Combined company to offer AI-driven, real-time hold-in-place and search-in-place eDiscovery and Information Governance Platform.
TEMPE, Ariz., and AMSTERDAM, The Netherlands, — IPRO, the market leader in predictive eDiscovery and Information Governance software solutions for corporations, government agencies, and legal partners, is proud to announce the acquisition of ZyLAB, creators of the ZyLAB ONE and ZyLAB Legal Hold products. The combination provides IPRO’s clients with extended capabilities in legal hold automation, advanced analytics, and cloud capabilities.
ZyLAB’s fully automated notifications and custodian acknowledgements mitigate against accidental data loss and evidence spoliation. With this acquisition, IPRO now delivers early data assessment (EDA) with real-time, hold-in-place data preservation. This simplifies legal and compliance processes, resulting in the seamless automation of organizational information governance.
“This is a truly exciting next step for IPRO and our customers,” said Dean Brown, CEO of IPRO. “Joining forces with the incredible team of people at ZyLAB enables us to provide uniquely innovative product capabilities AND expand our geographic footprint in Europe and the UK. With this acquisition, we are even better positioned to deliver upstream solutions to help our clients and partners manage the risks and costs associated with the continued growth of their unstructured data and legal discovery costs.”
According to the 2021 Market Guide for E-Discovery Solutions, Gartner found that “Organizations are using e-discovery software vendor and service provider offerings that “extend left” in the Electronic Discovery Reference Model to establish proactive information governance.” Integrating ZyLAB’s best-of-breed Legal Hold and analytics solutions directly within the IPRO governance and eDiscovery platform will provide clients with the most flexible, scalable, and powerful Electronic Discovery Reference Model (EDRM) workflow in the legal industry.
“Founded in 1983, ZyLAB’s software has been battled tested in some of the largest corporate fraud investigations and government inquiries and was deployed during the historic international war crime tribunals. ZyLAB has been working on large scale Data Science in eDiscovery, especially with the contributions of Professor Johannes (Jan) Scholtes, who has been involved with the company since 1988,” said ZyLAB CEO, Dennis van der Veeke. “We chose IPRO, after considering all major players on the market, because of its commitment to innovation, security, and customer success.”
In Europe, ZyLAB will continue operations using the well-respected and recognized ZyLAB brand. As a Netherlands registered corporation, ZyLAB will continue to respect all EU’s rules regarding data jurisdiction and sovereignty, for on-premises software and cloud-based or hosted solutions. ZyLAB key product development will remain based in The Netherlands, and all European sales and support operations will remain unchanged.
ParkerGale Capital, a Chicago-based investment firm that acquired IPRO in 2017, provided new capital to execute on the ZyLAB acquisition. Marks Baughan served as exclusive financial advisor to ZyLAB and IPRO. DLA Piper served as legal advisor to ZyLAB, while Kirkland & Ellis and De Brauw served as legal advisors to IPRO.
This is IPRO’s third major investment in recent years. Its earlier acquisitions include NetGovern, an Information Governance solution, and inData, a trial and deposition management solution. The result is an industry-leading solution for customers combining AI powered information governance, legal hold, and eDiscovery solutions.
For more information on this transaction, please contact:
Chris Rose
610.616.3298
crose@marbau.com
Ed Murtha
610.365.7283
emurtha@marbau.com
Braeden DeWan
610.365.7284
bdewan@marbau.com
About Marks Baughan Securities
Marks Baughan provides investment banking services to growth companies. Our clients are software, technology-enabled services and data-intensive companies seeking shareholder liquidity or growth capital. We work tirelessly alongside our clients and excel at defensible positioning and disciplined processes that maximize shareholder value. Our professionals come from senior positions at bulge-bracket firms, giving our clients access to the relationships and experience that come from our years of interaction with the top executives and investors in companies in our fields. Our clients receive top-flight advice throughout any advisory relationship, because our boutique approach allows our senior advisors to stay deeply involved with each client on a continuous basis. No handoffs to junior staff. No preferential client relationships. No conflicts of interest.
For additional information on Marks Baughan, see www.marksbaughan.com.
About IPRO
IPRO is reinventing the way organizations interact with their data. By transforming the EDRM and thinking “upstream”, we bring insight far earlier in the eDiscovery process, enabling teams inside and outside your organization to collaborate transparently at any stage, before data is even collected. By thinking about and interacting with your data differently, you’ll eliminate waste and reduce risk. We combine best-in-class governance and eDiscovery software with predictive analytics to give corporations, government agencies, law firms, and legal partners the most open and effective solution to data challenges. We bring you this power with an obsession on time-to-value and your success.
For additional information on IPRO, see www.ipro.com.
About ZyLAB
ZyLAB ONE eDiscovery uses Artificial Intelligence and Data Science tools to facilitate fact-finding missions through large or small electronic datasets related to the business-critical projects of governmental agencies, law firms, and companies of any size. Recognized as “leader” in Gartner’s latest Magic Quadrant for eDiscovery Software, it is also ranked #1 for complete EDRM eDiscovery. ZyLAB ONE eDiscovery is deployed in-house on-premises or in the Cloud (Azure, AWS, private cloud) and also available in a Software-as-a-Services model.
For additional information on ZyLAB, see www.zylab.com.
About ParkerGale
ParkerGale Capital is a private equity firm based in Chicago that invests in founder-owned technology companies and corporate carve-outs where the firm’s operating resources can have a meaningful impact on the outcome. ParkerGale also hosts the Private Equity FunCast available on iTunes, Google Play and wherever you get your podcasts.
For additional information on ParkerGale, see parkergale.com.