South African-founded Syspro sold, Phil Duff to retire

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South African-founded Syspro sold, founder to step down - From left, Syspro CEO Jaco Maritz, outgoing chairman and founder Phil Duff, and incoming chairman Mike Ettling

Syspro, a South African-founded enterprise resource planning (ERP) software developer, has been sold to global private equity firm Advent International.

Terms of the sale were not disclosed.

Founder Phil Duff, who currently serves as chairman of the Syspro board, will retire at the end of September, the company said in a statement on Tuesday. Duff started Syspro in 1978 when he identified a gap in the market for accounting software.

Today Syspro is one of the longest-standing independent global vendors of ERP software, operational in more than 60 countries.

Advent will acquire a majority stake in Syspro, which was founded in South Africa in 1978 and which today has headquarters in both the UK and South Africa.

“This transaction will accelerate Syspro’s global growth ambitions, through additional investment to support next-generation product and technology innovation to unlock growth opportunities in key markets, including the US and UK,” the company said in the statement.

Advent has investments in ERP, financial and manufacturing software. Its recent investments include Aareon, a European provider of software-as-a-service solutions for the property industry; Unit4, a global cloud ERP software vendor; Medius, a global leader in AP automation, business-to-business payments, sourcing and procurement software; and Prometheus Group, a global provider of enterprise asset management software. Advent has invested US$21-billion in the enterprise software sector worldwide over the past 33 years.

New chairman

As part of the transaction, Mike Ettling, previously president of SAP SuccessFactors and current CEO of Unit4, will join Syspro as chairman of the board, replacing Duff.

Jaco Maritz, who was appointed CEO of Syspro in 2022, will continue to lead the company.