Boston-based HR startup Globalization Partners was completely bootstrapped until now.
The company, founded in 2012, just closed on a $150 million minority equity investment led by Wincove Private Holdings and TDR Capital with participation from Sands Capital.
"I'd say it feels like a million bucks, but I think that would be understating it," founder and CEO Nicole Sahin joked in an interview with BostInno. "Eight years later, it really feels like a pinnacle moment to look back and say, 'We did it.'"
Globalization Partners helps U.S. companies expand abroad without having to create a subsidiary. The company counts Yelp, MeetUp and DataRobot as some of its clients; 11 months ago, the company opened its Latin American headquarters in Mexico City.
BostInno featured Globalization Partners as one of our Bootstrapped Companies to Watch in April last year. Sahin said she had waited so long to take outside investment because she was afraid of losing control of the company to people who didn't have the same long-term vision that she did. Initial conversations with her now-investors actually began as a casual chat: Sahin is friends with Michael McGovern, a partner at Wincove Private Holdings, and sought his advice as a friend and fellow professional.
"As I talked to him more and more about the business, he was like, 'This is such an extraordinary company,'" Sahin recalled. "'The financial metrics that you've obtained as a bootstrapped company are just truly remarkable.' And he became more and more interested."
McGovern put together a team to allay Sahin's concerns and figure out what an investment from Wincove would look like. Flash forward to today, and Wincove is one of the lead investors on this round, which will enable Globalization Partners to expand into new international markets.
Currently, Globalization Partners has a presence in more than 170 countries and employs about 200 people. Sahin said she plans to hire another 175 by the end of 2020. The company is closing about 100 new clients every quarter, Sahin said, and she expects that number to triple over the next 12 months.
"It's a very scalable system," Sahin said. "It's really just taking over the market. We're excited about that."
The company intends to invest heavily in client service, technology development and global expansion. But even as Globalization Partners spreads its footprint across the globe, Boston remains its home base. In fact, Sahin said the company plans to call its Boston headquarters "The Hub," a nod to the city's longstanding nickname as well as its place within the international company.
It was this innovation ecosystem that allowed her to build Globalization Partners over the last eight years, Sahin said.
"People in Boston are really smart, but they're not smart only in an intellectual way," Sahin said. "They're smart in a really practical, tangible, gritty way. I feel like the people here are extraordinary. It creates a really great environment for people to do hard things."
Correction: Due to an archival error, this article originally stated that iRobot was one of Globalization Partners' clients, not DataRobot. iRobot is not a client. We regret the error.
