Make the software easy to use. Find key partners to drive sales. Lean on a community of users to help improve your product.
Those are some of the ingredients fueling growth at Acumatica, the Bellevue, Wash.-based enterprise software giant that will be acquired by Vista Equity Partners in a deal announced Thursday.
Founded in 2008, the company has grown steadily since it was acquired by EQT Partners in 2019. EQT generated a 5X multiple on its invested capital, according to Bloomberg, which reported that the new deal with Vista values Acumatica at about $2 billion.
Acumatica specializes in enterprise resource planning, or ERP. Its software is used for accounting, inventory tracking, supply chain operations, and more.
The company targets mid-market customers — businesses with 25-to-1,000 employees — across an array of industries.
“Tens of thousands of companies fit that description and they’re hunting for new digital technology to run their business,” said Acumatica CEO John Case.
The ongoing AI boom is a tailwind for Acumatica, which has introduced a range of automation capabilities to help speed up data extraction, demand forecasting, business workflows, and more.
“The mid-market customer, they don’t have big AI teams,” Case said. “They’re looking to buy systems and run on systems that are going to benefit from that technology in a very pragmatic way.”
Acumatica has carved market share in a competitive sector that includes Microsoft, Oracle, and other ERP vendors — but it differentiates by focusing specifically on mid-market.
Case, who joined as CEO in 2022, pointed to three aspects of the company’s business that has helped drive growth.
- Platform architecture: Since its inception, the company built software with easy integration capabilities and configuration, Case said. “We do all this extra work to make the platform incredibly functional for the average customer,” he said.
- Go-to-market model: Acumatica works with hundreds of partners in a reseller network that help with implementation and in-person service. “That channel is incredibly hard to build and replicate,” Case said.
- Community engagement: The company has more than 30,000 active members in its community that vote on potential new features. “They want us to build the product that they want to use,” Case said. “That is a really helpful virtuous cycle that helps shape our future — and insulate us from some of the challenges other businesses might have.”
Case said Acumatica talked to a number of private equity firms over the past several months.
“Vista was most convicted about our business model and how we go to market,” he said, adding: “This is a growth story. They’re wanting to fuel and accelerate that growth.”
The company plans to boost headcount and reach about 750 employees globally this quarter. About 10% of its workforce is based in the Pacific Northwest.
Acumatica moved its headquarters to the Seattle region from the Washington, D.C., area in 2012. It opened a new HQ in Bellevue last year.
Vista, an Austin, Texas-based firm with more than $100 billion in assets, recently acquired Bellevue-based enterprise software company Smartsheet in an $8.4 billion deal with Blackstone.
Vista also acquired other Seattle-area tech companies including IT cost analysis software firm Apptio in 2019 (Apptio sold to IBM in 2023) and tax software giant Avalara in 2022.
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