Infor customers may gain from Koch's $1.5B investment

Analysts say investment will help products

Mickey North Rizza, an ERP analyst at IDC, said the investment shows "great confidence" by the existing equity partners.

The previous rounds of financing "went into extending their product capabilities and industry coverage," she said, and "this investment will continue that but will also go into the capital restructuring in preparation for an IPO."

Ray Wang

The investment means "more money for expansion and investment in product and innovation," said Ray Wang, principal analyst at Constellation Research.

Infor, which employs more than 17,000, has grown in part through acquisitions, notably in 2011 with its acquisition of ERP vendor Lawson Software in a deal valued at $2 billion. Many of the products used by Infor customers are cloud-based, and some are also designed for specific industries. The New York-based firm claimed that more than 72% of all hospitals in the U.S. run Infor applications, and said it is heavily represented in automotive suppliers.

Koch as Infor customer and investor

Infor announced in 2017 that Koch Industries was implementing its CloudSuite product for financial and human capital management. The firm employs about 120,000 people. That same year, Koch Equity made a $2 billion investment in Infor.

Koch is not only an investor and user of Infor products, it has also become an active voice for the ERP vendor. In September, firm officials spoke at Inforum, a conference for Infor customers. The firm said the product would reduce HCM costs, as well as improve hiring and retention.

In this funding and IPO announcement, Jim Hannan, executive vice president and CEO of Enterprises at Koch Industries, said, in a statement, that "Koch was a customer of Infor before we became an investor in the company, and Koch Industries' companies continue to move their most mission critical applications to Infor CloudSuites."