Hg announces an investment in Rightsline

HgCapital Trust PLC

27 May 2026

 

Hg, the Manager of HgCapital Trust plc ("HgT"), today announces an investment in Rightsline.

The terms of the transaction are not disclosed.

HgT will invest approximately £11 million in Rightsline, with other institutional clients of Hg investing alongside HgT through the Hg Mercury Fund.

HgT, whose shares are listed on the London Stock Exchange, gives private and institutional investors the opportunity to participate in all Hg's investments.

Note that these figures only relate to HgT's share of Hg's overall investment in Rightsline.

HgT's liquid resources available for future deployment (including all announced transactions, the undrawn bank facility and the full year dividend paid on 12 May 2026) are estimated to be £286 million (12% of the pro-forma 31 March 2026 NAV of £2.4 billion).

The investment will reduce HgT's outstanding commitments to invest in Hg transactions to approximately £2.1 billion (87% of the pro-forma 31 March 2026 NAV).

Rightsline announces $500 million strategic growth investment from Hg to accelerate AI innovation and global expansion

·    Investment accelerates Rightsline's position as a leading rights and royalties management platform for IP-intensive industries

·    Hg to accelerate Rightsline's AI roadmap through its dedicated AI product incubator and support international expansion

Los Angeles, CA - May 27, 2026: Rightsline, a leading provider of rights and royalties management software for IP-intensive industries, today announced a $500 million strategic growth investment from Hg, a leading investor in transatlantic technology businesses.

Klass Capital, Rightsline's majority owner since 2020, Salem Partners, and the broader management team will invest meaningfully alongside Hg, reflecting their continued confidence in the business.

The global proliferation of streaming platforms, cross-border content licensing, and IP-intensive business models has created a growing operational challenge for rights holders, who need to track who owns what, where, and ensure the right parties get paid. Rightsline provides the software that major studios, publishers, consumer brands, and life sciences firms use to manage that complexity at scale.

Originally established as a leader in media and entertainment rights management, Rightsline now operates across eight IP-intensive verticals and serves more than 300 of the largest organisations worldwide, across media and entertainment, publishing, consumer products, life sciences, technology, gaming, music and franchising. The company offers a truly unified rights and royalties platform, with a single system spanning rights management, royalty calculation, financials, and accounting, delivering audit-grade outputs. The platform processes more than $40 billion of royalties annually and manages over 150 million IP assets across 28 countries.

Accelerating momentum

2025 was a year of record growth for Rightsline across bookings, revenue and retention, reflecting the mission-critical role the platform plays in its customers' day-to-day operations. This momentum continued into 2026 with another record quarter in Q1.

The company has already launched a suite of AI-powered products for its customers, including an AI contract ingestion assistant that automates extraction of key terms from complex legal agreements, and a natural-language rights and availabilities assistant that enables users to interrogate their rights libraries in plain English.

Hg's investment will accelerate Rightsline's product and AI roadmap and support the company's international expansion, drawing on Hg's transatlantic network and its team of more than 100 AI specialists. This includes Hg Catalyst, its dedicated AI product incubator, which has supported the launch of more than 30 AI products across its portfolio to date.

Patrick Arkeveld, CEO of Rightsline, said: "The IP landscape has become increasingly complex, with more platforms, territories, and contractual complexity than ever. That creates a clear opportunity for us to innovate on behalf of our customers and make their lives meaningfully easier, but more crucially to drive better business outcomes. Farouk and the Hg team are the ideal partner to help us deliver on that ambition, combining deep AI and operational expertise to accelerate our product roadmap and a transatlantic network to support our expansion into new geographies and verticals. We're also grateful for the continued support of Daniel and Klass Capital, whose reinvestment reflects the shared conviction we all have in what lies ahead."

Farouk Hussein, Partner at Hg, said: "Patrick, Daniel, and the Rightsline team have built something genuinely exceptional. Rightsline provides a truly unified rights and royalties platform, bolstered by proprietary calculation engines, data, and algorithms, enriched with decades of domain experience. The company boasts an impressive roster of blue-chip customers and a consistent track record of sustained growth and retention that speaks to how deeply embedded the product is in its customers' legal, sales, finance and operations workflows. Rightsline is incredibly well-positioned to expands its presence across its core verticals with this growth investment, and we're excited to work hand-in-hand with management and our Hg Catalyst team to build the next generation of agentic AI products for IP lifecycle management."

Daniel Klass, Founder of Klass Capital, said: "Patrick and the team have built Rightsline into a clear global leader in rights and royalties software. When we set out to find our next partner, we wanted a firm that shares our growth ambitions and has the operational depth - particularly in AI and international scaling - to help take the company to the next level. Hg was the clear choice, and our decision to reinvest meaningfully alongside them reflects our strong conviction that the best chapter for Rightsline is still ahead."

Donna Laing, Vice President, Royalty Accounting & Rights Data Management, Scholastic, said: "In publishing, royalties vary by channel, format, territory and more, and simply knowing what we have the right to sell in each market can be incredibly complex. Keeping track of all that, and making sure the right people get paid accurately, is a real operational challenge. Rightsline handles that complexity for us and, as the publishing world continues to grow more complex, we're excited to see Hg's investment accelerate what's already an industry-leading platform."

As part of the investment, Farouk Hussein and Annie Wei from Hg will join the Rightsline board alongside Daniel Klass and Patrick Arkeveld. Ron Kasner will join as independent Chair given his multi-decade experience in scaling technology companies.

AQ Technology Partners, Brown Rudnick and Goodmans served as exclusive financial and legal / tax advisors to Rightsline. RBC, Latham & Watkins, and PwC served as exclusive financial, legal and integrated diligence advisors to Hg.

-Ends-

For further information, please contact:

HgCapital Trust
Laura Dixon

[e-mail]

[phone]

George Crowe

[e-mail]

[phone]

Cadarn
Lucy Clark
[e-mail]
[phone]

David Harris
[e-mail]
[phone]

Hg
Tom Eckersley

[e-mail]

Sam Ferris

[e-mail]

About HgCapital Trust plc

HgCapital Trust plc is an investment company whose shares are listed on the London Stock Exchange (HGT.L). HGT gives investors exposure, through a liquid vehicle, to a portfolio of high-growth unquoted companies, managed by Hg, an experienced and well-resourced private equity firm with a long-term track record of delivering superior risk-adjusted returns for its investors.

For further details, see hgcapitaltrust.com and hgcapital.com

About Rightsline

Rightsline is a leading global provider of rights and royalties management software, helping IP owners to manage and monetise content across the full intellectual property lifecycle. Trusted by more than 300 enterprise customers worldwide across media and entertainment, publishing, consumer products, life sciences, technology, gaming, music and franchising, Rightsline provides legal, sales, finance and operations teams with complete visibility into their rights, royalties, contracts and monetisation opportunities. The platform processes more than $40 billion of royalties annually and manages over 150 million IP assets across 28 countries. Founded in 2012, the company is headquartered in Los Angeles, California, with operations in New York, Boston, Toronto, London, and India.

About Hg

Hg is a leading investor in European and transatlantic software, services, and data businesses. We help to build sector-leading enterprises that supply critical software applications or workflow services to deliver intelligent automation for their customers.

We take an active approach to value creation, combining deep end-market knowledge with world class operational resources to provide compelling support to entrepreneurial leaders looking to scale enduring businesses.

With a vast European network and strong presence across North America, Hg has approximately $110 billion in assets under management and more than 400 employees. Our portfolio spans almost 60 companies worth over $190 billion in aggregate enterprise value, employing more than 130,000 people and consistently growing revenues at more than 18% annually.

 

END