LOS ANGELES and LONDON, February 17, 2021 – Marlin Equity Partners (“Marlin”) is pleased to announce that it has acquired Consignor, an Oslo-based provider of shipping and delivery management solutions, and merged it with Unifaun, an existing portfolio company of Marlin. The combination creates a leading global provider of cloud transportation connectivity solutions, bringing together two highly complementary and scalable SaaS-based offerings that will benefit from having best-of-breed feature/functionality and greater geographic diversification, as well as expanding the combined company’s ability to address a range of Transport Administration Systems (“TAS”) and other supply chain execution capabilities. Marlin partnered with Francisco Partners, the previous majority owner of Consignor, in the transaction and will together hold a majority shareholding in the combined organization.
Peter Chung, a managing director at Marlin, said, “The TAS market has an incredible amount of potential, and we believe the combined company will be uniquely positioned to capitalize on the secular tailwinds underpinning e-commerce growth.” Mike Wilkinson, a principal at Marlin, added, “the combination of Unifaun and Consignor’s technology, talent and operational resources will substantially enhance our current offering to customers, who stand to benefit greatly from a broader range of functional capabilities, wider geographic coverage, and deeper domain knowledge and technical expertise. We look forward to working with Francisco Partners and the management team to help the combined business reach its full potential.”
“This is an incredibly exciting new chapter for our company, and we are thrilled to be partnering with Marlin, Francisco Partners and the combined Unifaun and Consignor management team as we capitalize on this huge opportunity to drive innovation in our industry and value for our customers,” said Peter Tang Thomsen, founder of Consignor and CEO of the combined business. Thomsen added, “Unifaun and Consignor have always shared mutual respect for one another due to our similar passion for TAS solutions, cultures of employee development and neighboring geographic presences. Combining our companies, along with Marlin and Francisco Partners’ ongoing commitment to supporting and empowering growth, will ensure we continue to deliver the very best solution for our customers to help them solve transportation challenges, deliver significant cost savings, and improve efficiency and capacity utilization for years to come.”
About Unifaun
Unifaun provides innovative and high-quality cloud transportation connectivity solutions to carriers, shippers and parcel recipients across the European transportation ecosystem. With an extensive partner ecosystem and carrier library, Unifaun handled more than 300 million shipments in the system in 2019. Unifaun has over 200 employees in Sweden, Finland, Norway, Denmark, the Netherlands, Belgium, Germany and Poland. For more information, please visit: www.unifaun.com.
About Marlin Equity Partners
Marlin Equity Partners is a global investment firm with over $7.5 billion of capital under management. The firm is focused on providing corporate parents, shareholders and other stakeholders with tailored solutions that meet their business and liquidity needs. Marlin invests in businesses across multiple industries where its capital base, industry relationships and extensive network of operational resources significantly strengthen a company’s outlook and enhance value. Since its inception, Marlin, through its group of funds and related companies, has successfully completed over 180 acquisitions. The firm is headquartered in Los Angeles, California with an additional office in London. For more information, please visit: www.marlinequity.com.
For additional information, please contact Peter Spasov at (310) 364-0100 or via email at pspasov@marlinequity.com.