Accounting software company Freshbooks has acquired Facturama, a San Luis Potosi, Mexico-based company that offers electronic invoice management for small businesses and startups.
The deal, which was announced Wednesday, is the latest global move by Toronto’s Freshbooks, which has been expanding its international footprint over the last couple of years. According to Freshbooks, it has customers in more than 25 Latin American and Caribbean countries, with Mexico being the largest.
“[This] will accelerate our ability to better serve Mexico’s growing small business and startup market.”
“Combining Facturama’s regional expertise with FreshBooks’ online payments and scaling expertise will accelerate our ability to better serve Mexico’s growing small business and startup market,” said Mike McDerment, CEO and co-founder of FreshBooks. McDerment noted that, in Mexico, 65 percent of small businesses do not survive past their second year, citing cash-flow management issues.
Freshbooks plans to use its acquisition of Facturama to increase its scaling capabilities within Mexico. The purchase price of the deal was not disclosed.
Following the deal, it appears that Facturama will continue to operate with some independence. The startup’s CEO and co-founder, Humberto Ramirez López, will continue on in his role. He, along with fellow co-founder and COO Martin Arochi, are also set to join the Freshbooks team, with Ramirez López becoming managing director of FreshBooks for Mexico, and leading the expansion in the region. The Facturama team will be based in the company’s San Luis Potosi headquarters.
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Facturama was founded in 2012 by Ramirez López and Arochi and works with more than 19,000 self-employed professionals, small businesses, and startups offering electronic invoice management, reporting, and other organizational services.
“This is great news for small business owners in Mexico, and it’s a great milestone in the Facturama journey because we’ll have many more resources to support our customers and employees,” said Ramirez López. “We’re incredibly excited about the opportunity to work under FreshBooks’ global brand and deliver our software and services at an entirely new scale.”
Over the past year, Freshbooks has put an emphasis on international expansion. In October 2019, the company opened its first international office in the Netherlands, with the goal of growing in Europe. Freshbooks has since launched in the UK and Ireland. It has also opened an office in the United States, as well as a “development hub” in Croatia.