Brief history
Trifork was founded in Denmark in 1996. Between 2007 and 2014, Trifork shares were listed on Nasdaq Copenhagen. At the beginning of 2014, the headquarters were moved to Schindellegi, Switzerland, and Trifork Holding AG was established as the holding company of the Trifork Group. As part of this reorganization, Trifork was delisted from Nasdaq Copenhagen. The company increased its international focus in these years and partnered up with the software-focused private equity fund GRO Capital in 2015. GRO Capital exited its investment through an IPO on Nasdaq Copenhagen in May 2021. Today, the founder and CEO, Jørn Larsen, remains the largest shareholder with almost 20% of the shares.
Revenue growth
Trifork Group has grown revenue annually by 23% on average from 2007 to 2023. The company has been profitable every year during this period. Around 2/3 of growth has been organic and 1/3 has been inorganic through acquisitions.
Over the six years from 2017 to 2023, the average annual revenue growth was 22%.
(Revenue, EURm, inorganic revenue not separately disclosed before 2014)
Earnings growth
Trifork Group has grown adjusted EBITDA annually by 23% on average from 2007 to 2023.
Over the six years from 2017 to 2023, the average annual adjusted EBITDA growth was 28%.
(Adj. EBITDA, EURm)
Acquisitions
Trifork has made many acquisitions over the years and acquisitions form an integral part of our growth strategy. We prefer to keep founders leading the company. We buy a majority stake initially and then slowly acquire non-controlling interests (NCIs) over time to ensure that the founders are incentivized to perform well both operationally and financially. Hence, the acquisition of NCIs are also an integral part of our M&A strategy.
- In 2011, Trifork acquired a controlling stake in Erlang Solutions Ltd., headquartered in London, to expand Trifork’s presence to Stockholm, London, and Krakow and offer its customers end-to-end solutions in telecommunications, messaging, payment systems, and process control. Additional non-controlling interests have been acquired since.
- In 2012, Trifork acquired Orange11 B.V., headquartered in Amsterdam. Orange11 was renamed Trifork after the acquisition. The product offering complemented Trifork’s product offering and enabled Trifork to expand in the Dutch market.
- In 2013, Trifork invested in a minority in Open Credo Ltd., headquartered in London, expanding Trifork’s footprint in the United Kingdom. Trifork acquired full control in 2015 and all remaining shares in 2016.
- In 2014, Trifork acquired 51% of the Design agency Duckwise ApS to strengthen the group’s abilities in UX design. In 2021, all remaining shares were acquired by Trifork.
- In 2016, Trifork acquired an 88% stake in Netic A/S, headquartered in Denmark. The acquisition enhanced Trifork’s capacity to deliver ongoing operational support to its customers.
- In 2018, Trifork acquired 51% of Invokers A/S, headquartered in Copenhagen, to kickstart the Trifork Smart Enterprise business area and give Trifork the ability to deliver solutions integrating SAP-backend with mobile front-end and to increase focus on design thinking. In 2019, all remaining shares were acquired and the company was renamed to Trifork Smart Enterprise. Trifork also acquired 70% of Testhuset A/S. Testhuset focus on software quality and testing and was to support in increasing software quality.
- In 2020, Trifork acquired a 70% stake in Nine A/S, a Danish next-generation IT company, strengthening and anchoring Trifork’s role as a provider of software development services to the Danish public sector, thereby increasing the diversity of the customer and revenue mix. Trifork also acquired 51% of SAPBASIS ApS which focuses on SAP solutions and operations. This acquisition strengthened the Smart Enterprise business area.
- In 2021, Trifork acquired Vilea GmbH, a Swiss-based IT firm specializing in designing and delivering tailor-made mobile enterprise applications, which expanded Trifork’s position in Switzerland. Trifork also acquired the company StrongMinds ApS, which has specialist knowledge within cloud technologies and also brought in relationships with new public and private customers.
- In December 2022, 60% of the Swiss company Institut für Bildungsevaluation AG (IBE) was acquired. IBE focuses on digital learning and exams and was consolidated in the Trifork Group financials from January 2023.
- In 2023, Trifork acquired an additional 20% of NCIs in Nine A/S, taking ownership to 90% with the remaining 10% owned by the original founders still active in the company. NCIs were also acquired in Erlang Solutions taking ownership to 87%. Trifork also acquired 100% of Chapter 5 A/S to strengthen its position towards financial services customers in Denmark.