Certify sold to California investor in deal worth close to $100M
File Photo / Tim Greenway
Robert Neveu, CEO of Certify Inc. of Portland, will head a new company that combines four of the top expense management companies in the United States and Canada.
Certify Inc., a Portland travel and expense software company, was sold to K1 Investment Management LLC of El Segundo, Calif., which also merged three similar expense management software companies for which it paid more than $125 million total, K1 said on June 20.
The deal for Certify closed in late May, Certify CEO and co-founder Robert Neveu told Mainebiz. He would not specify exactly how much K1 paid for Certify other than to say it was close to $100 million. Neveu said that while the other three companies were purchased over the past six to 18 months, they were merged Tuesday, with him presiding as CEO over the group. His brother and co-founder Alan Neveu will be CTO for the group.
Certify has 140 employees nationwide, 90 of whom are in Portland and will remain here.
Neveu said Certify has had a total of $5 million in angel and venture investment. An unnamed private individual individual was the lead investor, but Maine Venture Fund also was one of the leads.
MVF invested $500,000 in Certify in two funding rounds, and got more than a five times return on investment, John Burns, managing director of MVF, told Mainebiz. Neveu said he thinks the return is higher than that.
CEI also invested in the second round and Certify also had private investors, Burns said.
Neveu said K1 had been looking to round out its investments in the expense management software sector to compete more effectively with market leader SAP Concur of Bellevue, Wash.
K1’s investment combines Certify with K1’s existing software acquisitions Nexonia of Toronto; ExpenseWatch of Plymouth Meeting, Pa.; and Tallie of San Francisco. With the combined companies, Certify now has seven offices in the United States and Canada, Neveu said.
Certify will be the parent to the three other companies.
Neveu was a Mainebiz 2010 Next List recipient.
“With the combined companies we doubled our revenue and tripled our customers,” Neveu told Mainebiz, while declining to reveal revenue because Certify is privately held. K1 said the combined business will better serve its more than 7,500 enterprise, mid-market and small-to-medium business customers with expanded offerings to reduce administrative overhead associated with employee time, travel and expenses. Near-term priorities include increased investment in product capabilities, expansion of geographic reach and growth of a team of subject-matter experts. K1 said additional capital will be available for further acquisitions.
“We're now in a much stronger position to develop products and serve customers in the United States, Canada and internationally,” said Neveu, who founded the company in 2008. “I would expect us to continue growing organically and through acquisition as we move to overtake Concur as the world's largest expense management software vendor.” Certify has been growing at a rate of 50% annually, he noted.
Market researcher IDC estimates the market for travel and expense management software will reach $2.46 billion by 2020.
Customers of the combined entity include Marketo, 1-800-Flowers, FitBit, Survey Monkey, Shopify, Century 21, HootSuite, Little Caesars and Scribd.
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