Drips Investor Accel-KKR Tops the HEC – DowJones Private Equity Performance Ranking
Investor in AI-Powered Conversational Outreach Platform Ranks as Top PE Firm in the World
AKRON, Ohio–(BUSINESS WIRE)–#ai–Drips, the founders of an industry-leading AI-powered conversational outreach platform, today announced that Accel-KKR, one of the company’s investment partners, has secured the number one ranking on this year’s HEC – DowJones Private Equity Performance Ranking list.
In July 2021, Drips received a strategic growth investment from Accel-KKR, a leading technology-focused investment firm, to fuel the next era of growth of its first-to-market conversational AI platform. Greg Williams, Managing Director of Accel-KKR, joined the Drips board of directors to advise on strategy, expansion, and product innovation. Drips’ focus on empowering brands to capture intent and drive meaningful conversations has sparked a growth rate of 2508% since it was founded in 2016. The company was named as one of the Deloitte Technology Fast 500™ in November 2021.
The 2021 HEC – DowJones Private Equity Performance Ranking lists the world’s top private equity firms in terms of aggregate performance based on all buyout funds raised between 2008 and 2017. This ranking answers the question: “Which firm(s) generated the best performance for their investors over the past years?”
In total, HEC Paris Professor Oliver Gottschalg analyzed performance data from 517 private equity firms and the 991 funds they raised between 2008 and 2017 with an aggregate equity volume of $1.5tr.
“Our investment performance has been driven first and foremost by the leadership of our portfolio companies, and the trust and collaboration that has been fostered between the teams in which we have invested and the Accel-KKR team,” said Tom Barnds, Co-Managing Partner of Accel-KKR.
“We congratulate the Accel-KKR team on this achievement. The Drips team continually benefits from their experience, network, and resources. As we continue to scale, their confidence in us and our technology platform is helping put millions of consumers in control of the interactions they have with enterprises to get the services they need,” said Tom Martindale, Co-Founder and President of Drips.
Since 2009, HEC Paris, a leading European Business School, and DowJones, one of the world’s largest business and financial news companies, have joined forces to publish regular rankings of private equity firms based on their historic performance and expected future competitiveness, respectively.
About Drips
The Drips AI-powered platform enables brands to engage with their audiences using a conversational outreach strategy that includes human-like two-way texting, scheduled calling, and voicemail messages. Backed by a proprietary natural language processing model, the Drips platform empowers brands to break through the noise, capture intent and drive meaningful outcomes. With more than half a billion conversations handled to-date, our AI is constantly improving. More than 3.5 billion touch points have gone through the Drips platform. The platform offers an open API allowing clients to integrate with any CRM, marketing automation system, dialer or call center platform. Learn more at www.drips.com or connect via LinkedIn, Twitter, Instagram or the Drips blog.
About Accel-KKR
Accel-KKR is a technology-focused investment firm with over $11 billion in capital commitments. The firm focuses on software and IT-enabled businesses, well-positioned for topline and bottom-line growth. At the core of Accel-KKR’s investment strategy is a commitment to developing strong partnerships with the management teams of its portfolio companies and a focus on building value alongside management by leveraging the significant resources available through the Accel-KKR network. Accel-KKR focuses on middle-market companies and provides a broad range of capital solutions including buyout capital, minority growth investments, and credit alternatives. Accel-KKR also invests across a wide range of transaction types including private company recapitalizations, divisional carve-outs and going-private transactions. For three consecutive years between 2019 and 2021, Inc. named Accel-KKR to “PE 50 – The Best Private Equity Firms for Entrepreneurs,” its annual list of founder-friendly private equity firms. Accel-KKR was named “Best-Performing PE Firm” globally by HEC-DowJones 2021 Performance Ranking. Accel-KKR is headquartered in Menlo Park with additional offices in Atlanta, London and Mexico City. For more information, visit accel-kkr.com.
Contacts
Molly Hottinger
+1 (954) 993-8008
molly.hottinger@drips.com