Clairmail to be Acquired for US$173 million by LSE-listed Monitise Group

This news hit the wire a few hours ago. We are finding some great companies to back across the USA, as this news demonstrates.

Clairmail Inc., of San Rafael, CA, will be acquired by Monitise Group (LSE: MONI.L) of London, UK. Monitise will acquire Clairmail for ~US$173 million, pending shareholder approval. The transaction will allow Monitise to further enhance its position as the global leader in the fast expanding market for mobile money. Once the acquisition is completed, the combined businesses will process billions of transactions a year and more than $10 billion of payments and transfers on a weekly annualized basis. Closing is expected prior to June 30th, 2012.

Our Fund III committed US$7.5 million of True Growth Capital to Clairmail. VC investors include Investor Growth Capital, JAFCO Ventures, Norwest Northwest Venture Partners and Outlook Ventures. Congrats to them all, CEO Pete Daffern and CFO Steve Anderson, plus the rest of the Clairmail team.

Goldman Sachs International acted as financial adviser and Canaccord Genuity Limited as Nominated Adviser and Broker to Monitise in connection with the Acquisition.

Other recent acquisitions of Wellington Fund III portfolio companies include Ericsson’s pending acquisition of Belair Networks, 3M’s acquisition of MTI Global’s PolyFab division, Nokia’s acquisition of OZ Communications, Outstart’s acquisition of Eedo Knowledgeware, Pearson PLC’s acquisition of Administrative Assistants and CDC Software’s acquisition of Truition Inc.

MRM