Ambienta sells Namirial to Bain Capital

Milan/London/Paris/Munich — Ambi­enta SGR S.p.A (“Ambi­enta”), one of Europe’s largest asset mana­gers focu­sed enti­rely on envi­ron­men­tal sustaina­bi­lity, has signed a binding agree­ment to sell Nami­rial S.p.A (“Nami­rial”), a global leader in digi­tal tran­sac­tion manage­ment. Ambi­enta is selling its majo­rity stake in the company to Bain Capi­tal, one of the world’s leading private invest­ment firms. 

Foun­der Enrico Giaco­melli and the manage­ment team led by CEO Max Pelle­g­rini will retain a signi­fi­cant stake in the company, under­li­ning their contin­ued commit­ment to the company’s future growth strategy.

Foun­ded in 2000, Nami­rial is a leading provi­der of Soft­­ware-as-a-Service (SaaS) solu­ti­ons that enable the complete digi­tiza­tion of busi­­ness-criti­­cal tran­sac­tions and proces­ses. Nami­rial opera­tes in 20 count­ries and employs 1,000 people in 28 offices. The company helps compa­nies to go paper­less and improve opera­tio­nal perfor­mance while redu­cing their envi­ron­men­tal impact. 

Since inves­t­ing in Nami­rial in 2020, Ambi­enta has grown the company signi­fi­cantly by streng­thening the corpo­rate orga­niza­tion and leader­ship, appoin­ting a new CEO to profes­sio­na­lize the company’s opera­ti­ons and conti­nuously impro­ving the product port­fo­lio. In colla­bo­ra­tion with the manage­ment team, Ambi­enta over­saw a rigo­rous buy-and-build program that resul­ted in seven acqui­si­ti­ons and enab­led Nami­rial to conso­li­date its posi­tion in the market for compli­­ance-criti­­cal digi­tal tran­sac­tion manage­ment dome­sti­cally and inter­na­tio­nally. As a result, during Ambienta’s owner­ship, Nami­rial more than doubled its head­count, tripled reve­nue, more than quadru­pled profi­ta­bi­lity and expan­ded its global reach in Europe, Latin America and Southe­ast Asia. Today, the company serves 150,000 custo­mers world­wide with over 3 million users in more than 85 countries. 

Digi­tiza­tion has repla­ced paper-based proces­ses and perso­nal inter­ac­tions with digi­tal work­flows, redu­cing the need for paper and travel — a direct contri­bu­tion to envi­ron­men­tal sustaina­bi­lity. By signi­fi­cantly redu­cing paper-based proces­ses and the asso­cia­ted resource requi­re­ments — inclu­ding energy, water and CO₂ emis­si­ons from paper produc­tion — as well as the redu­ced need for archi­ving space, Nami­rial enables a more effi­ci­ent and envi­ron­men­tally friendly way of working. Ambi­enta reco­gni­zed early on that the digi­ta­liza­tion of busi­ness proces­ses offers nume­rous bene­fits and is essen­tial for sustainable econo­mic progress. Ambi­enta ther­e­fore iden­ti­fied Nami­rial as a pioneer in eco-frien­d­­li­­ness and a key player in this transformation. 

Namirial’s remar­kable growth under Ambienta’s leader­ship has shown signi­fi­cant posi­tive envi­ron­men­tal results: By the end of 2024, Namirial’s trans­for­ma­tion of its custo­mers’ busi­ness proces­ses has enab­led them to save over 1.2 million cubic meters of water (equi­va­lent to 500 Olym­pic swim­ming pools), more than 15,000 tons of crude oil equi­va­lent energy (equi­va­lent to the annual energy consump­tion of 320,000 refri­ge­ra­tors) and reduce CO₂ emis­si­ons by almost 50,000 tons (equi­va­lent to the CO₂ absorp­tion of 2.2 million trees).

Gian­carlo Beraudo, Private Equity Part­ner at Ambi­enta, comm­ents: “The deve­lo­p­ment of Nami­rial is a prime exam­ple of the poten­tial of high-growth compa­nies bene­fiting from trends in envi­ron­men­tal sustaina­bi­lity. It shows how by combi­ning our focus on sustaina­­bi­­lity-driven busi­nesses with a consis­tent value crea­tion stra­tegy, we can deli­ver success for compa­nies, inves­tors and the envi­ron­ment. We are proud to have crea­ted an Italian ‘unicorn’ and to have been part of Namirial’s impres­sive deve­lo­p­ment into an inter­na­tio­nal market leader in digi­tal tran­sac­tion management.”

Enrico Giaco­melli, Foun­der and Chair­man of Nami­rial, adds: “Part­ne­ring with Ambi­enta over the past four years has been a truly trans­for­ma­tive jour­ney. The company’s stra­te­gic vision and unwa­ve­ring support have helped us acce­le­rate our growth, enter new markets and streng­then our global presence — all while stay­ing true to our values. But what has made this jour­ney truly extra­or­di­nary is the incre­di­ble Nami­rial team: an inter­na­tio­nal group of passio­nate, dedi­ca­ted and talen­ted people who make the seemingly impos­si­ble possi­ble day after day.”

Max Pelle­g­rini, CEO of Nami­rial, adds: “Ambi­enta has been an inva­luable part­ner for our growth and inno­va­tion. Ambienta’s exper­tise and commit­ment have enab­led us to streng­then our opera­ti­ons, invest in our team and exceed our stra­te­gic goals. We are proud of what we have achie­ved toge­ther and confi­dent that we have built a solid foun­da­tion for sustainable success in this new chap­ter of the company’s history.”

Giovanni Camera, Part­ner at Bain Capi­tal, comm­ents: “This invest­ment further streng­thens our successful presence in Italy and in the tech­no­logy space and provi­des an exci­ting oppor­tu­nity to support Namirial’s mission — to deli­ver inno­va­tive digi­tal soft­ware solu­ti­ons that trans­form the way busi­nesses operate. Nami­rial has an impres­sive track record of sustained growth and conti­nuous inno­va­tion in digi­tal tran­sac­tion manage­ment. We are confi­dent that our expe­ri­ence and exper­tise in scaling tech­­no­­logy-driven busi­nesses will serve us well in support­ing Enrico, Max and the entire manage­ment team to drive Namirial’s growth and further expand its market presence as a global leader.”

The tran­sac­tion is expec­ted to close in the second quar­ter of 2025, subject to custo­mary closing condi­ti­ons and regu­la­tory approvals.

Consul­tant Ambienta: 

Arma Part­ners, Roth­schild & Co, Peder­soli Gattai, Bain&Co, KPMG, FRM, West Monroe, Marsh advised.

About Ambi­enta

Ambi­enta is a Euro­pean envi­ron­men­tal sustaina­bi­lity inves­tor specia­li­zing in private equity, public markets and private credit. Based in Milan, London, Paris and Munich, Ambi­enta mana­ges assets of appro­xi­m­ately €4 billion. The focus is on invest­ments in private and listed compa­nies that are driven by envi­ron­men­tal mega­trends and whose products or services improve resource effi­ci­ency and envi­ron­men­tal protec­tion. Ambi­enta has made 82 private equity invest­ments to date. In the public equity sector, Ambi­enta has laun­ched one of the world’s largest abso­lute return funds fully focu­sed on envi­ron­men­tal sustaina­bi­lity and mana­ges a whole range of other sustainable invest­ment products from low-risk multi-asset funds to long-only equity funds. Ambi­enta has also recently laun­ched a private credit stra­tegy, which — as with the other asset clas­ses — focu­ses on envi­ron­men­tal sustainability.

As a pioneer, Ambi­enta was one of the first signa­to­ries of the Prin­ci­ples for Respon­si­ble Invest­ment (UN PRI) in 2012 and achie­ved Bene­fit Corpo­ra­tion (B Corp) status in 2019. In 2020, Ambi­enta became a member of the Insti­tu­tio­nal Inves­tors Group on Climate Change (IIGCC), and in 2023 Ambi­enta set another posi­tive exam­ple for the indus­try by joining the Science-Based Targets Initia­tive (SBTi) as one of the few asset mana­gers to do so. www.ambientasgr.com