Kyriba, a US-based treasury and finance management platform developer backed by various banks, revealed yesterday it is in advanced talks with private equity firm Bridgepoint over an acquisition.
Bridgepoint is exploring the possibility of investing $160m in Kyriba at a $1.2bn valuation, which would give it a majority stake. It has not confirmed whether it was already an investor, or whether it would use additional funds to buy out other shareholders.
Family office Daher Capital, venture capital firm Iris Capital and Jean-Luc Robert, Kyriba’s chairman and CEO, are set to remain shareholders while all others would exit.
Founded in 2000, Kyriba runs a secure, cloud-based software platform that enables enterprise clients to streamline their finances, protect against fraud and money loss, and drive business growth.
The software connects to existing bank accounts, enterprise resource planning and other systems to facilitate cash and risk management, payments and working capital optimisation tools.
About $60m of Bridgepoint’s investment would go to product development over the next two years, with additional funds to be channeled to customer support and the further expansion of Kyriba’s ecosystem.
Kyriba had previously secured a reported $158m in funding. Financial services firm HSBC contributed to a $45m round for the company in 2017 that was led by private equity firm Sumeru Equity Partners (SEP) and backed by Iris Capital, Daher and French state-owned investment bank BPIfrance.
The same consortium, minus SEP, had already contributed to a $23m series D round in September 2016 that was followed by an undisclosed amount of additional series D funding from financial services firm Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group’s VC unit, Mitsubishi UFJ Capital, three months later.
Mitsubishi UFJ Capital had first backed Kyriba in 2014, before HSBC and financial services firm Bred Banque Populaire took part in a $21m series C round in 2015 together with Iris, Daher and Upfront Ventures.
Payment services firm American Express had participated in a $10m round for Kyriba in 2001 together with Upfront Ventures and Mangrove Capital Partners. Its shareholders currently also include Mizuho Capital, the VC subsidiary of financial services firm Mizuho Bank.
