Bain Capital Provides Strategic Growth Investment to Caudrilla-backed Chartbeat

Investment supports acceleration of Chartbeat's growth as a leading provider of audience engagement, content analytics & revenue management software solutions for media organizations

CHICAGO and SANTA BARBARA, Calif. and AUSTIN, Texas – Oct. 7, 2024 – Chartbeat, the leading media software platform and a portfolio company of Cuadrilla Capital, LLC ("Cuadrilla"), today announced that it has received a strategic growth investment from Bain Capital's Private Credit Group ("Bain Capital"). Bain Capital will join Cuadrilla as an institutional investor in Chartbeat.

Chartbeat offers an end-to-end media operations software platform. The Chartbeat platform provides content analytics and revenue management software across the digital media landscape that increases audience engagement and loyalty, informs editorial decision-making and accelerates advertising and subscription revenue growth. Chartbeat is trusted by over 1,000 organizations including The Walt Disney Company, Warner Bros. Discovery, NewsCorp, Hearst, and The New York Times and is used in 70 countries.

Since Cuadrilla's acquisition of Chartbeat in 2022, Chartbeat has completed two acquisitions, Lineup Systems, and Tubular Labs, to create one of the industry's deepest media operations SaaS platforms. The additional capital from Bain Capital will empower Chartbeat's continued investments in product innovation and pursuit of additional complementary acquisitions, thereby further enhancing the company's market-leading position.

"Since acquiring Lineup Systems and Tubular Labs last year, we've worked to unite all three products into a single platform to maximize both reach and revenue for our clients, the largest media organizations in the world," said John Saroff, CEO at Chartbeat. "We are excited to bring these solutions to market as a fully integrated platform to deliver greater value across editorial, analytics, sales, and finance. Expanding our partnership to include Bain Capital, a firm with deep software and media expertise, alongside Cuadrilla, provides us with additional resources to fuel our growth and deliver the innovations our clients have come to expect from us."

"Chartbeat has established a leading, differentiated position in the media operations software space because they consistently and effectively deliver an exceptional user experience to digital publishers," said Brad Charchut, a Partner at Bain Capital Credit. "We look forward to contributing our deep, cross-platform experience and insight in SaaS to accelerate Chartbeat's growth and innovation. Together with John, Chartbeat's team, and Cuadrilla, we are aligned with the company's mission of creating lasting value for media organizations," added David Healey, a Director at Bain Captial Credit. 

"In the two years since we backed Chartbeat, they've completed two acquisitions, created a category-defining solution suite and more than tripled in size – all against the backdrop of a challenging macroeconomic environment," said Jonah Sulak and Vikram Abraham, Co-Founders and Managing Partners at Cuadrilla. "We are thrilled with Chartbeat's progress and are equally as excited to welcome Bain Capital as a capital partner to help accelerate Chartbeat's growth and innovation roadmap."

Lincoln International served as financial advisor and Alston & Bird LLP served as legal advisor to Chartbeat and Cuadrilla. Proskauer Rose LLP served as legal advisor to Bain Capital.

About Chartbeat
Chartbeat is a leading content analytics SaaS platform serving the world's largest media enterprises. Chartbeat's real-time and historical dashboards, experimentation and in-page optimization tools, robust reporting, and more help the content and audience teams understand, measure and build business value from the attention earned by their content. For more information, visit www.chartbeat.com.

About Bain Capital Credit
Bain Capital Credit (www.baincapitalcredit.com) is a leading global credit specialist with approximately $45 billion in assets under management. Bain Capital Credit invests across the credit spectrum and in credit-related strategies, including leveraged loans, high-yield bonds, structured products, private middle market loans and bespoke capital solutions. Our team of more than 100 investment professionals creates value through rigorous, independent analysis of thousands of corporate issuers around the world. Bain Capital Credit's dedicated Private Credit Group focuses on providing complete financing solutions to businesses with EBITDA between $10 million and $150 million located in North America, Europe and Asia Pacific. In addition to credit, Bain Capital invests across asset classes including private equity, public equity, venture capital and real estate, and leverages the firm's shared platform to capture opportunities in strategic areas of focus.

About Cuadrilla Capital
Founded in 2021, Cuadrilla Capital, LLC is a leading enterprise software investment firm with over $500 million assets under management. Cuadrilla partners with exceptional SaaS companies with strong product-market fit and significant strategic value to drive accelerated growth and long-term success. The firm is headquartered in Santa Barbara, CA. For more information, visit www.cuadrillacapital.com.