“Financial cockpit” is a nifty bit of branding. And it’s how Danish accounting matchmaker for small businesses Ageras Group positions itself. But what does it mean?
At its heart, Ageras is a marketplace for small businesses to find financial services providers across the full suite. However, through acquisition, it has added proprietary tools for payroll and invoicing. And the company has landed on the freelancer market as a key customer segment.
Financial cockpit? That may be a bit grand. But the value prop is clear. Offering an efficient tool for SMBs to find local financial services providers. The company, however, has gradually been moving away from matchmaking and into selling software. It estimates its global available market is about $430 billion.
We learned late last week that the Ageras has raised $34 million from a group of European and American investors. The goal is expansion and acquisition. This round brings its cumulative funding since launch to more than $107 million.
The Financial Cockpit
“What started as an online marketplace for small business owners to find accountants in Denmark has now expanded into a financial cockpit used by more than 1 million SMEs across Europe and the U.S.,” said Ageras Co-founder and CEO Rico Andersen in the funding announcement. “Giving them a single, centralized destination for nearly all their needs—bookkeeping, accounting, payroll services, invoicing, and now financial services.”
“There are tens of millions of freelancers and small business owners out there who don’t want to spend their precious time and energy on tedious backroom processes, especially ones which can be automated,” said Ageras Group Co-founder and CMO Martin Hegelund. “That’s where Ageras Group comes in. Our ecosystem is simplifying the lives of small business owners, and our company grows alongside their companies’ growth. As they expand, their use of our products deepens.”
From Leads to Software
Ageras has gone through significant changes in its decade of operation.
The company was founded by Andersen, CMO Martin Hegelund, and noted Danish entrepreneur Martin Thorborg, who also founded the small business accounting SaaS tool Dinero. So Thorborg apparently exited the business in 2017, when Ageras was acquired by the Bahraini investment firm Investcorp for an undisclosed amount.
Since then, Ageras has continued to act like a startup. Last year it raised $73 million. And it has made acquisitions while expanding its matchmaking footprint to the full suite of financial services.
The company says it plans to focus on expanding in Scandinavia, Germany, France, and the United States.
The company plans to use its latest infusion to make more acquisitions. And our impression is the company wants to lean further into its pivot away from processing requests for quotes from SMBs (and presumably taking a cut). Its clear long-term vision is to become an all-in-one tool for freelancers and SMBs to handle their finances. We imagine they like the economics of this model a lot better.
