Livingbridge announces investment in automotive software vendor CitNOW Group

Livingbridge, a leading mid-market private equity investor, is pleased to announce its investment in CitNOW Group, a global provider of front-office software to the automotive retail industry.

European mid-market tech investor Tenzing has materially reinvested from its latest fund alongside Livingbridge.

Founded in 2008, CitNOW Group provides market leading software products to franchised car dealerships to improve both efficiency and conversion of sales and aftersales. The suite of software products allow dealerships to digitally engage with a customer at the start of their purchasing journey via video, manage the customer through the sales process and then generate additional revenues and technician workflow efficiencies when the customer brings their vehicle in for service.

The business has expanded its suite of products over time through M&A, most recently with the acquisition of WEB1ON1, an automotive messaging platform based in the Netherlands that broadens the reach, functionality and flexibility of CitNOW Group’s digital communications products throughout the customer journey.

Since its inception, CitNOW Group has rapidly established itself as a global market leader, with over 13 million sales opportunities created, 60 million videos processed and over 10,000 dealer installations across 64 countries to date. It is currently the most penetrated vendor of automotive software in the UK market, with approximately 75% of predominantly franchised dealerships using at least one of its products.

Livingbridge’s investment will enable CitNOW Group to progress its acquisitive strategy in both the UK and Europe, accelerate its solutions roll-out in the latter, and refine its technology and product offering.

Simon Peet at Livingbridge said: “CitNOW Group is a fantastic business which has built a reputation for innovation and excellence in a large and rapidly evolving sector. We look forward to working with Geoffrey and his team to further scale the business organically, as well as continuing to expand the range of solutions the Group offers to its customers through strategic M&A.”

Geoffrey Page-Morris, CEO at CitNOW Group, said:

“We are thrilled to have found in Livingbridge a partner who shares our vision for the Group. The firm’s extensive experience in the software sector and its strong track-record in implementing sophisticated M&A programmes make it ideally placed to accelerate our growth strategy.”

Christian Hamilton, Co-Founder and Managing Partner of Tenzing, said: “We’re super proud to have spent the last four years working with the management team at CitNOW as the business has transformed the customer journey in automotive. Along the way, CitNOW broke into new markets and acquired market-leading companies that led to huge growth during our investment period. We’re really grateful to have enjoyed an amazing relationship with the team, initially led by Alistair Horsburgh and then Geoffrey, who have been instrumental in CitNOW’s evolution.
As we enter this next chapter, we look forward to partnering with Livingbridge to deploy the combined power of our firms’ Growth Teams to build a truly outstanding business.”

Livingbridge was supported in the appraisal process by its Software Advisory Board – a group of world-class software operators launched in 2022.