Thoma Bravo and Sunstone Partners Acquire UserTesting

Thoma Bravo, a software investment firm, and Sunstone Partners will acquire UserTesting, a provider of video-based feedback solutions, for $1.3 billion.

Following the closing of the transaction, Thoma Bravo and Sunstone Partners intend to combine UserTesting and UserZoom, another user experience insights company that Thoma Bravo acquired in April. UserTesting's CEO, Andy MacMillan, will lead the combined company.

By combining UserZoom's multi-method research capabilities, proprietary benchmarking methodology, and research repository with UserTesting's proprietary contributor network and experience testing platform, companies will be able to leverage both solutions to help build better product, customer, employee, and brand experiences.

"We believe the combination of UserTesting and UserZoom will unlock tremendous value for our customers by further integrating and expanding the suite of research methods, testing types, and measurement options available, all while making the voice of the customer and human insight more accessible across an organization and easily integrated into their processes and workflows," MacMillan said in a statement. "We are pleased to partner with Thoma Bravo and Sunstone Partners to build upon our award-winning Human Insight Platform to further innovate in the CX space and continue to serve a growing number of teams and use cases. We are confident that this transaction—joining two complementary players in the customer experience space to form a new private company—offers the most compelling value creation for all of our stakeholders and is a testament to the value of human insight, the UserTesting platform, our talented team, and loyal customer base."

"We live in a digital experience-first world, one where the quality of the user and customer experience will distinguish the winners from the losers. The combination of UserTesting's and UserZoom's solutions will help democratize experience insights to enable companies to make the right decisions, be innovative, and ultimately deliver experiences their customers love," said Alfonso de la Nuez, co-founder and chief visionary officer of UserZoom, in a statement.

"We are excited to bring together the complementary expertise of UserTesting and UserZoom to create a leading integrated solution that delivers real-time, data-driven feedback to organizations globally," said A.J. Rohde, a senior partner at Thoma Bravo, in a statement. "Our acquisition of UserTesting is a testament to our belief that customer experience is mission-critical to organizations, and the combined company will be well-positioned to further market expansion, accelerate innovation, and provide even greater insights to its customers. We look forward to leveraging the deep experience we have cultivated in the customer experience and user experience space to help the combined company capture the tremendous growth opportunities ahead."