Accordion Formally Launches Maestro, The First Software Platform Built to Maximize Value In Private Equity-Backed Companies
Early Adoption Of Maestro Underscores Market Need For Digital Tools To Drive Operational Improvements
NEW YORK, March 4, 2020 /PRNewswire-PRWeb/ -- Accordion, a private equity-focused financial consulting and technology firm, today formally launched Maestro, a software platform designed to maximize value in private equity-backed companies. Built by and for private equity (PE), Maestro is not only Accordion's first product, it is the first technology of its kind.
"Maestro is pioneering the Deal Performance Management (DPM) category," said Nick Leopard, CEO, Accordion. "As the first DPM software, it fills a critical need in the Private Techquity landscape. Maestro is tech-enabling the value creation process by providing PE firms a more strategic and institutionalized way to manage their investments from diligence through exit."
Added Jon Apter, CFO, Accordion and Executive Advisor, Maestro, "We've spent a decade working with 200+ sponsors and their portfolio companies on operational improvement best practices. What we've learned – and what we know – is that the value creation process is maturing and hard. We've channeled years of insights into the creation of a technology platform to help make it easier."
Private equity is undergoing a significant transformation. LPs are selectively investing in those funds that can showcase a professionalized, proprietary approach to driving operational improvements. In fact, according to PWC's recent Private Equity Trend Report, 88% of respondents named operational improvement as a top factor influencing investor rationale.
Recognizing the potential for accelerating exit, sponsors are also embracing a new portfolio wide-focus on driving value. According to The Boston Consulting Group, deals with operational improvement generate the highest returns, even when they have the highest purchase prices.
"And yet," said Amy Newlan, SVP and Head of Client Development, Maestro, "there is no process in place to codify, institutionalize, or digitize those improvements. The approach to driving value should be easy to scale and replicate, but it's not. Fund intellectual capital floats in a sea of spreadsheets and dispersed documents, if documented at all. Maestro changes that."
As the first and only DPM platform, Maestro creates a collaborative workspace to centralize everything required to plan, manage, and assess portfolio companies' growth throughout the investment lifecycle. More specifically, Maestro allows sponsors to tech-enable across 4 critical areas:
1. Leverage Best Practices: Funds can use Maestro to institutionalize their firm best practices – or tap into a library of expert playbooks – making their approach scalable and repeatable across the portfolio.
2. Track (What's Important): Maestro promotes transparency and ensures accountability by enabling insight into portfolio company performance – from the strategic objectives to the tactical initiatives.
3. Partner Seamlessly: Maestro enables the development of targeted, actionable, and achievable plans with company management teams – enhancing communication and strengthening alignment around the growth plan.
4. Optimize Talent: Maestro allows firms to access a disciplined and customizable framework to ensure that portfolio company leaders are in the right roles – and track the team's progress against plan.
Continued Newlan, "PE has long resisted technology, but we're starting to see a critical shift toward meaningful embracement of digital tools. Nowhere is this shift more apparent than with value creation – an area where firms are hungry for technology to replicate and enhance their approach."
According to Accordion's State of the PE Sponsor-CFO Relationship Report, 88% of PE sponsors and 86% of PE-backed CFOs believe having a digital value creation plan would improve the PE-firm-CFO working dynamic. More broadly, 89% of portfolio company management teams believe tech-enabled collaboration would promote a more productive relationship with their sponsors.
Maestro's early adoption underscores those statistics: After completing a soft launch to select charter firms in 2019, over 90 leading private equity and growth fund sponsors are already live on the platform or are in advanced discussions about the software.
Concluded Newlan, "The demand has been overwhelming, but not surprising, given the acute market need to elevate and institutionalize value creation. Maestro solves that need. It helps GPs create, maintain, and track their approach to driving value. It creates efficiencies and promotes transparencies within the PE firm and with company management. It enables GPs to better understand which levers should be pulled to maximize returns, and it establishes consistencies preventing unnecessary value leakage. We believe that Maestro represents the future of portfolio operations and we are excited to officially launch it to the wider market."
About Accordion
Accordion is the go-to partner to the private equity community – driving value creation through financial consulting services and portfolio operations technology. Focused exclusively within the office of the CFO, Accordion works alongside sponsor management teams to support initiatives across the entire finance function. Channeling years of execution and insight into portfolio operations best practices, Accordion created Maestro: the first and only software platform built to maximize value creation in private equity-backed companies. Together, Accordion and Maestro serve the world's premier private equity firms and their portfolio companies from offices in New York, San Francisco, Boston, Dallas, and Charlotte. http://www.accordion.com
SOURCE Accordion
Share this article