Former Competitors InkSoft and Printavo Acquired in Private Equity Deal

Sean Norris

InkSoft and Printavo, a pair of cloud-based software providers for the decorated apparel and promotional products industries, were acquired yesterday by PSG and Blue Star Innovation Partners, both private equity firms.

Former competitors, InkSoft and Printavo offer similar services. InkSoft provides online stores and a self-service design portal for end-customers, among other services, while Printavo provides screen print management software. Both offer a variety of business tools for users.

Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed, but JP Hunt, co-founder and president of InkSoft, told the Apparelist, Promo Marketing’s sister brand, that the deal had been in the works since August 2021.

“We will be focused on growing our teams to deliver more value to our customers via new features and enhancements,” Hunt told the Apparelist. “We describe our growth plans as putting fuel on the fire.”

That appears to be true for Printavo, as well. Bruce Ackerman, Printavo’s founder, told the Apparelist the company is already adding new embedded payment functionality, with plans for a new mobile app, a new production scheduler and several other features.

“As we were growing a lot [in the past several years], we asked ourselves, ‘Do we take outside investment to help continue to grow?’” Ackerman said. “Our biggest investment needed to be more engineering.”

PSG specializes in the software space, with a portfolio of more than 80 tech-based companies servicing multiple markets. (The firm’s tagline is “helping software companies capitalize on growth.”) Blue Star Innovation Partners is an investment capital fund part-owned by Jerry Jones, owner of the Dallas Cowboys. Blue Star’s portfolio is also heavily focused on tech services companies.

The deal is the latest in an ongoing series of private equity acquisitions involving decorated apparel and promotional companies. In early 2021, S&S Activewear, one of the industry’s largest suppliers, was acquired by Clayton, Dubilier & Rice. In July, Boundless, a top 20 distributor, was acquired by Point Rider Capital and Treaty Oak Equity. In late 2020, Overture Promotions, another top 20 distributor, was acquired by Westbridge Capital Ltd.

Neither InkSoft nor Printavo expect any significant operational changes as a result of the deal. “The team’s fired up,” said Ackerman. “We’re not going anywhere and [we’re] looking forward to what’s next.”

For more on the acquisition and continuing in-depth coverage of the decorated apparel industry, head over to the Apparelist.

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