GreenSlate Announces Strategic Growth Investment from Francisco Partners

By: Francisco Partners via Business Wire

February 10, 2023 at 09:00 AM EST

GreenSlate, a leading provider of payroll and production accounting solutions for the entertainment industry, today announced a strategic growth investment from Francisco Partners (“FP”), a leading global investment firm that specializes in partnering with technology businesses. GreenSlate’s Founder and CEO, John Finn, will remain a significant equity holder. As part of the transaction, VSS Capital Partners (“VSS”), a private investment firm and an existing investor in the business, will make a new equity investment into the Company.

Established in 2004, GreenSlate has transformed the payroll and accounting process for content producers with its technology-driven solutions. With its comprehensive all-in-one platform, production accountants can more efficiently track production expenses and pay their crew. Today, GreenSlate manages some of the largest episodic budgets in production and supports some of the biggest names in the entertainment industry, including Netflix, Paramount, Imagine Entertainment, Tyler Perry Studios, and many others. With its proven track record, scalable and modern solution, GreenSlate is elevating the standard of productivity and service for production finance professionals.

John Finn, GreenSlate Founder and CEO, said, “We are very excited to announce this new investment from Francisco Partners, which will allow us to accelerate our innovation and continue to focus on providing best-in-class service and state-of-the-art technology to our customers. Our approach to supporting production teams and production accountants specifically has been unique from the get-go. We’ve designed our platform from the ground up with digital workflows at the core and a mission to use technology to make every aspect of payroll and production accounting easier, more accurate, and more secure for every customer and the crews they employ. This new investment and partnership with FP will enable us to further advance that mission.”

“We are thrilled to partner with John and GreenSlate on the next phase of the Company’s growth journey. John and his team have done an exceptional job building a market-leading platform in the entertainment industry and their roadmap for future innovation is especially exciting,” said Ashley Evans, Partner at Francisco Partners.

“The GreenSlate platform is highly differentiated in its category and is uniquely positioned to help content producers streamline their financial workflows and better leverage their data. We are very excited to partner with GreenSlate to continue to extend its technology leadership in the industry,” added Kevin Wei, Principal at Francisco Partners.

Trent Hickman, Managing Director at VSS, said, “When we initially invested in GreenSlate in 2018, we were very excited by GreenSlate’s vision and capacity to drive real change in its market sector. Since then, GreenSlate has delivered tremendous growth, led by its digital-first platform and commitment to the highest levels of customer service. With FP’s partnership, we are delighted to continue to support the Company through its next stage of growth.”

The transaction closed in February 2023. Financial terms are not being disclosed.

American Discovery Capital served as financial advisor and Ropes & Gray LLP served as legal advisor to GreenSlate. Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison LLP served as legal adviser to Francisco Partners.

About GreenSlate

GreenSlate is a provider of technology-enabled payroll and accounting solutions for the entertainment industry. Leveraging nearly two decades of experience in the entertainment industry, GreenSlate advances the business of content production by seamlessly integrating people, processes, and technology to meet the essential business needs of content producers.

Simplifying what shouldn't be complicated, GreenSlate builds the industry's most intuitive production accounting software, paperless payroll processing, and digital workflow solutions, with more innovative applications and products on the way. From budget to delivery, GreenSlate's technology, tax management, and benefits services enable production teams to focus more on what they do best - creating inspiring content. For more information on GreenSlate, please visit www.gslate.com.

About Francisco Partners

Francisco Partners is a leading global investment firm that specializes in partnering with technology and technology-enabled businesses. Since its launch over 20 years ago, Francisco Partners has invested in more than 400 technology companies, making it one of the most active and longstanding investors in the technology industry. With approximately $45 billion in capital raised to date, the firm invests in opportunities where its deep sectoral knowledge and operational expertise can help companies realize their full potential. For more information on Francisco Partners, please visit www.franciscopartners.com.

About VSS

VSS is a private investment firm that invests in the healthcare, education, and business services industries. Headquartered in New York, VSS provides capital for growth financing, recapitalizations, strategic acquisitions, and buyouts to lower middle market companies and management teams with the goal of building companies organically as well as through a focused add-on acquisition program. VSS makes privately negotiated investments across the capital structure and invests in situations requiring control or non-control equity, mezzanine securities, and structured equity securities. VSS has over three decades of experience, made investments in 95 portfolio companies, with over 400 add-on acquisitions, and manages $4 billion in aggregate committed capital across 8 funds. For more information, please visit: www.vss.com.