Product-management software company LeanKit has new owners.
The fast-growing, Franklin-based firm has been bought by Austin-based Planview, according to a news release; terms were not disclosed.
As part of the deal, co-founder and co-CEO Jon Terry will become Planview’s chief product evangelist of lean and agile strategy. Fellow co-CEO Tim Mulron will help with the transition before stepping away from the company, according to Planview CEO Greg Gilmore.
LeanKit, founded in 2009, is one of Nashville’s most successful non-health care tech companies, with more than 120 employees. In 2015 the company received a $16 million investment from New York-based equity firm Insight Venture Partners and doubled its footprint in Franklin to 19,000-square feet of office space. LeanKit also has an office in London.
The deal creates a $230 million company, according to Gilmore, with about 725 employees and more than 5,000 customers.
Gilmore said that while the two sides have known each other for many years, talks about an acquisition began about 60 days ago. The LeanKit office will stay in Franklin, he said, along with the majority of its employees.
“We are committed to Nashville,” Gilmore said. “When you think about Nashville and Austin they’re kind of like sister cities, so there is a lot of synergy between the two.”
Gilmore said LeanKit enables Planview, a resource-management company, to expand its product offerings that help improve how organizations work. It will also allow LeanKit to scale, he said, by remaining its own entity as well as being integrated into the Planview platform.
“We think that the market has spoken and that the LeanKit brand and solution has great efficacy and equity in the marketplace,” Gilmore said. “It is our plan to continue to carry the brand and the product forward.”
Terry and Mulron were not immediately available for comment.
“Planview and LeanKit share a common vision of providing our enterprise customers with best-in-class, scalable solutions that enable them to run better and faster,” Terry said in the news release.
