When’s the best time for a fintech to go on a shopping spree? When it has money in the bank and valuations have just come crashing down to earth.
This may not be exactly what the leadership team at Ageras articulated to investors. But one way or another the message got through. Ageras, a Danish small business financial services marketplace, just raised about $36 million (35 million if you think in euros).
In the funding announcement, the company says the money is to “accelerate [its] strategic acquisitions pipeline and to expand its suite of software tailored to the demands of small businesses.”
The latest round comes exclusively from CIBC Innovation Banking.
“CIBC Innovation Banking’s investment will help us focus on the mission: acquiring companies whose tech can fit into — and enrich — Ageras’ one-and-done financial cockpit for small businesses,” said Ageras Co-founder and CEO Rico Andersen.
“In the last year, we’ve acquired and added three companies to our product offering. Now, with CIBC Innovation Banking’s €35m investment, we’ll look to buy more, especially companies that have developed best-in-class products that either cement our position in one market or add mission-critical features that we can offer to all existing customers.”
While Ageras has been on the hunt for acquisitions for a while, we suspect this latest funding round may at least be in part motivated by opportunism. Valuations have crashed in fintech, making this a great time for well-funding sector leaders to scoop up rivals or companies with complementary tech. Prices in most cases will be much lower than they were even six months ago.
The Financial Cockpit Guys
We last wrote about Ageras back in February when the company raised about $34 million. Including its latest round, the company has raised $143.8 million since it was founded in 2012 by three guys with very nordic-sounding names. Martin Hegelund, Martin Thorborg, and the aforementioned CEO Andersen. Thorborg is a veteran entrepreneur who also founded the small business accounting SaaS tool Dinero.
Ageras began as an online marketplace that matched small businesses with financial services pros. Think accountants, bookkeepers, and tax specialists. Over time, this has evolved into what the company calls a “financial cockpit”. This is a single destination for most or all of their needs. This includes bookkeeping, accounting, payroll services, invoicing, and financial services.
The company has been gradually moving away from the marketplace as its core business in favor of being a small business software provider. After all, it’s a much more lucrative and scalable business than matchmaking. However, the company’s website still leads with the matchmaking service.
And Ageras doesn’t build the software as much as it integrates it into a dashboard — or “cockpit”.
The company relies on third-party solutions like Zervant, Billy, and Tellow for accounting software. It uses Kontist for banking. And it offers payroll software via Salary. Last year Ageras rolled out an embedded fintech service that offers financing options to small businesses directly through its software. Ageras has a team of roughly 350 people spread across the Netherlands, Germany, and the U.S. in addition to Denmark, Norway, and Sweden.
