Contxto – Toronto-based FreshBooks wants to consolidate its presence in one of Latin America’s biggest markets. Through its acquisition of Facturama, the accounting software company hopes to connect with small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in Mexico.
The deal was announced on Tuesday (23) and the Facturama team—including its co-founders—will now work under the FreshBooks name. The parties did not disclose the value of the transaction.
[wd_hustle id=”InArticleOptin” type=”embedded”/]
Facturama track record in Mexico
Entrepreneurs, Humberto Ramírez and Martín Arochi, launched Facturama in 2012 as an invoicing solution for Mexican SMEs. And during its eight-year run, the San Luis Potosí-based startup achieved quite a lot.
Besides being accepted into 500 Startups LatAm accelerator in 2013, it brought on some big names as its clients like Konfío, Urbvan, and Cabify. In total it’s worked with more than 19,000 SMEs in managing their invoices, helping file their taxes, as well as completing other administrative tasks.
For Facturama’s co-Founder, Humberto Ramírez, the acquisition brings about the opportunity to scale and help more businesses.
Meanwhile, Mike McDerment, CEO and co-Founder at FreshBooks, believes the maneuver means saving companies from dying.
“Running your own business is still more difficult than it should be. In Mexico, 65 percent of small businesses do not survive past their second year, and it’s largely because of cash flow management issues,” said the Executive.
B2B fintechs: the darlings of late
Sure, the media dazzle often goes to consumer-facing fintechs (I’m looking at you, Nubank). Yet, it’s within the B2B market that Latin America’s startups have experienced more action as of late.
Take Mexican Oyster. The fintech looking to reshape banking for SMEs and entrepreneurs announced its hefty US$14 million seed round less than two weeks ago. Not long after, Uruguayan dLocal snagged US$200 million and achieved unicorn status.
Then came São Paulo-based iugu who shared news of its US$22.5 million investment round with the world.
More recently, Brazilian Zoop disclosed its US$11.4 million equity raising through Movile last Monday. That same day we also reported on B2B brokerage platform Ideal’s US$18.4 million round with Kaszek Ventures.
Now I’ll be adding the acquisition of Facturama to this ever-growing list that backtracks to the start of September—and the month isn’t even over yet!
Related articles: Tech and startups from Mexico!
-ML