RF Invests in Event Management Software Leader Blackthorn.io, Underscoring Expanded Software Focus

RF Investment Partners (“RF”), a provider of structured capital, is pleased to announce a recent growth capital co-investment with Level Structured Capital in Blackthorn.io, an award-winning provider of a fully integrated, Salesforce-native event management and payments software platform.

The investment represents the evolution of RF’s focus and expertise in the software industry and the continuation of a proven track record of investing in the sector through multiple funds. With Blackthorn as the 11^th addition to RF’s tech-focused platform, the firm is proud to continue to uphold its partnership-led approach built on active engagement, empathy, and infusing best practices around go-to-market, product, and strategy.

Founded in 2015, Blackthorn provides an inspired, intuitive, and innovative event management and payments software platform through its fully integrated Salesforce application. Blackthorn’s direct incorporation into Salesforce seamlessly allows users to skip the plug-and-play of manually integrating CRM data into Salesforce, empowering clients from industries such as higher education, non-profit, and healthcare to efficiently plan, invite, register, and facilitate payment for any company event.

Blackthorn CEO Chris Federspiel commented, “Since the inception of our partnership, RF has proven to be the right fit for us at this inflection point in our growth trajectory. RF’s flexible capital and its team of tech-focused professionals have empowered an unprecedented growth period for us. Blackthorn is on track for 100% year-over-year bookings growth and 90% ARR growth. The team is looking forward to continuing this exciting momentum.”

With the backing of RF, Blackthorn will continue to bolster its platform and leading market position by building out its product portfolio and placing an enhanced emphasis on sales and marketing.

“As we look towards the future, our focus on lower-middle-market SaaS companies will continue to expand,” said RF Co-Founder & Managing Partner Peter Rothschild. “The software industry is a high-opportunity sector, and we are excited to deepen our involvement in the space through heavily supporting founders and management teams, leveraging our deep expertise and industry relationships, and facilitating company expansion with the identification of attractive growth opportunities and allocation of differentiated capital.”

“Blackthorn’s growth is a reflection of an incredibly hard-working team that drives measurable results — all signs of great things to come,” said RF Director Jacob Gordon. “We are excited to partner with Chris and support Blackthorn’s accelerated growth with capital and expertise to facilitate the company’s mission of being the leading event software platform.”

ABOUT RF INVESTMENT PARTNERS

RF Investment Partners provides capital ranging in size from $5 million to $30 million to support leading domestic, lower-middle-market companies. RF partners with family-owned and private businesses in a variety of situations, including acquisition financing, growth capital investments, recapitalizations, refinancings, and management buyouts. RF's investment professionals have significant experience investing across the capital structure and have the flexibility to structure deals to meet the distinct needs of each company and situation. RF invests in unitranche, second lien, and subordinated debt, alongside preferred and common equity.

ABOUT BLACKTHORN.IO

Blackthorn.io provides companies the freedom to focus on customers instead of processes with award-winning native-Salesforce applications. As the 2021 Salesforce.org ISV Cross-Industry Partner of the Year in AMER & EMEA, Blackthorn is committed to providing the best product functionality across all industries. So whether you're looking to adopt a Return on Event mindset through live and digital events, mitigate compliance risks, or ensure your organization can take payments quickly and securely from anywhere, Blackthorn is the ISV partner for your #digitalacceleration.

ABOUT LEVEL STRUCTURED CAPITAL

Level Structured Capital is an affiliate of Level Equity, a New York-based private investment firm that invests in and acquires outstanding growth businesses. The firm has broad capabilities to pursue minority and majority investments, full acquisitions, and structured equity and credit solutions in support of a variety of transaction types and desired outcomes. Level Equity has raised ~$3 billion across its equity and structured capital business lines. To learn more, visit www.levelequity.com.

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