Perfect Commerce Completes Acquisition of Hubwoo S.A.

Perfect Commerce recently announced that it had finalized its acquisition of Paris-based Hubwoo S.A., which Ardent wrote about in early July shortly after the tender offer was first revealed. Virginia-based Perfect Commerce now owns a controlling interest in Hubwoo, blending two companies with complementary solutions that both have their roots in Commerce One, the market leader of the B2B internet boom in the 1990s.

The acquisition is a solid one for Perfect Commerce, which gains one of the largest business networks by transaction volume in Hubwoo as well as strong catalogue management capabilities. Perfect also has the opportunity to use Hubwoo’s European-focus to offer its complementary solutions to a wider array of customers much more quickly than investing in organic growth. As we wrote in July, one of the clearest benefits would come if Perfect manages to convert a reasonable share of Hubwoo’s customers from SAP to its own solutions, but either way this is a good deal for both companies.

Tradeshift Accelerates Market Growth and Leadership with $30M Acquisition of Merchantry

Tradeshift announced recently that it had added product information management (PIM) capabilities to its portfolio with a $30 million acquisition of Merchantry, an eCommerce technology integration solution provider. Merchantry made a name for itself through managing extensive amounts of retail product information to simplify eCommerce for retailers, and includes Amazon.com, Marks & Spencer, and other major eCommerce businesses among its customers.

The acquisition brings a product information management tool streamlined through consumer-facing use under the Tradeshift umbrella. Merchantry has 11 years of experience building, managing, and streamlining eCommerce portals for consumer-facing retailers, but they also have supplier onboarding that simplifies catalog additions and SKU management for low-tech and high-tech suppliers. Tradeshift could use Merchantry’s PIM expertise to augment catalog management on its supplier network, which would be a worthwhile idea—effective PIM can make a difference in how well or poorly a catalog solution operates. It remains to be seen how Merchantry will be integrated, however.

AvidXchange Closes $225 Million Minority Growth Financing Led by Bain Capital Ventures; Breaks Ground on New Corporate Campus

AvidXchange announced recently that it had raised $225 million in growth financing, adding a slate of new minority partners to its investors. Bain Capital Ventures led the financing round, which also included Foundry Group, NYCA Partners, KeyBank, Square 1 Bank, and TPG Special Situations Partners. This latest round of investment adds three new directors to Avid’s board, and indicates the interest level of major technology-focused investment firms in AvidXchange’s product line and growth strategy. Avid plans to use most of the $225 million raised to hire staff, make strategic acquisitions, and develop new products.

News of the financing round comes nearly three months after Avid finalized its acquisition of Houston-based Strongroom Solutions and 10 months after its acquisition of Utah-based Piracle Payment Solutions. Avid’s business has been on a tremendous upswing between those acquisitions and major strategic partnerships, so the new financing—and the addition of minority partners—is an indicator that the company is on a solid growth trajectory.

In other news, Avid also broke ground this week on a new corporate headquarters in Charlotte, N.C. The ceremony took place at the NC Music Factory, where Avid’s 420 employees currently work. N.C. Governor Pat McCrory attended the event, as did Charlotte Mayor Dan Clodfelter; the expansion of the 32-acre site at the NC Music Factory is intended to support the more than 600 technology jobs that Avid plans to create over the next four years because of its explosive corporate growth. The company has already added 180 new positions this year, and so far has not slowed down. Avid plans to also soon start construction on a six-story 200,000-square-foot building to be completed in 2017.

SciQuest Enhances its Spend Automation Suite with Source-to-Settle Features

In late July, North Carolina-based SciQuest (Nasdaq: SQI), which offers automated spend management solutions for procurement practitioners, announced that it has enhanced its suite of tools with various source-to-settle and mobility features. The update primarily includes Total Contract Manager, a contract management tool that is hosted on the suite, features a single contract repository, and allows users to author and edit contracts using an integrated Microsoft Word app for greater familiarity. It also includes mobile enhancements to its eProcurement application, which include single sign-on capability for end users, and compatibility with both Android and iOS platforms. Finally, the new version features Sourcing Director, which allows practitioners to assign weights to things like price and quality thereby helping them to assess sourcing decisions. Also, a beta version of the suite provides end users with the ability to conduct reverse auctions.

SAP-Ariba and OpenText Collaborate to Simplify B2B Information Exchanges

In late July, Ariba, the online business network wholly owned by SAP, announced that it is partnering with Enterprise Information Management (EIM) solution provider, OpenText, to offer a simplified, cloud-based B2B information exchange capability for multi-national corporations. Dubbed OpenText B2B Managed Services, the solution will simplify B2B transactions and information flows for the roughly 600,000 users currently on the OpenText Trading Grid. According to Mark J. Barrenechea, president and CEO of OpenText, the solution will allow procurement organizations to improve time-to-revenue, reduce costs, and help enterprises “advance the digital transformation that today’s leaders are undertaking.”

SAP-Concur Releases Second Quarter Earnings Results, Announces App Center for Japan

In late July, SAP, the parent company of travel and expense management solution provider, Concur, released financial results for the second quarter of fiscal year 2015, as reported by Business Travel News. SAP reported that second quarter subscriptions and support revenue for Concur’s cloud-based solutions were 167 million Euros – up from 153 million Euros in the first quarter. And as part of SAP’s Business Network, Concur, along with Ariba and Fieldglass, helped to drive a 194 percent year-over-year increase in revenue of 400 million Euros. Concur CEO and Business Network head, Steve Singh, attributes this growth to a growth in subscriptions across all three companies.

And in other Concur news, it recently announced that it would begin offering its App Center in Japan, opening up a marketplace of third-party apps and services that currently provides tools to more than 30 million users worldwide. The App Center operates by seamlessly integrating apps with Concur’s travel and expense reporting solution, and the company hopes to expand with a Japanese developer community in the near future. With this move, Japanese business travelers will be able to access a growing ecosystem of apps specific to the Japanese market such as Nihon Kotsu Nationwide Taxi and Fujisoft, as well as global apps such as Uber and Ping Identity.

Coupa Expands Travel and Expense Management Capabilities by Acquiring TripScanner

Also in late July, Coupa, the California-based provider of cloud-based spend management solutions, announced that it recently acquired New-York-based travel and expense (T&E) management solution provider, TripScanner. TripScanner specializes in managing so-called “open booking” or unmanaged bookings, and bringing them under the influence of procurement managers for greater transparency and savings. TripScanner’s solutions enable business travelers to leverage their preferred booking sites for airfares, hotels, and rental cars and manage their meals and expenses within its platform, which automatically populates bookings and expenses into line-item reports and cross checks them for compliance. As part of the deal, Coupa is bringing over TripScanner staff and development teams, and plans to integrate their solutions into its own solutions “for select users” by the end of 2015.

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