Serrala, a globally leading software specialist for the automation of financial processes and B2B payments, positions itself for further growth by strengthening its shareholder base with an additional, new majority investor. Waterland Private Equity (“Waterland”), who has closely supported Serrala’s strong expansion over the past five years, is selling a portion of its shares to the software investor Hg. Hg will be the new majority shareholder, while Waterland as well as Serrala’s founder family and management team will retain significant stakes in the company. Backed by this robust and experienced shareholder group, the fintech intends to expand its cloud-based services further and secure additional market share in the sectors of financial automation and B2B payments. Further financial details of the transaction, which is still subject to the usual regulatory approvals, were not disclosed.
As a global software provider, Serrala automates, optimizes and digitizes financial processes for businesses, enabling them to save costs, minimize risks and gain additional process transparency using real-time data. Through innovative solutions, Serrala facilitates the automation of incoming and outgoing payments and invoices as well as cash management processes. Serrala stands for flexible, scalable solutions as well as secure global payment capabilities for businesses of all sizes.
Waterland Private Equity joined forces with Serrala’s founder family Lindemann in 2016 to accelerate the company’s growth. Since then, Serrala has evolved from a German SME into a global B2B fintech with offices in Europe, North America and Asia. The extensive investments made in cooperation with Waterland expanded both the functional range of the firm’s software offering and the technological portfolio, adding for instance also cloud solutions, such that today Serrala provides a unique platform that covers comprehensively the digital “office of the CFO”, in which financial processes and payments are automated and optimized. Together with Hg, an investment firm specializing in the software sector, Serrala will address new growth potential as well as drive forward further investments and expansions.
“During our five years of working with Waterland, we have achieved so much – from expanding the functional range of our software offering over extending the technological portfolio to include cloud solutions to driving forward our internationalization significantly. For that, Waterland’s experience and expertise, both with regards to organic growth – particularly in the US and with our Center of Excellence in India – as well as in regard to acquisitions, were key to the success of by now more than 700 employees and 2,800 clients. For our next growth phase, we aim to continue our current trajectory and invest in innovations and international expansion in cooperation with Waterland and Hg”, says Sven Lindemann, CEO of Serrala.
“Since the beginning of our partnership with Sven Lindemann and the Serrala team, the company has developed from a hidden champion to a global market leader. Today, Serrala is known as a leading software specialist for automating financial processes and B2B payments, both for SMEs as well as blue chip clients. During our partnership, we were able to acquire five companies, which have strategically increased Serrala’s geographic presence as well as its software portfolio. We are very proud of this development and are looking forward to our joint growth journey in the future”, says Dr. Gregor Hengst, Partner at Waterland Private Equity.
