(Charlottesville, VA and St. Louis, MO) August 11, 2022 – Silverchair, the leading independent content management, product enablement, and digital transformation platform for association, society, and independent publishers, has announced a significant growth investment in the company by Thompson Street Capital Partners (TSCP).
Over the past year, Silverchair has announced ambitious new expansion programs to enable its publishers to compete, grow, and thrive in an increasingly complex commercial environment. The company aspires to promote a broad and diverse ecosystem of knowledge creators and communicators by equipping them with unconflicted, neutral technology infrastructure, tools, and services.
Silverchair’s partnership with TSCP will enable the company to accelerate the pace and scale at which it develops comprehensive digital transformation products, including new products for professional education and meetings content. The investment will also support the continued expansion of the core Silverchair Platform and recruiting scholarly publishers to join the Silverchair community, which has grown in recent years to represent more than 400 publishers. Silverchair will extend its capabilities to integrate and unify research, reference, education, professional training and development, decision-support, and events outputs into a universal audience experience, allowing knowledge producers to deliver far greater value to their customers and stakeholders.
Silverchair selected TSCP because of their experience, philosophy, and alignment with Silverchair’s vision and values. TSCP has worked closely with highly specialized and deeply connected communities akin to scholarly and professional publishing through investments in technology companies such as Palisade, Gurobi, and T-Base Communications. They also have a deep respect for research and scholarship.
“Silverchair’s partnership with TSCP reflects both our success to date and, more importantly, our aspiration to meet the broader interests of our community as an independent, non-conflicted, innovative, and community-focused technology and service partner to leading associations, societies, and publishers,” said Silverchair CEO Thane Kerner. “As our community has grown, so has our investment in our people and technology, all of which has resulted in new opportunities to support our publishers’ missions and goals. Fulfilling the opportunities before us can best be realized with a capital partner who shares our enthusiasm for the knowledge enterprise. We are very excited to enter this partnership with TSCP.”
Craig Albrecht, Managing Director, TSCP said, “Thompson Street seeks to partner with founders and management teams who are passionately devoted to solving difficult problems, building outstanding products, and delighting customers. Thane Kerner and the Silverchair team have built an enterprise that exemplifies an ideal TSCP investment.”
Joe St. Geme, Director, TSCP, added, “For more than 25 years, Silverchair has invested in building the most powerful and flexible technology platform for associations, societies, and publishers. We are thrilled to partner with Silverchair to accelerate their already outstanding growth and further enable the essential missions of its customers.”
Thane Kerner will continue to serve as Silverchair’s Chief Executive Officer. Will Schweitzer, previously Chief Product and Customer Success Officer, has been appointed President of Silverchair. Tim Barton, Silverchair’s previous President, will serve Silverchair as an advisor and will continue his role as CEO at Hum, Silverchair’s sister company.
BrightTower, a New York City headquartered investment banking and M&A advisory services firm, served as exclusive financial advisor to Silverchair in this transaction.
About Thompson Street Capital Partners:
Thompson Street Capital Partners is a St. Louis-based private equity firm focused on investing in founder-led middle market businesses in the software and technology services, healthcare and life science services, and business services and engineered products sectors. Founded in 2000, the firm has acquired more than 100 companies and has managed more than $2.6 billion in equity. TSCP partners with management teams to increase value by accelerating growth, both organically and via acquisitions.
www.tscp.com
About Silverchair:
Silverchair is the leading independent platform partner for scholarly and professional publishers, serving our growing community through flexible technology and unparalleled services. We build and host websites, online products, and digital libraries for our clients’ content, enabling researchers and professionals to maximize their contributions to our world. Our vision is to help publishers thrive, evolve, and fulfill their missions.
www.silverchair.com
For more information:
Stephanie Lovegrove Hansen
Director of Marketing
Silverchair
press@silverchair.com