Lightspeed Systems Announces Strategic Growth Investment from Madison Dearborn Partners

Leading education technology solutions provider Lightspeed Systems (“Lightspeed”
or “the Company"), announced today that it has received a
strategic growth investment from private equity funds advised by Madison
Dearborn Partners, LLC ("MDP"), a leading private equity firm based in
Chicago. Lightspeed’s existing management team will remain in place and
have an ownership position in the company, as will the Company’s
Co-Founders. Together with MDP, they will seek to extend Lightspeed’s
market leadership position and further penetrate the growing domestic
and international K-12 web filtering and reporting, mobile device
management and classroom management market in support of the Company’s
mission to enhance student safety and maximize the benefits of education
technology. Terms of the investment were not disclosed.

Lightspeed continues to benefit from the increasing demand for
sophisticated, K-12-specific solutions and expand its presence in new
and existing markets by offering market-leading, purpose-built software
that filters, monitors and manages student web access, distributed
devices and classroom activities. Lightspeed has been building and
evolving technology for more than 20 years and serves over 15 million
students worldwide. The Company recently launched Lightspeed Systems
Relay, the first and only all-in-one cloud filtering solution for school
device management with support for every operating system, device type,
and location.

“I would like to thank Lightspeed’s Co-Founders Rob McCarthy and Joel
Heinrichs for their mentorship, leadership, and contributions since we
started this journey, and for their ongoing support as we continue our
partnership alongside MDP,” said Brian Thomas, Lightspeed’s Co-Founder,
President and CEO. “As we enter our next stage of growth as an innovator
and leading provider of web filtering and reporting products for the
K-12 market, we are confident that MDP is the clear choice of a partner
for Lightspeed Systems due to their proven success, understanding of the
education and technology markets, and commitment to helping us achieve
our growth potential. With MDP’s support, we have an even greater
opportunity to capture growth from the many favorable market trends we
are seeing, which include continued adoption of technology in the
classroom and the increasing importance of protecting, managing and
analyzing student health and safety.”

Thomas continued, “MDP’s education technology resource network and
extensive experience supporting high-growth technology companies and
organizations that utilize distributed sales channels make them an ideal
partner for Lightspeed. Looking ahead, the entire Lightspeed team is
excited to play an ongoing critical role in the education technology
revolution and continue providing our customers with powerful solutions
that keep school devices and students safe, well managed and mobile.
We’re excited about the opportunities this new partnership will create
for Lightspeed to the benefit of our employees, our existing partners,
and our customers around the world.”

Today, Lightspeed is well-positioned in a large and growing market with
its robust database, stable and diverse customer base, differentiated
ability to operate across any device, operating system or network and
strong channel partner relationships. Lightspeed and MDP see significant
opportunity for the Company to capture additional growth through organic
and strategic acquisition opportunities. The macro trends that are
driving these opportunities globally include the increasing device
penetration among students from a continued movement toward a 1:1
student to device ratio in the classroom, and recognition that tailored
web monitoring and reporting can help safeguard the health and wellness
of students. MDP is supportive of Lightspeed’s growth strategy to deepen
its end-customer relationships while continuing to leverage its channel
partner sales initiatives.

Matthew Norton, a Managing Director at MDP and Co-Head of the firm’s
Business & Government Software and Services team, said: “Lightspeed is
uniquely positioned as an Ed Tech industry leader that enables schools
to maximize the benefits of classroom technology, and we are honored to
be partnering with Brian and his talented team to build upon the
Company’s momentum. We look forward to continuing the successful
execution of Lightspeed’s strategy by leveraging our extensive
experience helping companies at similar stages of growth. As investors
and as parents, we are excited to support Lightspeed’s strong position
in the industry as the Company continues to provide effective and
innovative technology-based safety solutions to more schools and
students alike.”

William Blair & Company served as Lightspeed’s financial advisor, and
DLA Piper LLP provided legal counsel to Lightspeed. Kirkland & Ellis LLP
provided legal advice to MDP. MDP also engaged GSV Advisors, a leading
advisory firm dedicated to the education and HR technology sector, for
strategic counsel.

About Lightspeed Systems

Lightspeed Systems partners with schools to make learning safe, mobile
and easily managed. Partnered with 6,500 districts in the United States
and 28,000 schools around the world, Lightspeed Systems offers
integrated filtering, management, monitoring, and protection for schools
through its groundbreaking platform, Relay. Headquartered in Austin, TX
(with offices in Portland and the U.K.), Lightspeed serves over 15
million students in 35 countries. To learn more, visit https://www.lightspeedsystems.com.

About Madison Dearborn Partners

Madison Dearborn Partners, LLC (“MDP”), based in Chicago, is a leading
private equity investment firm in the United States. Since MDP’s
formation in 1992, the firm has raised seven funds with aggregate
capital of approximately $23 billion and has completed over 140
investments. MDP is currently investing out of its most recent fund,
$4.4 billion MDCP Fund VII, in businesses across a broad spectrum of
industries, including businesses and government software and services;
financial and transaction services; basic industries; health care; and
telecom, media and technology services. For more information, please
visit https://www.mdcp.com.

View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20190329005125/en/