In a decisive corporate maneuver signaling a significant strategic realignment, private equity firm Periscope Equity has orchestrated the sale of a major business unit to relaunch a foundational brand with a newly refined market focus. The firm has completed the sale of brightfin’s enterprise-focused, ServiceNow-native business to Proven Optics, a company backed by Silversmith Capital Partners. This divestiture paves the way for the reintroduction of Mobile Solutions, one of brightfin’s original components, as an independent, standalone company. This move is not merely a branding change but a fundamental shift back to its roots, with the revitalized entity now dedicated exclusively to providing mobility and telecom expense management services to the often-overlooked mid-market sector. To spearhead this new chapter, Periscope Equity has appointed industry veteran Chebem Chukwu as the new Chief Executive Officer, entrusting him with the mission to capture a segment that has historically lacked purpose-built solutions for its unique mobility challenges.
A Strategic Pivot to Sharpen Focus
Divesting to Conquer a Niche Market
The decision to relaunch Mobile Solutions stems from a calculated strategy to deconstruct a larger entity to create more specialized, agile businesses. The brightfin brand itself was the product of consolidation, formed in 2021 after Periscope Equity acquired and merged three distinct companies: Mobile Solutions in 2019, followed by MobiChord and Visage in 2020. This combination aimed to serve a broad spectrum of the market, from mid-sized businesses to large enterprises. However, the sale of the ServiceNow-native segment, which primarily catered to enterprise clients, represents a strategic “unbundling.” This move effectively liberates Mobile Solutions from the complexities of serving disparate market tiers, allowing the company to concentrate all its resources, talent, and technological development on a single, well-defined target. By carving out the enterprise business, Periscope Equity is betting that a focused approach will yield greater returns and enable the new company to respond more effectively to the specific demands of its chosen clientele, avoiding the compromises inherent in a one-size-fits-all model.
The prevailing belief among both the new leadership and its private equity backers is that the mid-market represents a significant and largely untapped opportunity. This segment, often caught between consumer-grade tools that lack scalability and enterprise platforms that are overly complex and expensive, has long been underserved. Mid-market organizations face unique challenges in managing their mobile fleets and telecom expenses; they require sophisticated tools for visibility, control, and cost optimization but lack the massive IT departments and budgets of their larger counterparts. The relaunch of Mobile Solutions is a direct response to this market gap. The overarching consensus is that a dedicated platform, engineered from the ground up to address the specific workflows, security needs, and budgetary constraints of mid-sized companies, can capture substantial market share. This focused mission allows the company to develop its product roadmap with greater precision and deliver a value proposition that resonates more deeply than that of competitors trying to serve all markets at once, positioning it as an expert solution provider rather than a generalist.
The Rebirth of a Specialized Platform
At its core, the reconstituted Mobile Solutions will continue to deliver its proven technology-enabled platform, specifically engineered to help mid-market organizations streamline the intricate process of managing mobile devices and controlling telecom expenditures. The platform is designed to provide comprehensive visibility, automation, and control across the entire mobility lifecycle, from device procurement and deployment to expense management and end-of-life recycling. The primary goal is to empower clients by saving them significant time and reducing operational costs, allowing their internal teams to focus on more strategic initiatives. The company is not starting from scratch; it will maintain service for its existing base of over 300 customers, ensuring continuity and stability. Furthermore, Mobile Solutions will continue to offer flexible service models, supporting both a fully managed service for companies that prefer to outsource mobility management and a self-service model for those who wish to maintain direct control through the platform’s intuitive interface. This dual approach ensures the company can meet the diverse operational preferences within the mid-market.
Instrumental to this new chapter is the appointment of Chebem Chukwu as Chief Executive Officer, a leader whose background aligns perfectly with the company’s refined mission. With 15 years of deep experience in the mobile telecommunications industry, Chukwu brings a wealth of knowledge and a proven track record of success. His expertise was honed during his time as a mobility expert at AT&T, one of the largest carriers in the world, giving him firsthand insight into the challenges and opportunities within the sector. More importantly, his entrepreneurial spirit is evidenced by his role as a co-founder of MobilePhire, where he built a company focused on solving similar mobility management problems. This blend of corporate experience and startup agility makes him uniquely qualified to lead Mobile Solutions. His leadership is expected to infuse the organization with a renewed sense of purpose and a clear vision for innovation, directly addressing the nuanced needs of mid-market customers with an expert-driven approach that instills confidence and drives adoption.
Charting a Course for Aggressive Growth
An Ambitious Roadmap for the Future
Under its new leadership, Mobile Solutions is poised for a period of aggressive organic growth, fueled by a commitment to significant reinvestment in its core platform. The company’s strategy centers on enhancing its product roadmap to deliver features and functionalities explicitly designed for the mid-market. Unlike broader platforms that may dilute their offerings to cater to enterprise clients, Mobile Solutions will focus on developing targeted solutions that address the most pressing pain points of mid-sized businesses. This includes building more intuitive user interfaces, developing advanced reporting and analytics tailored to mid-market budget cycles, and integrating seamlessly with the software ecosystems commonly used by these organizations. This commitment to product excellence is not just about adding new features but about refining the entire user experience to be more efficient, cost-effective, and impactful. By doubling down on what it does best, the company aims to create an undeniable product-market fit that establishes it as the default choice for mobility management in its target segment.
A Dual-Pronged Expansion Strategy
Beyond enhancing its existing platform, the company’s vision for the future includes a robust inorganic growth strategy centered on the active pursuit of strategic add-on acquisitions. This dual-pronged approach is designed to accelerate its expansion and solidify its market leadership position. Acquisitions will be carefully selected to broaden the company’s technological capabilities, potentially adding new functionalities in areas like mobile security, device lifecycle management, or IoT connectivity management. Such moves would not only enrich the platform’s value proposition for existing customers but also attract new clients seeking a more comprehensive, all-in-one solution. Furthermore, inorganic growth will serve to expand the company’s geographic footprint and customer base, quickly increasing its market share. This ambitious plan is backed by the full support and resources of Periscope Equity, which has expressed strong confidence in Chukwu’s leadership and has committed to providing the necessary capital to execute this vision, ensuring Mobile Solutions has the financial firepower to pursue transformative opportunities.
A Calculated Gamble on Specialization
The restructuring of brightfin and the strategic relaunch of Mobile Solutions represented a deliberate choice to prioritize depth over breadth. By divesting its enterprise-focused arm, the company shed a significant portion of its market reach in favor of pursuing mastery within the underserved mid-market niche. This move was predicated on the conviction that a highly specialized platform, led by an industry veteran and backed by committed investors, could achieve greater success than a generalized solution. The appointment of Chebem Chukwu and the clear articulation of a dual-pronged growth strategy—combining focused organic product development with strategic acquisitions—laid the groundwork for what was intended to be a new era of dominance in a specific, high-potential segment. This was a calculated gamble, trading the allure of a larger addressable market for the promise of becoming an indispensable partner to a focused customer base.
