European mid-market tech investor, Tenzing, announced today that its portfolio company, Smoothwall, has acquired eSafe Global Limited (eSafe), a provider of proactive monitoring solutions in UK education.
Smoothwall is a dedicated safeguarding technology provider in UK education. Over two decades, the company has grown to protect more than five million children. It pioneered the content-aware, real-time web filter which is now the UK’s number one web filter for education; and in recent years it has become a provider of digital safeguarding record management solutions and human moderated proactive monitoring solutions.
Like Smoothwall, eSafe is a provider of proactive monitoring solutions in UK education. Combining the expertise and experience of both organisations will enable Smoothwall to innovate and improve pupil safety like never before.
Georg Ell, CEO of Smoothwall, commented: “The acquisition comes at a pivotal time with both the UKSIC and Ofsted Abuse Review highlighting the need for improved digital safeguarding provision at all levels. We thank all eSafe and Smoothwall customers for their continuous support and look forward to exciting times ahead.”
Christian Hamilton, Founder and Co-Managing Partner of Tenzing, added: “The acquisition of eSafe is an important step in UK education as the need to protect children online becomes more and more critical. This investment strengthens Smoothwall’s position in the fast-growing monitoring market and enhances the company’s offering to its loyal customer base in schools around the world.”
Smoothwall’s acquisition of eSafe is the fifth portfolio company add-on acquisition that Tenzing has supported in the last eight months. It follows CTS’s acquisitions of Sprout IT and CBS in November 2020, the CitNOW Group’s acquisition of Dealerweb in December 2020 and PSSG’s acquisition of Online Payrolls in June 2021.
