Grupo Intercom sells 5% of its shares in Softonic to Espiga Capital

01/02/2011

Softonic is constantly growing, and it can now count on the support of Espiga Capital, a venture capital company promoted by rural banks who have bought a 5% stake in the company from a number of its former shareholders, bringing their holding to the same level as that of Bonsai Venture Capital. With this deal, Espiga Capital are also shareholders alongside Digital River (who have a 15% stake), Softonic Chairman and founder Tomás Diago and Grupo Intercom, the latter two holding the majority of shares in the Spanish giant.

After several investment rounds, realising a capital replacement operation, Espiga Capital opted for Softonic’s robust growth and a business model that produced staggering results last year. Softonic is the leading European portal for computer software downloads and the second most frequently used in the United States.

More than 130,000 programmes, approximately 90 million downloads per month and 68 million unique users at the 2010 year-end, have made Softonic the most visited website in Spain. Last year (2010), Softonic generated turnover of 25.2 million Euros and a profit of 14.7 million Euros.

Being able to satisfy a constant demand for safe software at a reasonable price, Softonic is one of Grupo Intercom’s most successful projects and an exemplary demonstration that achieving an even balance between product sales income and advertising income is a recipe for success in launching an online business.

What’s more, this year Softonic is increasing its headcount by 60% with 120 new posts being created for the design of new versions for the Swedish, Finnish and Russian markets.

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