January 2019 SMB Software News Recap
Each month we report on news and updates for the companies in the SurePath SMB Index — a basket of publicly traded software and technology companies that serve the SMB market.
Here is what made the news this past month:
Acquisitions and Divestitures
Appfolio made headlines in January with an acquisition announcement.
AppFolio Acquires Advanced Artificial Intelligence Technology Provider — AppFolio, a provider of cloud-based business software solutions in real estate and legal markets, announced the acquisition of Dynasty Market place, Inc. (Dynasty), a provider of advanced artificial intelligence (AI) solutions for the real estate market based in Los Angeles, CA at an undisclosed amount. Dynasty’s team will join AppFolio to further develop AppFolio’s AI products and services.
New Product Launches and Partnerships
H&R block announced its second year of partnership with Walmart — As part of this partnership, Walmart shoppers purchasing the H&R Deluxe/Deluxe + State products will be allowed to reinstall their software at no cost for up to two years from the date of purchase.
HubSpot announced a new integration with Zoom Video Communications, Inc. — The new integration allows HubSpot users to schedule Zoom-hosted meetings from the CRM and enables Zoom users seamlessly add HubSpot contacts to Zoom Webinars.
TurboTax Launches Comprehensive Spanish Language Tax Resources Available to Hispanics — Intuit announced its TurboTax Blog will be available in both Spanish and English, offering its comprehensive free tax information resources to 60 million Hispanics currently in the U.S.
Shutterstock’s Contributor Site and Mobile Applications now in 21 languages — The increase in language availability is now consistent with the language options on Shutterstock’s customer-facing site and its developer portal. The company also launched its first global brand marketing campaign in six years, ‘It’s not Stock, it’s Shutterstock™’.
Square Launches Payments SDK, Enabling Developers to Process Payments With Square in Their Mobile Apps — The new Square In-App Payments Software Development Kit (SDK) will enable merchants to process payments within consumer-facing mobile app for the first time and is currently available for iOS, Android and Flutter in U.S., Canada, UK, Australia, and Japan.
Other News
Cimpress Increases Credit Facility by $500 Million — Cimpress announced it is expanding its existing credit facility to a total of $1,613 million provided by the existing members of the bank group.
Shopify has announced a new appointment to its board of directors — Colleen Johston is the former Chief Financial Offer of Toronto-Dominion Bank and was recognized as Canad’a CFO of the year in 2012. Collen currently also serves on the board of directors of WestJet (TSX), a global airline based in Calgary, Alberta, McCain Foods, Unity Health Toronto, and the Shaw Festival Theatre.
Amrita Ahuja joins Square as Chief Financial Officer — Since its previous CFO Sarah Frair stepped down in October 2018, Square has been actively seeking for a new CFO. In January, Square announced the appointment of Amrita Ahuja as its CFO. Amrita was previously the CFO of Blizzard Entertainment, a division of Activision Blizzard where she worked for eights years in various finance and strategy roles across the company.
Activity in the SMB space outside of our SMB Index
Here are some noteworthy activities that happened during the first month of 2019:
With eyes on an IPO, Montreal’s Lightspeed POS launches its payments system
And.. more on Lightspeed POS from Mark MacLeod
TCV Set to hit competitive tech-growth market with fresh $3 bln pool
eLocal Acquires Felix And CityGrid From IAC To Build On Performance
Smartsheet makes its 2nd acquisition, swooping up Seattle-based creative production platform Slope
Fiserv is buying First Data in a $22B fintech megadeal
Winnipeg app maker Bold Commerce raises $22-million after success on Shopify’s platform
ScaleFactor Raises $30 Million to Expand Robot Bookkeeper Service, Eyes Loan Market
