Genstar Capital is selling the business after owning it for nearly five years

job-4131482_640 (28)

Sphera to be acquired from Genstar Capital by Blackstone. (Credit: Tumisu from Pixabay)

Blackstone said that private equity funds managed by the investment firm have agreed to acquire Sphera, a provider of environmental, social, and governance (ESG) software, data, and consulting services, for nearly $1.4bn.

The seller of the ESG software company is Genstar Capital.

Sphera, through its SaaS software, data and consulting services, caters to organisations in helping them surface, manage, and mitigate ESG risk across the environment, health, operational risk management, safety and sustainability, and product stewardship.

Based in Illinois, US, the company is said to have over 3,000 customers across more than 100 countries.

Sphera president and CEO Paul Marushka said: “With this significant investment of new capital, Sphera will expand the ESG digital solutions on its SaaS platform with unique data sets and differentiated consultative services throughout the world.

“On behalf of the Sphera team, I would like to thank Genstar Capital for their valuable contributions and strategic partnership over the years.”

Sphera was previously the operational excellence and risk management (OERM) division of IHS, a business information provider.

In 2016, IHS merged with Markit to create IHS Markit, while the former’s OERM business was acquired by Genstar Capital for an undisclosed price.

Blackstone senior managing director Eli Nagler said: “The increasing importance of environmental, social, governance issues to businesses globally is a key thematic investing focus for Blackstone.

“Sphera has established itself as a market leader in the ESG software and solutions space, and we’re excited to partner with Paul and this best-in-class management team to continue to accelerate their impressive growth trajectory.”

In April this year, the ESG software provider won a contract worth $55m from the US Defense Logistics Agency (DLA) for supporting the latter in hazardous material management.

Earlier this year, the company launched a new personal protective equipment (PPE) module for its Control of Work solution for simplifying the management of PPE.