Digital transformation trends drive this pair of acquisitions

One of the government market's most high-profile investors added a new company to its portfolio, while another contractor supported by a private equity firm made its fifth purchase in as many years.

Both also involve the much-talked about technology domain of digital transformation, as these snapshots of the week will show.

Agile Defense

This company's new owner is Enlightenment Capital, an investment firm focused on mid-sized companies. Terms of that transaction announced Wednesday were not disclosed.

Agile will also be the focal point for Enlightenment's future activity in next-generation information technology and digital transformation, including acquisitions of more companies to build up that business.

Reston, Virginia-headquartered Agile was founded in 1998 and is led by chief executive Jay Lee, who took on the role in 2010. The company touts its federal customer base as including the Army, Navy, Air Force, Marine Corps and Defense Information Systems Agency.

Agile's core service areas include enterprise IT, cloud migration, the software development practice known as DevSecOps (development, security and operations), IT service management, cybersecurity assessment and risk management.

Investment bank KippsDesanto & Co. acted as the exclusive financial adviser to Agile.

For Enlightenment, its purchase of Agile comes nearly five months after the investment firm closed its fourth fund at $540 million in committed capital to double that raised for the third fund in 2019.

VTG

Also a digital transformation company, the private equity-backed VTG has moved on an acquisition focused on cloud computing and particularly the capabilities that go with it.

This purchase of Next Rev Technologies announced Tuesday represents VTG's fifth such move in as many years, which also coincides with the latter's appointment in 2017 of John Hassoun as CEO.

Hassoun has led VTG through its push into digital transformation and force modernization efforts across the national security arena, including support for defense systems and platforms.

VTG sees Next Rev as adding more expertise in data science and advanced analytics, plus further building up the overall digital and cyber portfolio of offerings.

Chantilly-headquartered VTG is backed by The Jordan Company, a private equity firm that first purchased the contractor in 2012 when it went to market under the name of VT Group.

The current VTG name took hold in 2020 to reflect its modernization and digital engineering focus.