EQT Mid Market acquires compliance and integrity service provider Dataflow

  • EQT Mid Market acquires majority stake in Dataflow, a leading immigration compliance and credential verification service provider headquartered in Hong Kong
  • Strategy is to support the continued growth and the development of new products as well as explore inroads to new clients via EQT’s Industrial Network
  • Founders and management remain significant minority shareholders and further invest alongside EQT through a management participation program

The EQT Mid Market fund (“EQT Mid Market”) has today acquired Dataflow Verification Services Limited (“Dataflow” or the "Company") from the founders. Dataflow is a leading provider of immigration compliance and credential verification service to governments, government-sanctioned authorities and private institutions.

Dataflow was founded in 2006 and is headquartered in Hong Kong. The Company has operations in the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) region, India, Jordan, Singapore and Malaysia, and has a team of around 450 experts and researchers. Dataflow helps clients to conduct primary source verification (PSV) on credentials of highly skilled professionals, for example doctors, nurses or engineers, as part of mandatory immigration and credentialing programs, and processes more than 200,000 applications annually from 168 countries. Dataflow has relationships with over 25,000 issuing authorities such as schools, universities and other professional bodies around the world.

The global demand for highly skilled specialists across industries and sectors has led to a rise in the movement of labor throughout the GCC region as well as between other countries in the world. The movement of skilled and highly educated labor has increased the demands for PSV services in order to avoid recruitments based on fraudulent credentials.

Following the growing requirements for PSV services, Dataflow has established a leading market position in the GCC region with high customer retention. Dataflow offers its clients tailored PSV services with high integrity and quality which are scalable, cost efficient and provide a quick turnaround time. The globalization and the continued movement of labor is expected to offer substantial growth opportunities in both existing and new clients and countries.

Mr. Douglas Nairne, Co-founder and Chief Executive Officer of Dataflow, said: “EQT Mid Market is an ideal partner as Dataflow plans to grow and expand further. EQT has an industrial and hands-on approach and we share the vision of creating value for our stakeholders and the communities we protect. We are excited to work with EQT and their network of Industrial Advisors. Together, we will continue to deliver superior services to our clients and serve and protect the communities they represent."

“We are impressed by the high quality of Dataflow’s compliance and integrity service offering. The management team has achieved to position Dataflow as a true leader and EQT looks forward to deploying its global resources to support its growth and development strategy further,” says Tak Wai CHUNG, Partner at EQT Partners, Investment Advisor to EQT Mid Market.

The parties have agreed to not disclose the transaction value.

Contacts:

Tak Wai CHUNG, Partner at EQT Partners, Investment Advisor to EQT Mid Market, +852 2801 6823

Johan Hähnel, EQT Mid Market Spokesperson, +46 706 05 63 34

About EQT
EQT is the leading private equity group in Northern Europe, with portfolio companies in Northern and Eastern Europe, Asia and the US with total sales of more than EUR 25 billion and over 550,000 employees. EQT works with portfolio companies to achieve sustainable growth, operational excellence and market leadership.

For further information please visitwww.eqt.se

About Dataflow
Dataflow is a leading immigration compliance and credential verification service provider headquartered in Hong Kong. It helps governments, government-sanctioned bodies and private institutions to conduct primary source verification on credentials of high-risk, high value professionals, for example doctors, nurses and engineers, as part of mandatory immigration and credentialing programs. The Company offers tailored solutions and high quality service and is the “de facto” service provider in the GCC region.

For further information please visit www.dataflowgroup.com

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