Citizens Commercial Banking led new financing for Octo, a Reston, Va.-based provider of next-generation solutions for the federal market, that was used to acquire Connexta, a Phoenix, Ariz.-based leader in open source software development and secure discovery solutions for government and commercial customers. Citizens served as Lead Arranger.

Octo has more than 13 years of experience developing mission-critical solutions for the federal government across healthcare, national security, civilian and defense agencies. With this acquisition, Octo significantly bolstered its client base in the Department of Defense and the intelligence community, particularly the Air Force and its innovative software labs. Following the acquisition, Octo now offers nearly 700 technologists to support and accelerate modernization efforts across its entire public sector customer base.

“Citizens bankers are trusted partners who bring great ideas and they were able to provide a financing solution that made this key acquisition possible,” said Mehul Sanghani, Chief Executive Officer of Octo.  “The industry expertise of Dillon Bowles, Dan Darnell, Dan Laurenzi and the entire Citizens team helped us complete this transformative deal seamlessly.”

“At Citizens, we think about the needs of our clients like Octo from their point of view and offer holistic solutions,” said Daniel K. Fitzpatrick, President of Citizens Bank, Mid-Atlantic Region and Head of National Industry Verticals. “Providing acquisition financing is just one of the ways that Citizens delivers substantial value for our clients as they grow and during every stage of their business life cycle.”