2012 continues to be a big year for Basware in this quickly consolidating eInvoicing market. On Oct 5th, Basware signed an agreement to acquire the eInvoicing and network business of Certipost for €18.2MM. Certipost based in Aalst, Belgium is a subsidiary of bpost (the Belgian Post Group) and is a leading eInvoicing provider in the Benelux region. Basware’s agreement is to acquire only the eInvoicing and network business which generates approximately 70% of Certipost’s revenues. The remaining part of the business that focuses on digital certificates, e-Signing and eID (the Belgian electronic identity card) is not part of the deal and will stay as is. According to the press release, Certipost had more than 85,000 companies using its technology and it currently employs 84 people of which 76 are working in the network and eInvoicing business. Overall, this acquisition is part of Basware’s longer-term strategy to continue building its already sizable and global Open Network. In fact, Certipost will put Basware approximately 12MM transactions closer to its goal of reaching 150MM transactions by 2015.
Last week, I had a chance to catch-up with Juha Häkämies, Basware’s VP of M&A and Business Development and got some great insights into the reasoning behind the Certipost acquisition and what Basware hopes to gain from it. The four main reasons behind the acquisition were:
- Opportunity to go down market in the Benelux region: Certipost’s eInvoicing business is very focused at the enterprise level with large corporations. Basware’s previous acquisition (First Businesspost) and its cloud-based platform (Alusta) have allowed it to focus increasingly on the small to medium-sized enterprise (SME) market, presenting an opportunity to expand down market in the Benelux region.
- Opportunity to expand to global relationships: Certipost is very focused on the Benelux market and there are many enterprises are headquartered in this region. This presents Basware the opportunity to expand these Benelux focused clients into larger European and global relationships.
- Opportunity to provide additional services: Certipost focused mainly on eInvoicing leaving additional services such as scan and capture on the table for Basware.
- Opportunity to offer EDI technology: Over the years Certipost developed an EDI expertise, having built and invested a significant amount into EDI technology. To date, Basware has lacked this capability.
Additionally, Certipost gives Basware a base of operations in Belgium, expanding its coverage of the Benelux region (the other Basware office in region is in the Netherlands).
So, is that it for Basware? I doubt it, I think we’ll be seeing some more action from this determined Finnish company. There are still quite a few providers in the European eInvoicing market, many of whom would be glad to see Basware knocking on their front door and with Ariba more focused on merger integration (acquired by SAP) there are not many others with an appetite for acquisition.
