Travel, expense and invoice management software providers Certify and Chrome River have announced they are merging in a transaction valued at more than US$1 billion.
K1 Investment Management will hold a majority stake in the combined company, while existing shareholders – including the organisations’ founders and Bain Capital Ventures – will retain a minority interest.
Initially, Certify and Chrome River will operate independently, with separate management teams focusing on supporting their existing products. The combined organisation will collaborate on speeding up investments in technology such as machine learning, artificial intelligence, analytics and reporting.
Both companies offer a suite of travel, expense and invoice management technology. The combined business will have more than 11,000 customers across more than 100 countries, with solutions available in more than 60 languages.
Both companies’ technology offers integrations with enterprise resource planning systems such as SAP, Oracle, NetSuite, Sage Intacct, Microsoft Dynamics, PeopleSoft, JD Edwards and QuickBooks.
The merger joins Chrome River with Certify’s growing portfolio of brands, which includes Nexonia, Tallie, Abacus and Captio.
Bob Neveu, CEO and co-founder of Certify, commented: “By bringing together Chrome River’s strengths in large enterprise and Certify’s strengths in mid-market and SMB, organisations of all sizes have the choice of technology suited to their specific requirements, rather than being forced to use a single product. With increased financial resources, the combined organisation will have an even stronger focus on innovation, ensuring our customers will continue to optimise their travel, expense and invoice automation technology investments.”
Alan Rich, CEO and co-founder of Chrome River, added: “Over the past 11 years, Chrome River has established itself as the leader for global enterprises looking for sophisticated, highly-scalable expense and invoice management software. Combining our resources with those of Certify, we can continue toward our goal of delivering the most innovative and agile solutions on the market. I look forward to the combined organisation continuing to earn an even greater share of a rapidly-growing industry.”
K1 Investment Management senior research analyst Kevin Permenter said the cloud expense management software market has grown 11.4 per cent per year and is expected to be a US$2.7 billion industry by 2022.
chromeriver.com; certify.com