The Testing, Inspection and Certification market, in short TIC, is more and more known as TICC, adding Compliance as an important adjacent business, with assurance being the implementation processes, making sure Compliance requirements have been met.

The COVID impact on the TICC Market
When looking at the COVID impact on the market, we see TICC is doing very well compared to other sectors. Within the TICC space, we see that Inspection activities have been somewhat affected because this is mainly done at site. Certification has been quite stable, while Testing and Compliance are very strong and growing in this COVID environment. Testing obviously with the increase in COVID testing/labs and increase in testing and certification of medical equipment, including ventilators and masks, while Compliance/assurance have become more critical. There is a high demand for providing greater and end-to-end visibility and managing risks in supply chains. Plus companies try to be ready for any potential future impacts by increased regulation and standards*

The Compliance industry further diversified

Within Compliance, we see the following segments:

• EHS (Environment, Health & Safety): COVID-19 increased on the EHS compliance with trends like working from home (employers being responsible for health and safety aspects of home offices), the introduction of high-end tools like web conferencing platforms. Besides, compliancy around climate change and increased regulation around environment and sustainability remain strong.
• Industrial & public safety: The public safety market is a high growth market. Here also COVID had its impact, protecting first responders and challenges around quarantine requirements. Moreover, digital technology is generating innovative solutions requiring assurance processes in place. On the industrial side, an increase in safety regulations and the use of Internet of Things (IoT) applications is driving the market for industrial safety.
• ESG (Environmental, Social and Governance): Within ESG factors, the social responsibility (including diversity, politics and public pressure) becomes increasingly important as well moving from ‘giving back to society’ to incorporate this fully in the culture of companies. Increasing the performance of ESG factors in order to improve the reputation and brand of the company, we also see the digitalisation trend driving compliance.
• (Cyber) security & IoT: A majority of the companies working on implementing IoT / cybersecurity face incidents around that, making the relevance of compliance on this subject extremely important.
• Finance, Legal & Tax: Increased regulation around banking, alternative financing, privacy, KYC regulations etc.
• Risk management (software): the global risk management software market was valued at USD 7bn in 2019** and is expected to grow with a CAGR of 19%. The main growth drivers are the increasingly complex regulatory environment, growing data & security breaches, growing FinTech and IoT innovations.

The addressable TIC market is valued at € 95 bn (being 47% of the total TIC market including in-house TIC activities), expected to grow with a CAGR of 5%. As written in our most recent TIC report, technologies, data and digitalisation are transforming the TIC industry and driving the emergence of new business models. As the TIC market embraces technology, subscription-based business models are developing rapidly. TIC solutions are becoming core digital tools within company operations, offering end-to-end assurance for quality, safety, security, compliance and sustainability of operations and products.

A successful compliance/assurance example in the TICC market is the company Foodchain. They are investing in providing blockchain-based assurance to track & trace food products ‘from farm to fork’. Another example is KTBA a strategic sparring partner in high-grade Quality Assurance, Riskplaza & Business Assurance services in the food and consumer goods industry.

Recent acquisitions of players investing in Compliance are:

• In 2020, CGE Partners announced the acquisition of Enhesa, a global environmental, health and safety (“EHS”) compliance intelligence platform, from Waterland;

• Mid 2019 Alcumus, a leading UK-based software-led risk management solution provider, backed by the private equity firm Inflexion completed a majority investment in eCompliance a Canada-based workplace safety SaaS business;

• Also mid 2019 Mérieux NutriSciences acquired KTBA;

• Beginning of 2019, SAI acquiring regulatory compliance platform Bwise from NASDAQ for comparable multiples

• Intertek acquired in August 2018 a leading provider of SaaS-based People Assurance solutions, Alchemy for 7.2x current-year revenues and 22x current-year EBITDA

• In 2018 ProPharma Group, a global industry leader in comprehensive compliance services and a portfolio company of Linden Capital Partners acquired Xendo, a Netherlands-based provider of compliance consulting, engineering & technical support, regulatory affairs, and pharmacovigilance services to the (bio)pharmaceutical, medical device and healthcare industries.

In general, we see relatively high, double-digit multiples paid in the compliance space.

Also, Private Equity is increasingly focused on the Compliance & Risk management topic. As an example, Riverside (a global Private Equity firm) announced beginning 2021 as part of its thematic investment strategy a focus on Safety, Security, Compliance & Risk Mitigation. “Companies in this space help customers avoid or minimize high-risk outcomes. In an increasingly complex world with a variety of threats to health and security, companies that mitigate or eliminate risk are generally well-positioned to succeed”. Besides, Navis Capital acquired Qima, Quality controls and supplier compliance audits for consumer products (in particular textile, electronics, toys) and food.

Why Capitalmind Investec?
A good example of one of Capitalmind Investec’s recent transactions in this space is the acquisition of KTBA by Merieux Nutrisciences. KTBA is a leading and trusted advisor in quality & business assurance and label compliance in the food sector.
Based on these observations we see quite some demand from buyers in this space focusing on the Compliance element within TICC and expect more transactions in this space in the coming years. For further enquiries, please contact us.

* Source: OC&C TICC analysis report 2020 &
** Source: Risk Management Market Size, Share and Trends | Forecast- 2027 (alliedmarketresearch.com)