CHARLOTTE, NC, October 26, 2015 — BlackArch Partners (“BlackArch”) is pleased to announce the sale of BlackBridge Corp. (“BlackBridge” or the “Company”) to Planet Labs Inc. (“Planet”). BlackBridge, headquartered in Lethbridge, Canada, with operations in Berlin, Germany, is a vertically integrated global provider of products and services across the geospatial imaging value chain.
The Company owns and operates an end-to-end commercial earth observation system that captures, curates and distributes geospatial imaging content. BlackBridge’s platform is comprised of: i) the RapidEye constellation of five satellites; ii) ground-based operations designed to plan, acquire and process over 5 million km2 of imagery daily and iii) value-added image analytics. The combination of BlackBridge’s downstream knowledge and global reach, with Planet Labs’ strategy for agile aerospace, will create a long-term competitive advantage for the combined company and enable it to better serve customers in the Energy & Environment, Agriculture and Government end markets, among others.
BlackArch was retained by BlackBridge to serve as the Company’s exclusive financial advisor. The BlackBridge transaction builds upon BlackArch’s experience and significant momentum in the aerospace, defense & government services (“ADGS”), business services and energy sectors representing market-leading, founder-owned businesses.
Ryan Johnson, BlackBridge’s Chief Executive Officer, commented, “Without question the biggest benefit was the time that BlackArch took with our team at the beginning of the transaction to understand our goals as a privately held company. We met with several other firms which presented a process to us that simply didn’t fit.
The nature of this transaction was very complex as BlackBridge had operations in multiple jurisdictions with significantly different legal and tax regimes, as well we required licensing for multiple governments to ensure that we could continue operations without any interruption. BlackArch brought a strong team to support this transaction with a great balance of senior level focus and direction and a junior team that were awesome.”
About BlackBridge
BlackBridge is a Lethbridge, Canada-based company with operations in Berlin, Germany focused on providing end-to-end solutions across the geospatial value chain. This includes satellite operations, ground station services, geocloud solutions and worldwide satellite imagery distribution through more than 100 BlackBridge partners, combined with the creation of value-added products and services.
About Planet Labs
Planet Labs is a purpose-driven space and data analytics company based in San Francisco, California, Earth. The company operates large fleets of Earth imaging satellites to image the entire planet at an unprecedented frequency. Planet Labs aims to provide universal access to information about the changing planet to enable both commercial and humanitarian applications. Founded in 2010 by former NASA scientists, the team includes engineers, developers and leading venture capital investors.
About BlackArch Partners
BlackArch Partners is a leading middle-market investment bank offering a full spectrum of advisory services to financial sponsors, private companies and diversified corporations. BlackArch addresses the needs of owner-operators, founders and shareholders of private companies with specialized services that include M&A advisory, strategic advisory and private capital solutions. Headquartered in Charlotte, NC, with offices in Houston, TX, BlackArch features a total of 12 industry-focused practices that cover all sectors of interest to middle-market investors; BlackArch professionals have closed more than 300 transactions in 16 countries on four continents. Please visit our website, blackarchpartners.com, for more details.
