Three transactions, one exit: how WCC carved its way to the right buyer
WCC Group is a leading Dutch developer of matching software used by governments worldwide in public employment services, immigration, and identity verification. Clairfield acted as exclusive financial advisor, guiding WCC and its private equity backer Avedon through a complex, multi-stage exit process that required strategic repositioning, two carve-outs, and the successful conclusion of a major government tender in New Zealand:
- Carve-out of Hermes (identity business) to Amadeus, involving shared IP, a government client holding consent rights, and three extra months of diplomacy to close
- Second carve-out of HERA, running in parallel with final due diligence
- Successful sale of WCC’s employment software to Software Combined, backed by Navis Capital.
In this interview, WCC CFO Teun van der Kamp walks through the full journey. His central lesson:
« Looking back, the biggest lesson is the importance of clarity. We lost time by not committing earlier to a clear direction: either sell the business as a whole or deliberately break it up… Once we simplified the business and focused on what really mattered, everything else followed. »
This interview is included in Clairfield’s Outlook 2026, themed « Refocus: how carve-outs turn less into more. »
Download the full publication here.
