Oil field workers busy at the pump

Drillinginfo, an energy software and data analytics company, has acquired Austin-based MineralSoft.

The terms of the deal were not disclosed. MineralSoft, which graduated from the Y Combinator accelerator program in 2016, had raised $9.2 million in funding to date, according to Crunchbase. Its investors included Cottonwood Venture Partners, Blue Bear Capital, and Y Combinator.

Drillinginfo, which is also based in Austin, has been working in partnership with MineralSoft, which makes a software platform to manage mineral assets and royalties, since 2017, said Gabe Wilcox, Co-founder and CEO of MineralSoft.

“From our position, this makes a lot of sense,” Wilcox said. “We have gotten to know Drillinginfo really well since we’ve been working together for two years. We have culture fit, product fit. Fundamentally, for us, this is the next step in executing our vision.”

“The two companies are stronger combined,” Wilcox said.

As part of its partnership, MineralSoft uses Drillinginfo data in its platform for “managing mineral and non-operated portfolios, including revenue and expense data; production and regulatory data; and a full land and document management system,” according to a news release.

Currently, MineralSoft works with more than 120 institutional clients and handles more than $100 million of royalty and non-operated revenue monthly across 225,000 client-owned wells. In 2018, MineralSoft clients logged more than $1.3 billion of mineral acquisitions on the platform. MineralSoft’s customers include private equity, investment funds, family offices, endowments, foundations, E&P companies, and individuals.

Drillinginfo analysts believe oil and gas mineral interests in the U.S. generate more than $50 billion per year in income for nearly 12 million owners. MineralSoft has designed a platform for those owners to more effectively manage their interests.

“When it comes to minerals, there are thousands of operators, varying lease terms and fee structures, countless payments being made and audits to perform. Managing mineral interests in thousands of wells is far too complex to be handled on a spreadsheet or using an accounting system alone,” Jeff Hughes, CEO and President of Drillinginfo, said in a news release. “Mineral interest owners want to know if they are being paid correctly, how commodity price changes will affect them, and how their interests stack up compared to their neighbors or competitors,” Hughes said.

Drillinginfo recently acquired Oildex, the largest oil & gas financial automation software firm in North America, and announced intent to acquire Cortex, a Network-as-a-Service company that enables automation of accounts payable and receivable processes for the oil and gas industry.

Drillinginfo is a portfolio company of Genstar Capital and serves over 5,000 companies globally and has more than 1,000 employees.

MineralSoft has 35 employees and recently moved into the Moody Bank building at 400 West 15th Street downtown.

“We are going to continue to grow our team in this office,” Wilcox said. “We can do that faster with the resources and footprint DI brings to the table.”

The leadership team is staying on at MineralSoft and it is continuing to hire new employees and scale its products, Wilcox said.