Buyout firm General Atlantic has agreed to buy a majority stake in Tripleseat, valuing the U.S. software vendor at about $500 million, people familiar with the matter said on Thursday.

Vista Equity, the biggest shareholder in Tripleseat, will cash out most of its stake, the sources said, requesting anonymity ahead of an official announcement.

Level Equity and Enlightened Hospitality Investments, two other Tripleseat shareholders, will remain as minority investors, the sources added.

Reuters had reported in March that Vista was working with investment bank Raymond James Financial Inc on an auction process for Tripleseat.

Based in Concord, Massachusetts, Tripleseat provides a catering and events management web-based platform for restaurants, hotels and other venues.

Vista acquired Tripleseat in March 2020 and merged it with another portfolio company, Gather, which also had a sales and event management platform.

In recent months, Vista has defied a challenging environment for private equity deals with higher interest rates making debt financing more expensive. It cashed out of several holdings, including Cvent Holding Corp (CVT.O), another provider of software to the hospitality sector, selling it last month to Blackstone Inc (BX.N) for $4.6 billion.

At the same time, it has deployed capital by putting together acquisitions fully funded by equity, rather than also using debt as is customary. A recent example was its $2.6 billion deal in January to take insurance software vendor Duck Creek Technologies Inc private.

Reuters