Align Announces Strategic Investment from The Riverside Company

Pioneer in the construction technology industry looks forward to expanded growth and new product development.

DENVER (June 23, 2021) ― Align Technologies (formerly ToolWatch), a leading provider of tool and equipment tracking and operations management software for the construction, utilities, and oil & gas industries, announces it has received an investment from The Riverside Company, a global private equity firm. The investment positions Align for accelerated growth and allows the company to continue building on its position as the construction industry’s first and most comprehensive operations management system. Today, companies worldwide use Align to manage more than 39 million tools and materials.

Don Kafka, Align founder and CEO, said “I am thrilled about partnering with Riverside due to its focus on investing in growing companies to help make them even more successful. Riverside has an outstanding success rate with scaling companies and accelerating their growth. With Riverside on our side, we’ll be able to improve our products faster and build out the capabilities needed by our clients in the construction, utilities, and oil & gas industries.” Kafka and other members of the Align management team will continue to be meaningful shareholders of the company.

Chris Shea, Riverside assistant vice president, cited Align’s ability to help customers solve key challenges in preconstruction planning, logistics and across the supply chain, as factors in Riverside’s decision to invest in Align. “We see construction software as a very attractive growth area. While still early in its technology adoption, the construction industry is experiencing increased implementation of software tools to better manage complex operations and critical workflows. As the pioneer in bringing technology to the construction site, Align is ideally positioned to understand the unique needs of its customers and to deliver purpose-build solutions.”

From the beginning, Align’s value proposition has convinced customers in the construction industry to embrace technological solutions for operations management. Over the years, Align products have evolved from barcodes through RFID chips, Bluetooth low-energy, and interconnectivity; expanded integration with other software platforms; and modernized to a fully cloud-based, real-time, enterprise-wide operations and productivity management system noted for ease of use on the job site and in the back office.

“It is not every day we invest in a company that effectively created a new market category, like Align did with tool and equipment management software for construction companies. They have understood the needs of workers on job sites and in warehouses, as well as business administrators from the very beginning,” said Shea.

Aside from the capital support to expand product development and customer support, the Riverside financing will be used to pursue complementary add-on acquisitions to broaden the product portfolio and expand solutions for Align’s customer base.

About Align Technologies

For more than 25 years Align Technologies (formerly ToolWatch) has helped companies manage tools, equipment, materials and consumables. Easy to use and delivered through a powerful, flexible platform, Align securely stores critical information on all field and warehouse operation assets so companies can run their businesses more efficiently, more cost‐effectively, and more profitably. Today, more than 6,000 installations in 20 countries use Align. For more information about Align, visit www.aligntech.co or follow us on Facebook and LinkedIn.

About The Riverside Company

The Riverside Company is a global private equity firm focused on investing in growing businesses valued at up to $400 million. Since its founding in 1988, Riverside has made more than 750 investments. The firm’s international private equity and structured capital portfolios include more than 120 companies.