By Fakir Hassen
Johannesburg, July 1 (IANS) Hyderabad-based software solutions provider SoftPro Systems has acquired South Africa’s Cura Software Solutions for $19 million.

SoftPro chairman Bala Reddy and Cura chief executive Avi Eyal inked the deal here Wednesday evening.

Cura, established in 2002, provides smarter software solutions for governance, risk management, compliance and performance management.

Established in 1994, SoftPro caters to the banking, finance, insurance, retail, telecom and manufacturing sectors, offering a range of technology solutions including enterprise portals, application software development and e-learning solutions.

“The Cura team has achieved a remarkable success story, having started with a small seed round of funding, some unique intellectual property, and a vision and passion to grow a global business in a short period of time,” said Eyal.

“Today Cura has 100 staff in four countries, distributors in another 10 countries, serves over 200 customers and has achieved year-on-year revenue and profit growth for the past four years. We have a strong technology platform and a dedicated and competent team to help our customers achieve their goals.”

Cura chairman David Frankel said it had taken months to find a partner that would grow the company’s business internationally and inject the funding required to achieve long-term goals.

“After considering approaches by competitors, acquirers and venture capitalists, we settled on SoftPro as their culture, ethics and strategic approach were in line with all our stakeholders’ interests,” said Frankel.

SoftPro intends growing Cura into a company with over $150 million in revenue by 2014. It will fund the business, set up a second research and development location and start marketing Cura’s solutions in India.

Cura will retain its brand, with no changes planned in the management and staffing of the business, except for organic growth from the opportunities presented by the merger, Eyal said.