SMS Assist gets another $45 million in financing

CHICAGO TRIBUNE - SMS Assist, a Chicago-based software company with about 400 local workers, on Tuesday announced $45 million in new financing from a New York venture capital firm.Chicago's Pritzker Group has already invested $62 million in the property management company, whose clients include Family Dollar, CBRE and O'Reilly Automotive. Pritzker invested $17 million in SMS Assist in 2011 and another $45 million in 2013.SMS Assist's new investor is Insight Venture Partners of New York. Its other holdings include: SkinnyCorp, the parent of Chicago-based T-shirt seller Threadless, and crowdfunding platform Indiegogo. Its past investments include Football Fanatics, an online seller of licensed sports merchandise. Insight, founded in 1995, has raised more than $10 billion and invested in more than 200 software, e-commerce, Internet and data services companies worldwide.SMS Assist said the investment from Insight Venture will help it enter new markets. SMS manages a network of more than 20,000 subcontractors that provide maintenance services to more than 90,000 client locations.About SMS AssistSMS Assist is a Chicago-based technology company providing multisite property management to a roster of Fortune 500 clients with a team of more than 800 dedicated employees and more than 186,000 service locations. Using its proprietary software platform to manage its network of more than 20,000 affiliate subcontractors, SMS Assist offers a suite of property management benefits including leveraged pricing of products and services, a $50 million insurance policy, real-time services validation, instant invoicing, automatic service audits, and data analysis to ensure quality and cost efficiency. SMS Assist is revolutionizing multisite property management services for clients including JPMorgan Chase (NYSE: JPM), O’Reilly Automotive, Inc. (NASDAQ: ORLY) and Invitation Homes Inc. (NYSE: INVH). To learn more, visit smsassist.com.Contact:Elisabeth Klisser312-265-2047eklisser@smsassist.com