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B2Gnow Completes Acquisition of Panther International, Leading GovTech SaaS Provider
Online PR News – 25-May-2021 – Phoenix, AZ – B2Gnow, the national leader in supplier diversity and diversity contract compliance software, recently completed the acquisition of Panther International, the leading provider of public sector grant management and compliance software. B2Gnow is a portfolio company of Polaris Partners, a Boston-based private equity firm. No financial terms were disclosed.
Lightning Partners served as the exclusive financial and strategic advisor to Panther International in the transaction.
B2Gnow and Panther International provide software platforms utilized across a wide spectrum of federal, state and local departments and agencies, and both have an extensive footprint in the transportation sector. Jointly, B2Gnow and Panther International provide software to 33 state departments of transportation (transit, aviation and rail), the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), the Federal Highway Administration (FHWA), and numerous airports and transit authorities.
The B2Gnow platform allows diversity program administrators to manage the certification, tracking, contract compliance, spend analysis, and goals related to supplier diversity and contract compliance programs (i.e. DBE, MBE, WBE, SBE), facilitating meaningful increases in spending with historically underutilized businesses (HUB) and resulting in positive economic impact on communities across the country. The B2Gnow system also provides a comprehensive tool to navigate and manage the DBE program requirements mandated by the United States Department of Transportation (USDOT) and downstream state DOTs. The Panther International BlackCat platform serves many of the same types of public-sector transportation agencies, including state DOTs, allowing organizations to track grant requirements, grant-related spend, and grant progress.
“We are very excited to have Panther International join the B2Gnow family,” said Justin Talbot-Stern, CEO of B2Gnow. “Both organizations have a deep understanding of the complex compliance and regulatory organizations they serve – and many of those are shared clients in the transportation space. Together, the organizations can share and collaborate our respective domain expertise to ensure we continue to develop and provide best-in-class solutions to the client communities we are passionate about serving.”
The complete Panther International team has joined B2Gnow and will continue to serve their grant management clients, including Panther International CEO and aviation industry expert, Chase Stockon, Senior VP and transit expert Scott Entin, and Operations VP and DOT expert, Becky Mainardi. “We look forward to taking the Panther BlackCat platforms to new heights with the support and collaboration of the B2Gnow team behind us,” Stockon said. The combined B2Gnow and Panther International team will be nearly 100 employees strong across 11 states, with primary offices in Phoenix, Arizona and St. Petersburg, Florida.
About B2Gnow
Founded in 1999, B2Gnow is the most comprehensive and widely utilized Supplier Diversity and Compliance software solution in the United States. B2Gnow is utilized by hundreds of government, education, and private sector organizations that manage over one million vendors on the platform. The B2Gnow cloud-based solution allows organizations to track the participation, utilization and contracting details of disadvantaged businesses, such as minority business enterprises and women businesses enterprises. B2Gnow maintains the single largest database of disadvantaged business entities in North America, helping the federal government, more than half of state governments, and hundreds of counties, cities, airports, and Fortune 500 companies manage their supplier diversity and compliance programs through technology solutions. The modular platform addresses all aspects of supplier management on the diversity and compliance spectrum. For more information visit http://www.b2gnow.com.
About Panther International
Panther International is the leading provider of public transportation grant management and data solutions for state transportation agencies. Panther International products were designed by experienced industry experts to provide efficient data management solutions for granting and pass-through government transportation agencies. Panther International has been proudly serving and providing state and federal transportation agencies secure, hosted grant and data management solutions for over 25 years. For more information visit http://www.pantherinternational.com.
About Lightning Partners
Lightning Partners provides direction and advice to growth technology companies and their Boards of Directors on M&A, capital raising and strategy that drive significant shareholder value. The firm consistently and tenaciously delivers optimum results for entrepreneurs, growth companies and their investors, including industry leading valuations, transaction terms and close rates. For more information, visit www.lightningpartners.com.
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