Edenred has acquired global employee engagement firm Reward Gateway for £1.15 billion, from funds managed by Abry Partners and Castik Capital.
As part of the deal, Reward Gateway will join Edenred’s employee benefits division under the leadership of global chief operating officer of employee benefits solutions, Arnaud Erulin. Nick Burns, global chief executive officer of Reward Gateway, will remain in his role.
The deal included the accelerated delivery of a range of solutions, and extending the reach of Reward Gateway’s platform into new regions in Belgium, France, Germany, Italy, Romania and Spain. This will give human resources departments access to a multi-country employee benefits and engagement platform.
Erulin said: “Edenred has successfully extended its portfolio into non-meal and food benefits over the years. The group has notably developed a leading offer in employee benefits and savings platforms in 17 countries as part of its Beyond 22-25 strategy. This acquisition marks a major milestone in the roll-out of our strategic plan, putting Edenred in the best position to be the most trusted global employee benefits and engagement platform.
“It opens the door for Edenred to accelerate the strengthening of its employee benefits value proposition. This move offers global corporations and enterprises international consistency in every market that we operate in.”
Burns added: “The combination of Reward Gateway’s operations and technology with Edenred’s position as a global market leader offers an accelerated path to achieve our mission of making the world a better place to work. As we will aim at a single unified platform, we will benefit from economies of scale to build tailored solutions for specific markets.
“Bringing together our collective strengths, from commercial reach to product innovation and advanced technology, will be putting us in a position to provide HR leaders with a market-beating solution.”