Private equity firm K1 Investment Management has acquired a
majority stake in expense management firm Certify for $125 million and will
merge it with its three other spend management firms: ExpenseWatch, Nexonia and
Tallie. Certify claims that the new, privately held entity forms the largest expense
management competitor to Concur, which is owned by the publicly held SAP. That
claim is based on the four brands' more than 7,500 corporate clients.
While Certify founder and CEO Bob Neveu will serve as CEO of
the group, each of the four expense companies will maintain its own brand
identity. "A forced switch is never easy," Neveu said of customer
preferences. "We fully intend to keep all the brands."
Before Certify entered the picture, K1 had tried to install
a single CEO over the other three expense management brands, but the transition
wasn't simple. Nexonia was already part of the K1 family when Nexonia acquired
ExpenseWatch in March 2016. By the time K1 acquired a majority
stake in Tallie in December 2016, Nexonia CEO Neil Wainwright had left the
company. The plan was to merge all brands under Tallie CEO Chris Farrell,
though at the time it was undecided which brand would win out. By May 2017,
however, Farrell had left to become COO of a start-up called Liscio, according
to his LinkedIn page.
Now, Eric White, who has worked for K1 since October 2016, heads
Nexonia (including ExpenseWatch) and Tallie as president, and all four brands
continue to operate under their own names.
While
Neveu maintained that the brands would remain separate, he said Certify
technologies could cross over to the other brands to benefit those customers. Certify,
meanwhile, will use the infusion of capital for product development, geographical
expansion and hiring. Certify also intends to make acquisitions of its own.
"We plan to grow organically and inorganically," Neveu said.