HOLLAND—Seaport Capital, a New York City-based private equity firm, announced that it has made a strategic investment in Rutherford & Associates Inc..
Rutherford provides software for beverage distributors, including route accounting, warehouse management, forecasting, and mobile sales capabilities through its proprietary product, eoStar.
Seaport funded the investment through Seaport Capital Partners V, a $230 million private equity fund.
Rutherford’s eoStar has been serving bottlers and beverage distributors since 2001. The on-premise and software-as-a-service versions of the product provide a full overview of the clients’ entire operations while improving cost efficiencies and optimizing overall business performance.
“We’ve been looking for the right strategic partner to take our business to the next level,” said company founder Mike Rutherford. “Seaport has a proven track record of providing the necessary growth capital and operational resources to successfully grow recurring-revenue businesses such as ours. I am looking forward to working with Seaport to continue developing our market-leading platform to better serve and expand our client base worldwide.”
Seaport Capital Partner Scott McCormack added: “We’ve been following Rutherford’s business for some time now, and we’ve consistently been impressed with their long-standing entrepreneurship and focus on building a superior software platform. Rutherford’s management team has been successful in attracting a wide range of clients, and we are excited at the opportunity to grow their customer base.”
Simultaneously with Seaport’s investment, the company announced seasoned technology executive Jim Clishem as CEO. Clishem brings extensive management experience building and growing various software and infrastructure businesses.
“I look forward to applying my experience in order to grow our capabilities and execute on the company’s strategic plans while continually improving how we serve our clients,” Clishem said. “Rutherford has achieved great success over the years, and I’m looking forward to building upon this success to improve the business operations for all of our clients around the globe.”
The existing Rutherford leadership team remains in place. Founder Mike Rutherford will now have the title of chief technology officer or CTO.
This story was published by Technology Century.
