Dovel expands base with Ace Info deal

Dovel Technologies is diversifying its customer base and adding several new contracts to its portfolio through its acquisition of Ace Info Solutions, a long-time player in the federal market.

The terms of the deal were not disclosed but Ace Info brings more services in areas such as infrastructure and data center support, agile software development, systems modernization, DevSecOps, cloud engineering, and data analytics.

Ace Info also holds several large multiple-award contracts such as General Services Administration Alliant 2 Unrestricted and OASIS Unrestricted, Army ITES-3S, Agriculture Infrastructure Optimization Cloud Adoption BPA, Justice Department ITSS 4, Homeland Security Department Eagle II, Army RS3, and National Institutes of Health CIO-SP3.

All of those are new contracts for Dovel except for CIO-SP3, where it already holds a prime spot.

This is Dovel’s first acquisition since it was acquired by Macquarie Capital in May. Macquire was looking for a new platform for acquisitions in the federal market. Dovel’s leadership was looking for more resources to fuel the company’s growth. Macquarie kept in place Dovel’s leadership team including CEO Paul Leslie and President Damon Griggs. Dovel’s founders Dov and Elma Levy also retained a minority stake in the company as do Leslie and Griggs.

“The addition of Ace Info enables us to continue the aggressive pursuit of our long-term growth strategy of market expansion and competitive positioning in the mid-tier market,” Leslie said in a statement. 

Ace Info’s customers include the Defense Department, Navy, Defense Security Service, Environmental Protection Agency, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, Internal Revenue Service, Treasury, Agriculture Department and the Commerce Department. Other customers include the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the Consumer Product Safety Commission and NIH.

Ace Info Solutions will operate as a subsidiary of Dovel with Jay Challa (co-founder) serving as president of Ace Info Solutions LLC and Nar Koppula (also a co-founder) as vice president of technology innovation for Ace Info Solutions LLC.

That structure is similar to how Dovel integrated Medical Science & Computing, which was acquired in 2016 and also operates as a subsidiary. That deal brought capabilities in life sciences as well as a presence at NIH.

Investment bank KippsDeSanto served as an adviser to Ace Info, while fellow investment bank Houlihan Lokey advised Dovel.