Business Wire

Bregal Milestone Announces the Sale of Epassi to TA Associates and Warburg Pincus

9.8.2023 15:00:00 EEST | Business Wire | Press release

Share

Bregal Milestone, a leading pan-European technology growth private equity firm, today announced the sale of Epassi Group (“Epassi”), a market leader in the provision of employee benefits within the Nordics, and a leading player in the UK, Ireland, and Italy, to TA Associates and Warburg Pincus LLC.

Founded in 2007 and based in Espoo, Finland, Epassi is a leading provider of mobile payment solutions for the provision of employee benefits and other services. With over 13 million users, Epassi's mobile payment solution allows employees to easily access their employee benefits, such as meal vouchers, gym memberships, and parking passes, with a single app. In addition, the Epassi app can be used to pay for goods and services at over 59,000 service providers. As one of the fastest growing Nordic companies, Epassi was named to the Financial Times’ 1000 Fastest Growing Companies in Europe in 2019, 2022 and 2023.

Since Bregal Milestone’s initial investment in 2019, Epassi has cemented its leadership position and undergone a period of accelerated growth, including:

  • Increasing revenue (GMV) 9x
  • Increasing net revenues 6x
  • Increasing EBITDA 7x
  • Completing five add-on acquisitions across Europe
  • Expanding its global footprint into Sweden, the UK, Ireland, and Italy
  • Recruiting key C-level leadership including CEO Pekka Rantala and CFO Regina Duzanskaj
  • Optimizing sales and profitability via our in-house data analytics capabilities delivered by Bregal Milestone’s in-house value creation team, Milestone Performance Partners
  • Executing ESG-positive actions which resulted in a 38% improvement in Scope 1 & 2 emissions, and an independent rating as “best practice” against KPIs for 4 key ESG focus areas - Board Oversight, Cybersecurity and Privacy policies, Social Impact actions, and Business Integrity policies and results

“Bregal Milestone has been instrumental to our growth over the past several years and we believe that the timing of passing the ownership torch is ideal. With Bregal Milestone’s help, we have successfully expanded beyond the Nordics, and outside of our core business in the provision of employee benefits. We believe that with the scalable technology we have in place, we are sufficiently prepared to continue to scale into additional geographies and adjacent business areas in our next stage of growth,” says Pekka Rantala, CEO of Epassi.

“It has been a tremendous privilege to work with Risto, Pekka, and the talented Epassi leadership team to help build enormous value for the company's passionate customers, employees, and shareholders. We are proud to have helped build one of Europe’s leading employee benefits disruptors, exponentially growing revenues and profitability since our initial investment in 2019. From day one this partnership had a relentless focus on teamwork, high performance, and excellence,” added Cyrus Shey, co-founder and Managing Partner at Bregal Milestone.

“During our ownership, our successful M&A activity helped to expand Epassi’s business into five European markets, cementing our position as one of the leading pan-European employee benefits payments providers,” said Saachi Oza, Principal at Bregal Milestone.

In addition to our M&A activity, we were pleased to have worked with Pekka to build a talented leadership team and provide stewardship and support across several areas including the Epassi go-to-market strategy, their technology evolution, operational integration, and ESG. We wish Epassi continued success in their next stage of growth,” added Rob Hetherington, Epassi Chairman, Partner, and Head of Milestone Performance Partners (Bregal Milestone’s in-house value creation team).

Terms of the transaction were not disclosed. The transaction is subject to customary closing conditions. J.P. Morgan acted as exclusive financial advisor and White & Case acted as legal counsel to Bregal Milestone and Epassi.

About Epassi
Epassi, founded in 2007 in Helsinki, is a market leader in the provision of employee benefits within the Nordics, Italy, and the UK. The unique and scalable solution drives mobile tech and payment solutions to open up a world of health and well-being possibilities, combining all benefits in one user-friendly service. Epassi Group is Europe’s leading digital solution for employee benefits, with a reach of nearly 13 million users, over 13,500 employers, and more than 59 000 service providers. Epassi is a trailblazer fintech company in the Nordic countries and has been awarded by the Financial Times as one of the fastest growing companies in Europe in 2022 and 2023.

Epassi – Boosting everyday well-being.
www.epassi.com

About Bregal Milestone
Bregal Milestone is a leading technology growth private equity firm with c.€1.3 billion of capital raised since inception. The firm provides growth capital and strategic assistance to support market-leading technology companies. Bregal Milestone is part of Bregal Investments, a leading global investment platform with over €16 billion in assets under management. For more information, visit www.bregalmilestone.com or follow us on LinkedIn.

To view this piece of content from cts.businesswire.com, please give your consent at the top of this page.

Contact information

Jillian Hazelton
Head of Marketing & Communications
Jillian.hazelton@bregal.com

About Business Wire

For more than 50 years, Business Wire has been the global leader in press release distribution and regulatory disclosure.

Subscribe to releases from Business Wire

Subscribe to all the latest releases from Business Wire by registering your e-mail address below. You can unsubscribe at any time.

Latest releases from Business Wire

VerSprite Launches Fork and Knife: AI-Driven Threat Modeling and Adversarial Testing Built for the Speed of Modern Software27.6.2026 00:28:00 EEST | Press release

VerSprite, a global leader in risk-based threat modeling and the firm behind the PASTA (Process for Attack Simulation and Threat Analysis) methodology, today announced the general availability of Fork (www.forktm.com), a continuous application threat modeling platform, alongside Knife, an AI-led, human-on-the-loop adversarial testing platform for web applications and web API endpoints. Together, the two products operationalize a new model for product security—one where applications are securely designed, continuously modeled, and actively tested as part of the build process itself. The launch addresses a problem every security leader knows but few tools have solved: threat modeling is essential, never more so than in an AI-driven era, yet it has remained slow, manual, and anchored to frameworks designed for a different threat landscape. The problem: threat modeling matters more than ever—and most tools are stuck in 2005 For two decades, application threat modeling has leaned heavily on

Venture Global Announces Closing of $1.5 Billion Senior Secured Vessel Financing Facility26.6.2026 23:30:00 EEST | Press release

Venture Global, Inc. (NYSE: VG) announced today that its wholly-owned subsidiary, Venture Global Shipping Holdings, LLC (“VGSH”), has entered into a Credit and Guaranty Agreement providing for a senior secured term loan facility (the “Facility”) in an aggregate principal amount of up to $1,500,000,000. The Facility will mature on June 26, 2032. Deutsche Bank and ING acted as coordinating lead arrangers for the Facility. ING also serves as facility agent and security trustee. VGSH intends to use the net proceeds from the Facility for general corporate purposes, including to reimburse Venture Global LNG, Inc. for payments previously made by it or its affiliates in connection with the acquisition of nine LNG carriers, funding certain reserve accounts, and paying transaction fees and expenses. About Venture Global Venture Global is an American producer and exporter of low-cost U.S. liquefied natural gas (“LNG”) with over 100 MTPA of capacity in production, construction, or development. Ven

Capco Recognized by OpenAI for Innovation and Responsible AI Leadership26.6.2026 21:00:00 EEST | Press release

Global management and technology consultancy Capco, a Wipro company,has been recognized by OpenAI for both AI innovation and responsible AI leadership. Capco received the AI Governance & Risk Excellence Award at the recent OpenAI Partner Summit 2026 in San Francisco, highlighting Capco’s ability to deliver enterprise-grade AI outcomes in highly regulated environments. The award recognizes Capco’s expert advantage when helping financial services and energy organizations to scale AI with confidence, balancing innovation with strong governance to reduce risk, strengthen compliance and improve customer outcomes. This award follows Capco winning the OpenAI Codex Hackathon, where its UK AI Lab competed against more than 30 teams and over 100 participants from across the OpenAI partner ecosystem. Capco's winning entry Sentra – a consulting-led, AI-powered retail banking solution – uses digital twin technology to identify vulnerable customers and recommend explainable next-best actions for fro

Incyte Announces Positive CHMP Opinion for Opzelura ® (ruxolitinib) Cream for the Treatment of Adults with Moderate Atopic Dermatitis26.6.2026 14:30:00 EEST | Press release

Incyte (Nasdaq: INCY) today announced that the Committee for Medicinal Products for Human Use (CHMP) of the European Medicines Agency (EMA) has issued a positive opinion recommending the approval of Opzelura® (ruxolitinib) cream for the treatment of moderate atopic dermatitis (AD) in adult patients for whom topical corticosteroids (TCSs) and topical calcineurin inhibitors (TCIs) are inadequate or inappropriate. “AD is a chronic skin condition that can have a significant impact on daily life. The positive CHMP opinion for Opzelura marks meaningful progress toward bringing the first non-steroidal topical JAK treatment option to adults in Europe with moderate AD for whom standard topical therapies have failed,” said Lee Heeson, Executive Vice President and Head of Incyte International. “If approved by the European Commission, Opzelura could help address an important gap for patients who have limited treatment options when TCSs and TCIs are inadequate or inappropriate.” The positive CHMP o

Datroway ® Recommended for Approval in the EU by CHMP as First-Line Treatment for Patients with Metastatic Triple Negative Breast Cancer Who Are Not Candidates for Immunotherapy26.6.2026 14:00:00 EEST | Press release

Datroway® (datopotamab deruxtecan) has been recommended for approval in the European Union (EU) as monotherapy for the first-line treatment of adult patients with unresectable or metastatic triple negative breast cancer (TNBC) who are not candidates for PD-1/PD-L1 inhibitor therapy. Datroway is a specifically engineered TROP2 directed DXd antibody drug conjugate (ADC) discovered by Daiichi Sankyo (TSE: 4568) and being jointly developed and commercialized by Daiichi Sankyo and AstraZeneca (LSE/STO/NYSE: AZN). The Committee for Medicinal Products for Human Use (CHMP) of the European Medicines Agency (EMA) based its positive opinion on results from the TROPION-Breast02phase 3 trial, which werepresented at the 2025 European Society for Medical Oncology Congress and published in Annals of Oncology. The recommendation will now be reviewed by the European Commission, which has the authority to grant marketing authorizations for medicines in the EU. In TROPION-Breast02, Datroway demonstrated a

In our pressroom you can read all our latest releases, find our press contacts, images, documents and other relevant information about us.

Visit our pressroom
World GlobeA line styled icon from Orion Icon Library.HiddenA line styled icon from Orion Icon Library.Eye