January 2022 – Emerton advised Warburg Pincus-backed Fortius on acquisition of Once For All (Attestation Légale), the leader in the French market for compliance in the construction and related sectors, to create the European leader in supply chain management solutions in SaaS mode (Software-as-a-service).
Started in 2012 under the name Attestation Légale and based in Lyon, France, Once For All (OFA) is a leading European compliance and certification Software as a Service (SaaS) platform for the construction and associated sectors. The group offers a one-time, one-place platform to manage administrative file of compliance data for each supplier, information being shared “once for all.” Acting as a trusted third-party, OFA has grown quickly to become the market leader with 62,000 clients in France. As well as developing this strong core business, the team’s entrepreneurial spirit has also created 10 spin-off businesses alongside Attestation Légale operations.
Fortius was founded in 2018 through the acquisition of UK-based Constructionline and has made three successive acquisitions. The company specializes in verifying compliance data for UK construction, facilities management, rail and energy suppliers. In 2020, Fortius completed the migration of its user base to a new purpose-built SaaS platform that provides supply chain management, financial and health and safety risk scoring and enables sophisticated compliance management of the supply chain. Fortius is based in London and backed by private equity fund Warburg Pincus.