ARCOS Takes Investment From The Riverside Company

COLUMBUS, OH--(Marketwired - Nov 7, 2013) - ARCOS, a maker of crew management, callout and emergency response software for 21 of the top 25 U.S. utility companies, has taken an investment from Cleveland-based private equity firm The Riverside Company to expand operations and reach the remaining U.S. utility market and other industries. The Riverside Company is a global private equity firm with extensive experience investing in high-growth software businesses.

"With utilities facing enormous pressure from regulators and customers for better reliability, improved restoration times and transparency, the ARCOS software suite is the perfect solution to the perfect storm," said Loren Schlachet, Riverside Managing Partner. "Top U.S. utilities say ARCOS cuts up to 30 minutes off the storm CAIDI¹ process, reduces overall gas-leak response time by 13 percent, better gauges restoration costs, and addresses information requests from executives and regulators."

The Software-as-a-Service ARCOS Suite automatically calls and assembles crews to restore power, handle emergent work in power plants and fix gas and water leaks. The ARCOS Suite automates complex processes for crew callout, storm management and mutual assistance. With ARCOS® Crew Manager software, utility storm managers can access a computer-generated board for visually organizing and mobilizing crews for blue sky days and large power restoration events. Utility supervisors and executives can tap smartphones, tablets, PCs and touch-screen interactive whiteboards to see where crews are working and, if needed, reassign them as restoration progresses.

"We've become the clear market leader through organic growth and bootstrapping," said Mitch McLeod, chairman and founder of ARCOS. "With Riverside, the speed at which we can innovate and deliver will increase exponentially."

McLeod will continue to provide ARCOS with strategic direction and input as its employees develop software for the utility industry and other markets. McLeod will also serve on the newly created ARCOS board of directors with ARCOS CEO Bruce Duff and management from The Riverside Company.

"The Riverside investment will help us maintain the fanatical level of support we've always given our customers as we look to attract new customers," added Duff. "With Riverside's know-how and resources, we can reach hundreds of additional utilities with our applications, establishing ARCOS as the industry standard."

^[1] Electric power utilities use the Customer Average Interruption Duration Index (CAIDI) as a reliability index.

About ARCOS
Twenty-one of the top 25 U.S. utilities rely on the ARCOS^® Callout and Scheduling Suite. When the power goes out, a gas leak is reported or another emergency occurs, the award-winning, SaaS-based ARCOS Suite instantaneously finds, assembles and tracks repair crews, reducing outage interruptions and improving restoration time for electric, gas and power plant utilities. For more information, visit www.arcos-inc.com or call 614-396-5500.

The Riverside Company
The Riverside Company is a global private equity firm focused on acquiring growing businesses valued at up to $250 million (EUR 200 million in Europe). Since its founding in 1988, Riverside has invested in more than 320 transactions. The firm's international portfolio includes more than 70 companies. (www.riversidecompany.com)