Fidelity Investments has acquired Shoobx, a provider of automated equity management operations and financing software for private companies. Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed.
Shoobx will join Fidelity’s Stock Plan Services business, which provides equity compensation plan recordkeeping and administration services to nearly 700 companies with 2.5 million plan participants.
The acquisition builds on a commercial relationship between the two, in place since 2021, that sees Shoobx provide a complete equity management offering to the private market that taps Fidelity’s expertise in equity compensation and benefits administration.
“Given the success of our commercial relationship with Shoobx and the increasing demand from private companies to support them as they scale and grow, including helping their employees manage their financial well-being, acquiring Shoobx was a natural next step in our relationship,” says Kevin Barry, head, Fidelity Workplace Investing.
Fidelity says that the deal will enable it to offer companies full capitalisation table capabilities to manage equity ownership and market capitalisation, as well as maintain the calculation of their market value.
It will also offer automated creation of “due diligence” documents, a data room for the secure storing and sharing of confidential business information, and data modeling capabilities to provide companies with possible “next round” investment planning and exit scenarios.
In addition, it will offer stockholder and board management tools, private to public share conversion support and education for shareholders, and equity compensation administration capabilities.