Australia’s NAB Ventures exits Wave Financial in $400m deal
NAB Ventures, a unit of National Australia Bank (NAB), is set for its debut exit via a deal that will see US tax services giant H&R Block acquire Canada’s Wave Financial for about $400 million.
The VC firm led a A$32 million Series D round for Wave in 2017 with support from HarbourVest Partners, Charles River Ventures, Social Capital, OurCrowd, OMERS Ventures, BDC IT Venture Fund, BDC Capital, Portag 3, and the Royal Bank of Canada. H&R Block said it would acquire 100% of the company in cash and that the transaction would close within the next few months.
It will generate liquidity for NAB Ventures’ A$100 million debut fund, which was established in 2015 with A$50 million - an additional A$50 million came last year - with a view to investing consumer-facing financial technology companies through 2020. Targeted segments include back-end efficiencies in banking, cybersecurity, and customer data tracking technology.
Wave provides accounting, invoicing and receipt-tracking software and related services aimed at helping small business owners manage financial operations such as bookkeeping and payroll. The company claims that more than 400,000 businesses in some 200 countries use its platform. It will operate as an independent subsidiary of H&R Block under current CEO Kirk Simpson.
“Their success was built on the company’s ability to understand the needs of small business owners and to service them accordingly,”, Jonathan Davey, NAB’s executive general manager for digital and innovation, said in a statement. “This early exit really speaks to the quality of the product offering and we couldn’t be more pleased with the outcome.”
NAB Ventures has made a number of investments in North America, where its investment team claims significant experience. However, the GP maintains a strong preference for its home market. Australian investments to date include data exchange platform operator Data Republic, banking data aggregator Basiq, and real estate-focused fintech providers BrickX and ActivePipe.
More on Australasia
Latest News
Asian GPs slow implementation of ESG policies - survey
Asia-based private equity firms are assigning more dedicated resources to environment, social, and governance (ESG) programmes, but policy changes have slowed in the past 12 months, in part due to concerns raised internally and by LPs, according to a...
Singapore fintech start-up LXA gets $10m seed round
New Enterprise Associates (NEA) has led a USD 10m seed round for Singapore’s LXA, a financial technology start-up launched by a former Asia senior executive at The Blackstone Group.
India's InCred announces $60m round, claims unicorn status
Indian non-bank lender InCred Financial Services said it has received INR 5bn (USD 60m) at a valuation of at least USD 1bn from unnamed investors including “a global private equity fund.”
Insight leads $50m round for Australia's Roller
Insight Partners has led a USD 50m round for Australia’s Roller, a venue management software provider specializing in family fun parks.