Vend Closes $US20m in Series B Funding Led By Valar Ventures

Vend Closes $US20m in Series B Funding Led By Valar Ventures & Square Peg Capital

Peter Thiel Invests in the World’s Fastest Growing Cloud-Based and iPad POS Software Provider, backing the company’s UK & European plans.

Auckland, March 26, 2014 - Vend, the world’s fastest growing online point-of-sale (POS) software provider, today announced an additional NZD $25 million (US $20 million) of new capital. The round was co-led by PayPal founder and the first outside investor in Facebook, Peter Thiel of Valar Ventures (US) and Square Peg Capital (Australia). Vend will use the new funds to expand its presence in the North American and UK/European markets through new partnerships, resellers, staff and customers across these key territories. This is one of the largest private capital raises New Zealand has seen.

Launched in late 2010, Vend now powers over 10,000 stores in more than 100 countries. Headquartered in Auckland, New Zealand, North America, United Kingdom and Europe remain a major focus for the global company, underpinned by the opening of a Toronto office and the hire of former Mint.com exec, Anton Commissaris to build the San Francisco team. North America is Vend’s largest market. This funding also accelerates the company’s plans to open a European office in London in 2014.

The new round was co-led by Valar Ventures, an internationally-focused venture capital firm backed by Peter Thiel, and Square Peg Capital, from Melbourne, Australia. It will support the company’s expansion globally, with a strong focus on the U.S and European market, where Vend already provides thousands of independent, small business owners with a comprehensive, cloud-based retail software solution.

The new funds will also be used to expand Vend’s fast growing channel of reseller partners, as well as build on their list of industry partners, which currently include PayPal (secure in-store payments), Xero (online accounting - also a Valar investment) Stitchlabs (multi-channel inventory management), Swarm (in-store customer analytics) and SelfPay (customer self-checkout).

Point Nine Capital (Berlin), key investors in Vend, have again backed the company in this funding round.

“2014 is going to be a very big year for Vend,” said Vaughan Rowsell, CEO of Vend. “With the support of Peter Thiel and Square Peg Capital, the additional funding will accelerate our North American plans, allowing us to grow our major market and extend into small and independent retail shops across the continent. The last few years have seen a resurgence of independent retailers who have become more competitive against big chain stores by adopting cloud based POS software. Vend is proud to be helping drive that movement, by offering brick and mortar retailers the kind of tools and business intelligence previously available only to chain stores and online businesses.”

“We see the revolution that cloud computing is bringing to small business as one of the most exciting areas of growth for the U.S. market,” said Peter Thiel, co-founder of Valar Ventures. “Vend is poised to help millions of small to medium businesses move onto the cloud to do better business and ultimately fuel economic growth across the country.”

Barry Brott (Square Peg Capital) said he was excited to back Vend on their global mission. “We’re proud to continue supporting the team at Vend. Vend is adding value for retailers around the world by providing an outstanding product at an attractive price, combined with world class support.”

About Vend
Vend provides cloud-based point-of-sale software to enable retailers to process sales, track inventory and manage customers. It is the world’s first HTML5 retail POS and works easily on any device or platform, including iPads and existing POS hardware. It even works offline.

With the flexibility to work with existing retail platforms and equipment, Vend easily integrates with existing retail hardware as well as accounting and e-commerce partners, Xero and Shopify, to help retailers easily manage their business. Vend raised NZ$8 million in May 2013, and NZ$3 million between their first two capital rounds in 2011 and 2012. In May 2012, PayPal announced that Vend had signed up as a global POS partner, allowing its retailers to accept PayPal in-store. For more information and customer case studies please visit: www.vendhq.com

ENDS

© Scoop Media