A new transaction has been announced in the Barcelona technology sector: software for enterprise resource planning (ERP) Holded has been acquired by the Norwegian software company Visma.
According to the operation, this around 120 million euros. However, the transaction will contemplate the “earn out” or business performance, a price structure in which Holded must “earn” part of the purchase price by meeting a series of milestones that are linked to the growth of the startup in the coming months.
What is hold
Founded in 2016, Holded is an ERP designed specifically to help companies manage all aspects of their business from a single platform: one designed to facilitate the administration of all aspects of the company from a single platform.
Precisely, this transversality in their services is what has allowed them to grow significantly since they closed their initial capital round at the beginning of 2018. In their first year, they managed to increase their number of users from 10,000 to 30,000.
From financial management to accounting and invoicing, including human resource management, CRM, projects and inventory, Holded offers its clients a complete operational capacity. Additionally, Holded’s customizable platform offers multiple integration capabilities, allowing its customers to connect with popular solutions such as Amazon, Paypal and Shopifywhile automating your main administrative tasks.
Bernat Ripollco-founder of Holded, explained in 2019: “After launching Holded, we quickly noticed the virality of our platform. We did not want to be just another piece of software, we wanted to develop a complete “Business Operating System”, an evolution of ERP. When an SME needs software, it has to spend a lot of time searching, evaluating, contracting and finally integrating it with the rest of its applications. We give them a platform that covers their main needs ready to start working from anywhere and on any device.”
Currently, more than 80,000 small businesses already use Holded, a figure that continues to grow with a net retention rate of 124%, and that they have managed invoices worth 10,000 million euros through their platform in 2020.
“We are revolutionizing the ERP category for small businesses since until now they had been forgotten and the possibilities were very limited. Holded simplifies the management of the entire company starting with billing and intuitively adding functionality to cover the rest of the areas. Connecting your e-commerce, banks, charging online or paying bills from the platform is just the beginning, we have a very strong growth plan to have the best possible product for small businesses.”comment Bernat Ripoll.
Traditionally, ERPs have been created for large companies, designed for specific processes, with long implementation processes and at a very high cost. The objective of Holded is to «revolutionize the ERP category by developing a unique tool designed for small businesses», easy to implement and at an affordable cost with which to accelerate the digitization of a sector in the midst of a new innovation process.
The latest data on Holded’s income goes back to 2019 before the pandemic, and in that year its income was more than 1.4 million euros, triple what the startup reported the previous year, and Towards the end of 2020 Fondevilla indicated that the updated income of its platform was more than 3.35 million euros. After its entry into the Norwegian group Visma, the startup will be able to boost the development of its business and consolidate its position in the Spanish market.
Secondly, Visma is a Norwegian company that is specialized in software development, It has a global workforce of more than 12,500 people and during 2020 it obtained revenues of almost 1,800 million euros.
Since its founding in 2016, Holded has received funding from Nauta Capital, Seedrocket 4 Founders and various business angelswhich have allowed it to develop its product Now, this young startup has reached a new milestone in its evolution.
And just in January 2021 Holded closed a Series B for value of €15M. The operation was led by Elaia, the European investment fund based in , together with previous partners such as Lakestar, Nauta Capital and Seedrocket. Thus, Holded accumulates 22 million euros received in different rounds of financing.
As explained at the time Javi Fondevilaco-founder of Holded, “This new injection of capital comes at the best time for the company, it will allow us to hire more than 70 people in the coming months and open an office in Paris, with which we hope to increase our reach and get 120,000 new users”, has said Javi Fondevilaco-founder of Holded. “The way in which businesses manage and interact with their data is going to change a lot in the coming years and at Holded we are prepared to lead this innovation”Add.
In 2019 Holded closed a Series A financing round of 6 million euros led by Lakestar where existing investors such as Nauta Capital and Seedrocket 4Founders Capital.
As its founders explained then, Bernat Ripoll and Javi Fondevila, “The new capital will accelerate the Barcelona-based startup’s growth in international markets, allow the company to double its team and continue to develop the platform.”
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