one,” said Rich Lawson, CEO and Co-Founder of HGGC, and Chairman of SSI. “Chris Fanning and his team have done a tremendous job integrating these strategic acquisitions and managing significant organic growth, all while augmenting SSI’s capabilities to meet global marketers’ demands for greater sophistication across all channels.”

“Instantly has built a strong reputation among marketers for its end-to-end product insight solutions—especially via the mobile channel,” added Hudson Smith, Managing Director at HGGC. “It’s exciting to bring this talent to SSI, and support them with additional resources that will accelerate innovation and deliver best-in-class market research technology.”

JEGI served as financial advisor to Instantly.

About HGGC
HGGC is a leading middle-market private equity firm with over $2.4 billion in cumulative capital commitments. Based in Palo Alto, Calif., HGGC is distinguished by its “Advantaged Investing” model that enables the firm to source and acquire scalable businesses at attractive multiples through partnerships with management teams, founders and sponsors who reinvest alongside HGGC, creating a strong alignment of interests. Over its history, HGGC has completed nearly 50 transactions, including global platform investments, strategic add-on acquisitions, recapitalizations, and liquidity events with an aggregate value of over $10 billion. More information is available at www.hggc.com

About SSI
SSI is the premier global provider of data solutions and technology for consumer and business-to-business survey research, reaching respondents in 100+ countries via Internet, telephone, mobile/wireless and mixed-access offerings. SSI staff operates from 30 offices in 21countries, offering sample, data collection, CATI, questionnaire design consultation, programming and hosting, online custom reporting and data processing. SSI’s 3,600 employees serve more than 2,500 clients worldwide. Visit SSI at www.surveysampling.com.

About Instantly, Inc.
Instantly™ is the world’s largest audiences and insights platform, providing researchers and marketers with immediate access to consumers and automated insights tools to make faster, better decisions. Instantly is based in Los Angeles, with offices in the United States, Europe and Asia. Visit Instantly at https://www.instant.ly/