Opera Solutions Secures $84 Million in Growth Capital

NEW YORK, September 14, 2011 /PRNewswire/ --

Big Data Predictive Analytics Firm Receives Funding from Silver Lake Sumeru, Accel-KKR, and Other Leading Technology Investors

Opera Solutions, LLC, a global leader in applying machine learning science and advanced Big Data predictive analytics to drive superior profit and performance for its customers, today announced its first outside equity funding, an $84 million minority investment led by Silver Lake Sumeru, with participation from Accel-KKR, Invus Financial Advisors, JGE Capital Management, and Tola Capital. The equity financing is one of the largest ever for a private company in the Big Data predictive analytics space, and will be used to accelerate growth and cement Opera's position as a leader in the sector.

"We are delighted that such a distinguished group of investors shares our optimism and confidence in Opera's strategic approach and our capabilities," said Arnab Gupta, Chief Executive Officer and Founder of Opera Solutions.  "Opera's core value lies in turning Big Data into Small Data - that is, using advanced machine intelligence to extract valuable signals and patterns from massive data flows and turn them into a stream of analytically enriched guidance brought to the front lines of our customers' businesses."  

He added, "The 'infrastructure of intelligence' we create drives significant business performance improvement, whether we are working with the Global 250 to transform their massive data reserves into valuable strategic assets, or delivering specific solutions in fraud, risk management, customer attrition, procurement optimization, cyber security, portfolio valuation, and the like."

Opera creates and provides hosted delivery of a suite of analytics solutions to market-leading companies in financial services, government, healthcare, and other sectors.  Its solutions are powered by its Big Data analytics and signals processing platform, named Vektor™. Founded in 2004, the company has 600 employees and offices in North America, Europe, and Asia.

"As organizations adopt outcomes-oriented predictive analytics solutions, Opera stands out as being uniquely poised for growth," said John Brennan, Managing Director of Silver Lake Sumeru.  "We believe customers will need - and invest in - analytics applications that can generate specific business process recommendations.  The sophisticated machine learning approaches of the Vektor platform, combined with Opera's extraordinarily talented team, can bring these superior analytic solutions into customers' ongoing operations without extensive IT or infrastructure investment."

Adds Ben Bisconti, Managing Director of Accel-KKR, "With 160 scientists, Opera has built one of the leading advanced analytics capabilities in the world.  But what is even more impressive is that they can take this science and translate it into solutions that create real and ongoing profit impact for their customers.  Their longstanding relationships with leading global companies in a range of sectors attest to this ability."

Morgan Stanley & Co. Incorporated acted as exclusive financial advisor to Opera in this transaction.

About Opera Solutions

Opera Solutions is one of the fastest-growing applied Big Data analytics companies in the world, creating and delivering advanced analytics solutions that drive substantially better business results for top-tier organizations in financial services, government, healthcare, and other selected sectors.   The company is one of the world's premier centers of predictive analytics and machine learning, with 160 scientists from more than 20 different disciplines. Scientists team with business domain professionals, data management experts, and software developers to create Opera's offerings.  

Opera offers two classes of solutions:  for the Global 250, Opera determines where these enterprises can extract maximum value from their Big Data reserves, and then builds the transformative solutions that capture this value. For Fortune 1000 to mid-sized companies, Opera offers Vertical Solutions, creating and providing hosted, ongoing delivery of applications focused on specific business and functional problems such as fraud, risk management, marketing effectiveness, agent performance improvement, portfolio valuation, spend optimization, and more.

The company delivers its solutions through a unique, end-to-end, "Analytics as an Ongoing Service" model.  The company's proprietary Big Data analytics and signal processing platform, Vektor™, supports the rapid and ongoing structuring and extraction of signals and insights from customers' Big Data flows.  Vektor seamlessly integrates a stream of analytically-enriched guidance into everyday operations, with only minimal new IT or infrastructure investment on customers' parts.  

Opera is headquartered in the New York metro area with offices in New York, Jersey City, Boston, San Diego, London, Paris, New Delhi, and Shanghai.  For more information, visit http://www.operasolutions.com.

About Silver Lake Sumeru

Silver Lake Sumeru is a global leader in private investments in middle-market and growth technology companies. The Silver Lake Sumeru team applies fundamental operating insight, deep technology sector expertise, and world-class investing skills to invest in and partner with companies. Silver Lake Sumeru's portfolio includes leading technology companies such as AVI-SPL, i2, Locaweb, Mobile Messenger, Power-One, Primesense, SMART Modular, Spansion and Talend. Silver Lake Sumeru is the middle-market investment fund of Silver Lake, the global leader in private investments in technology and technology-enabled industries. For more information, please visit http://www.silverlake.com.

About Accel-KKR

Accel-KKR is a technology-focused private equity firm that invests primarily in middle-market technology businesses that are well positioned for top-line and bottom-line growth. At the core of Accel-KKR's investment strategy is a commitment to developing strong partnerships with the management teams of its portfolio companies and a focus on building value through the contribution of unique financial, strategic, technical, and operational resources available from Accel-KKR and through its network. Accel-KKR has a particular focus on investments in founder-owned and closely-held private companies, divisional buyouts of larger companies and going-private transactions.  Accel-KKR is headquartered in Menlo Park, California with an additional office in Atlanta, Georgia. For more information, please visit http://www.accel-kkr.com.

About Invus Financial Advisors

Invus Financial Advisors is part of Invus, a New York based investment firm that manages in excess of $4 billion of capital.  Invus has additional offices in London, Paris and Hong Kong.  Invus invests in a variety of equity transactions, including buyouts, longer-term public equity investments, venture capital, and expansion financings. Invus Financial Advisors focuses on non-control investments made in partnership with other investors.

About JGE Capital

Formed in April 1996, JGE Capital Management is a San Francisco-based private investment partnership that invests in the securities of public and private companies through its primary investment vehicle East Peak Partners, L.P., which has a current asset base of approximately $400 million.

About Tola Capital

Tola Capital is a private-equity firm focused on investments in enterprise software companies.  It works closely with portfolio companies to add value to their businesses based upon deep experience and understanding of growth levers for the software industry. The firm invests in businesses in North America, Europe, and India. Tola Capital was founded in 2010 by Sheila Gulati, who has a long history within the software industry, most recently as a General Manager at Microsoft Corporation.

Media Contact:
Gardant Communications for Opera Solutions
Switchboard: +44-(0)-2079765555
Lawrence Dore: +44-(0)-7780220145
Sophie Hodgeson: +44-(0)-7960577205
Timothy Bull: +44-(0)-7780220272

For Opera Solutions:
Laura Teller
Chief Marketing Officer
+1-646-520-4338 (office); +1-917-251-5467 (mobile)
lteller@operasolutions.com