Dutch private equity company Main Capital Partners has taken control of content software specialist WoodWing after building a relationship over recent years.

The enterprise software-focussed company says its investment will enable WoodWing to build out its content orchestration platform and accelerate growth across key brand and publisher target segments.

Handling content has been a "mission critical" element in the publishing solutions on which the company has built its business, taking a leading position in magazine software and building a customer base in news, book, and educational publishing.

"The majority of its new customers are brands that face complex challenges around content creation, management, and publishing," a company statement said.

The current offering of integrated digital asset management and content creation/workflow/publishing solutions are used by organisations to orchestrate content processes improve ROI on storytelling.

Headquartered in the Netherlands, it has offices in the US and Malaysia, serving more than 800 customers across 60 countries through direct sales and a network of channel partners. Customers include Hearst, Meredith, Forbes, BuzzFeed, Coca Cola European Partners, Yamaha, and Cipla.

WoodWing says it will accelerate its strategy to build a "world-class" content orchestration platform to serve key target markets of publishers and enterprise brands. "In addition, the company will strengthen its product proposition by following a selective buy-and-build strategy," it says.

Main Capital managing partner and founder Charly Zwemstra says with its support, WoodWing will focus on organic growth and further product innovation to enable it to lead the content orchestration market. "We have known the founders and management team of WoodWing for several years and have been impressed by their performance," he said.

Aims include expanding product proposition and geographic coverage through add-on acquisitions and an expanded partner network.

Key management of WoodWing will retain a minority stake. Chief executive Ross Paterson described the move as a "huge vote of confidence" in its strategy and team. "Our background is in publishing, but the majority of our new customers are marketing teams with complex approval processes and fragmented technical setups," he said. "We have a strong proposition here due to our publishing expertise, and are keen to accelerate our growth in this segment, while retaining a focus on our publisher roots."

Pictured: Zwemstra with a 2016 investment award (photo Twitter)