XERO limited (XRO) goes for growth in the Northern American market and raises £110.8 million in capital – a massive boost for the New Zealand founded cloud accounting software firm to take even more market share.
XERO, one of the fastest growing cloud accounting software platforms worldwide provides high technology accounting solutions for small to medium sized businesses world over with one of the most intuitive and feature rich platforms on the market. The new investment funds come from XERO’s two largest institutional investors – Accel Partners (a leading Silicon Valley venture capital firm) and Matrix Capital Management (current shareholder). Accel is providing the lion’s share of capital in the deal — $100 million at a $15.052 per share value — which is expected to close by the middle of March 2015.
XERO will be putting the money into growing market share in North America primarily. The knock on effect is showing signs of massive growth globally, with XERO bolstering it’s team with new hires both in the US and worldwide. Importantly, Russell Fujioka (53), formerly of Dell and a current partner at Bessemer Venture Partners, has taken on the role of U.S. president, based out of Xero’s San Francisco office. Fujioka brings significant experience in sales, digital marketing and operational management of high growth businesses.
“Xero’s world-class cloud platform has the power to make a real difference in the lives and success of millions of small businesses and entrepreneurs,”
said Russell Fujioka.
“Xero is already one of the worlds fastest growing software companies and I’m excited to be part of the journey that will see Xero become the preferred financial platform for millions of small businesses and their advisors, especially in the United States.”
“We have a world-class leadership team and board in place to support accelerating growth,”
said Rod Drury, Chief Executive Officer, Xero Ltd.
“Russ has already proven within Xero the value of his operational experience and results-focused energy.”
Excitingly, as a further addition, former Salesforce (worlds #1 CRM software) CFO Graham Smith (55) has joined the XERO team as non-executive director on the board. Smith brings significant experience of scaling SaaS businesses.
“Xero is revolutionising small business software and has an amazing culture of innovation,”
said Graham Smith.
“I’m very excited to be joining the Xero Board of Directors.”
“Graham’s strategic and financial skills complement a strong technology and business focused Xero Board,”
said Chris Liddell, Chairman of Xero Ltd.
“His experience with fast growing technology companies will provide additional insight and knowledge for the next phase of Xero’s growth, particularly in North America.”
Other critical hires in the past three months include James Maiocco (General Manager, Business and Corporate Development U.S & U.K), John Forrester (Vice President, U.S. Marketing), and Greg Volm (Vice President, U.S. Sales).
XERO has previously bolstered up it’s US team back in February 2014 a year ago, bringing on board, Peter Karpas, who has since moved on, and it looks as though Russell Fujioka will be taking on board his responsibilities within his new role.
Over in the US, there is stiff competition in the online cloud accounting market, which is seeing rapid growth as an industry sector. As you can imagine the power of technology connecting business with in-the-cloud 24/7 powerful accounting has brought about a streamlining, cost saving, power house to all businesses, allowing greater financial insight, faster processing of decisions and strategy. Over in the US XERO is sparring with Intuit Quickbooks (arguably the largest player in the market), and smaller rivals such as Freshbooks.
Prior to today, Xero had raised over $240 million from investors, according to CrunchBase. Its most recent round was $150 million in October 2013, led by Peter Thiel-backed Valar Ventures and Matrix Partners.
XERO has over 400,000 paying customers in more than 180 countries around the world and over 1,100 employees. Xero is listed on the NZX and ASX
Official statement from XERO Dated 25th February
We feel this is just the beginning for XERO as the company grows from strength to strength, pivoting it’s sales approach, and prepares for US IPO. Read more from XERO.