On December 10, 2020, Venafi, a Mercato Traverse Fund II portfolio company, announced a strategic majority investment from leading private equity firm, Thoma Bravo.  The investment sets the value of Venafi at $1.15B and marks the successful close of Mercato’s investment in the Salt Lake City-based company.

Venafi defined the field of machine identity protection.  The importance of this critical security area was highlighted by the dramatic rise in work-from-home triggered by the pandemic.  Machine identity protection will continue to be important even in a post-pandemic economy as our work patterns shift in the 21^st century.

This marks our fifth exit for a portfolio company in 2020 and the third with a $1+ billion valuation.  It also highlights our commitment to our LPs to find and collaborate with world-class growth-stage companies in emerging markets.

Congratulations to CEO Jeff Hudson and the entire Venafi team on this wonderful outcome.