In the News - August 11, 2021

Today's news includes information about KPMG Spark, FreshBooks, Gusto and Lightspeed.

KPMG's managed accounting system, Spark, has selected Bill.com as their preferred automated bill pay partner. KPMG Spark is currently available for businesses in the US.

Cloud-based accounting software company FreshBooks announced that its valuation is now greater than $1 billion following  a series E funding round. FreshBooks plans to increase their current 500-person team with global expansion, possibly opening an office in Asia. In addition, the company is expanding their sales team to take more market share from Intuit and Xero. Funding in this round included $80.75 million in equity financing and $50 million in debt financing. You can learn more about the different series of funding rounds here.

HR and payroll software company Gusto recently closed a $175 million funding round, leading to a valuation of $9.5 billion. Gusto was ranked this week in the number 25 position of Forbes' 2021 ranking of the top 100 private companies in the cloud.

Lightspeed, formerly known as Lightspeed POS, has changed the corporate name to Lightspeed Commerce Inc. The name change comes at the same time that the company announced plans to sell millions of subordinate voting shares through a public offering in Canada and the US. In addition, Lightspeed announced plans last week to acquire two other e-commerce companies. The news over the past two months resulted in this statement by Dax Dasilva, Lightspeed Founder and CEO, ""Lightspeed is no longer simply a point of sale solution, and we've outgrown Lightspeed POS Inc. We are the one-stop commerce platform for merchants around the world."