Timely bought by US firm
Another hot tech company has been sold offshore, with Dunedin's appointment software firm Timely getting snapped up by Denver-based EverCommerce.
It's the latest in a long-term trend, which seems to have accelerated recently.
March saw three major offshore sales with Kumeu mobile game developer Ninja Kiwi sold to Sweden's MTG for $203 million, Auckland-based retail software firm Vend going to NYSE-listed Lightspeed for $450m, and Christchurch geologic 3D modelling outfit acquired by Nasdaq-listed Bentley Systems for $1.45 billion.
No price was disclosed for the Timely-EverCommerce deal, but Timely founder Ryan Baker told the Herald that it will be subject to Overseas Investment Office approval — indicating that it is somewhere north of the OIO's $100m threshold.
Founded in 2011 by Baker, Andrew Schofield and Will Berger, the startup now has 50,000 beauty professionals across 90 countries that use the cloudbased business management software to book more than 30 million appointments per year.
That success aside, Baker has also spoken candidly about the stress of pandemic lockdowns, and the boom-and-bust cycle effect on Timely's revenue early in the outbreak.
The sudden loss of revenue was “scary”, he posted in an emotional thread that also paid tribute to the government's handling of the pandemic.
Banker said: “It's a fantastic outcome for the shareholders and the company. We have really nice alignment with EverCommerce on our values and direction. The team here are fizzing.”
While not able to reveal pandemic-year financials, Baker said his company had expanded over the past six months from 85 staff (the number it had at the height of lockdowns) to 125.
“Like many companies, Covid was a game of two halves for us. An existential crisis to begin, then a tailwind from accelerated digital adoption,” he said.
“Our last major funding round was $7m from Movac in 2017 and Timely has remained profitable since early 2020 when the outbreak began,” Baker said.