MyHeritage has announced that Francisco Partners, a leading global investment firm that specializes in partnering with technology businesses, has signed a definitive agreement to acquire the company. The financial terms of the transaction were not disclosed.
Since 2003, MyHeritage has pioneered a new approach to discovering family history, making it easier and more accessible to millions of people around the world. Founder-led and fueled by a deep-seated passion for genealogy and a commitment to innovation, MyHeritage has built a successful, subscription-based global enterprise. Powered by unique and proprietary technologies, the MyHeritage platform is currently used by 62 million users worldwide and is available in 42 languages, which is a testament to the company's international reach and diverse user base. MyHeritage users have collectively created more than 58 million family trees.
MyHeritage has invested heavily in developing technologies designed to help users make breakthrough discoveries in their family history research. The company amassed an extensive database of 13 billion historical records, including exclusive collections from many countries. The platform's many features include world-class tools for colorizing and enhancing historical photos that are based on artificial intelligence.
Since its inception, MyHeritage has raised $49 million in 5 rounds of financing, the last of which took place in 2012, after which the company turned profitable. The company’s investors have included private investors Yuval Rakavy and Aviv Raiz, who invested in the company in 2005 and have continued to support it ever since, as well as Accel, Index Ventures and Bessemer Venture Partners. With their support, the company accelerated its growth and completed 11 strategic acquisitions.
Some of the company's current investors will be re-investing into the company alongside Francisco Partners, including HP Beteiligungs GmbH, Yuval Rakavy, the company's founder and CEO Gilad Japhet, and independent investor Gigi Levy.
Committing to Lead in Privacy
MyHeritage takes a best-in-class approach to user privacy and does not sell or license personal data. Under MyHeritage’s partnership with Francisco Partners, this commitment will be further strengthened and users will benefit from enhancements to the company’s privacy framework. As a first step in this strategy, MyHeritage will shortly update its privacy policy to include the unequivocal prohibition for the company to license or sell genetic data to any 3rd party. These updates will be highly unique amongst the larger genealogy and genetic DNA industry and are a testament to the commitment both MyHeritage and Francisco Partners share to privacy and consumers.
Goldfarb Seligman acted as legal advisor and J.P. Morgan acted as exclusive financial advisor to MyHeritage on the transaction. Meitar and Fried Frank advised Francisco Partners. The transaction is subject to customary regulatory review.
Doing Good
MyHeritage is a company that not only believes in doing well, but also in doing good, and seeks opportunities to use its tools and services to leave a profound positive impact on the world. Its pro bono initiatives include DNA Quest, a program that helps adoptees reunite with their biological families by providing thousands of free DNA tests to select applicants, and Tribal Quest, an initiative that helps to document the family histories and cultural heritage of remote tribes around the world. In addition, with the onset of the coronavirus in 2020, MyHeritage established a COVID-19 testing lab in Israel in an effort to save lives and help Israel fight the pandemic.
Republished courtesy of Francisco Partners.