December 16 (SeeNews) - Norwegian group Visma said on Monday it has signed a deal to buy a majority stake in Romanian fintech startup Smart Bill for an undisclosed sum.
Through this acquisition, Visma is expanding its geographic footprint and strengthens its European leadership in cloud-based efficiency solutions for small and midsize business (SMBs), it said in a press release.
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The transaction is subject to approval by Romanian authorities.
As a shareholder Visma will strengthen SmartBill as a provider of cloud business software to Romanian companies. SmartBill will also expand Visma’s cloud SMB footprint in Central Europe.
"We are now also looking forward to entering the Romanian market, and expect to gain significant traction here over the coming years," Visma Group product director Jostein Håvaldsrud said.
With the acquisition, Visma expands its geographic footprint in Romania from product development for its international products, to its first Romanian product with Romanian customers.
As part of the Visma group, SmartBill will remain an independent brand and entity.
"The growth and performance of SmartBill during the past few years have been very strong. Visma’s experience within various cloud billing and accounting services will benefit SmartBill’s customers," SmartBill co-founder and managing director Radu Hasan said.
Operating under the commercial name of Intelligent IT SRL, SmartBill was founded in 2007 in Sibiu by entrepreneurs Radu Hasan, Ioana Hasan and Mircea Capatina.
The company provides SMBs with invoicing and inventory management software. Currently, it has more than 65,000 customers, from small businesses to corporations and issues over 2 million invoices per month with an annual total value of 4.0 billion euro ($4.47 million).
Headquartered in Oslo, Visma delivers software that simplifies and digitises core business processes in the private and public sector across the entire Nordic region along with Benelux, Central and Eastern Europe. The company is present in Romania since 2006 and currently has offices in Timisoara and Sibiu.
($=0.8945 euro)