HighJump buys RedTail

Supply chain software provider HighJump Software Inc. said today it acquired trade data network provider RedTail Solutions Inc. in a bid to build a wider portfolio of software offerings for small businesses performing omnichannel commerce.

Westborough, Mass.-based RedTail will be folded into Minneapolis-based HighJump's TrueCommerce business unit, a division that generates about half of HighJump's annual revenue by selling an electronic data interchange (EDI) platform that allows trading partners to share their digital supply chain data directly through computer connections.

Financial terms of the acquisition were not disclosed.

HighJump said it made the purchase in coordination with its financial partner, the Menlo Park, Calif.-based private equity firm Accel-KKR. "We work together to grow HighJump both organically and through strategic acquisition. AKKR provides a fertile source of strategic acquisition opportunities and capital," HighJump co-founder and Chief Strategy Officer Ross Elliott said in an emailed statement.

HighJump said it plans to make no immediate changes following the merger, keeping RedTail's name, market focus, product strategy, and organizational structure as they are.

RedTail helps mid-size suppliers and manufacturers share data with trading partners by providing them with managed cloud service solutions for electronic data interchange (EDI) and the global data synchronization network (GDSN). By adding those capabilities, TrueCommerce will expand its commerce network service that allows suppliers and retailers to collaborate, HighJump said in a release.

Adding RedTail's technology will strengthen TrueCommerce's ability to support the Sage and Microsoft Dynamics segments of the enterprise resource planning (ERP) sector, HighJump said. RedTail's software platform also integrates with the ERP systems AccountMate, Infor, and Spire, allowing users to reduce errors and ensure product data synchronization, according to HighJump.

Together, HighJump and RedTail plan to target their services at mid-market businesses, pitching the combined technology offerings as a way for small and mid-size businesses (SMBs) to free up their resources and focus on growing their core missions, particularly for omnichannel operations, TrueCommerce President Nick Manolis said in a statement.

This is the latest acquisition made by HighJump to add software tools for performing omnichannel fulfillment. In 2015, the company bought the Carlsbad, Calif.-based cloud-based technology provider Nexternal Solutions, as well as Wesupply Ltd., a U.K.-based firm that builds cloud-based business-to-business (B2B) integration solutions.