Two of Indiana’s earliest software companies — companies that blazed tech trails and attracted and nurtured some of the state’s very first tech talent — have both been acquired by private equity firms.

Carmel, Ind.-based loan-origination and portfolio-management software company Baker Hill was sold by former acquirer Experian for $100 million to The Riverside Co., a private equity firm based in New York City. Muncie, Ind.-based accounts receivable management software company Ontario Systems was acquired by Arlington Capital Partners, a Washington, D.C.-based private equity firm.

Baker Hill was co-founded by husband and wife entrepreneurial team Mark and Karen Hill in 1983.

Mark was a sales rep for IBM and his wife Karen worked at a local bank in Denver when a half-price PC Mark bought changed their lives because Karen’s ideas for better banking software started gaining traction — and more importantly, customers. Originally from Ft. Wayne, Ind., the Hills came back home, bringing their fledgling tech business, Baker Hill, with them and settling in Indianapolis. As Mark tells it, they were young and didn’t know any better, but they didn’t have any money and Indiana was just a lot more affordable than other places (and still is today). The Hills eventually sold Baker Hill to Experian in 2005, and Mark has since become one of the area’s most active angel investors through his private investment firm, Collina Ventures, with about 50 startups.

Mark Hill and Karen Hill in the 1980s.
Baker Hill co-founders Mark Hill and Karen Hill in the 1980s.

Ontario Systems was co-founded in 1980 by entrepreneurs Ron Fauquher and Wil Davis – who today are CEO and Chairman of the Board, respectively.

Ron and Wil saw opportunity amid the new challenges facing accounts receivables management (ARM) and revenue recovery operations 35 years ago. Today, their ideas and innovations are serving nine of the 10 largest collections agencies, three of the top six best health systems in the U.S., and more than 30 percent of the largest U.S. health systems. Ontario Systems’ clients are among the nation’s top 100 healthcare providers and more than 55,000 representatives in more than 500 locations use their products every day.

Ontario Systems co-founders Wil Davis and Ron Fauquher in the 1980s.
Ontario Systems co-founders Wil Davis and Ron Fauquher in the 1980s.

Coincidentally, both Mark Hill and Wil Davis are past chairmen of TechPoint’s board of directors.

You can read the original press releases from Baker Hill here, and Ontario Systems here.