Lightspeed POS has entered into an agreement to acquire Kounta Holdings, an Australian, cloud-based POS solution provider for small-and-medium-sized businesses (SMBs) in the hospitality industry.
The closing of the acquisition for Kounta would mark the third acquisition for Lightspeed this year.
The deal, while subject to closing conditions, is expected to close before the end of October. Montreal-based Lightspeed is set to acquire all of the outstanding shares of Kounta for approximately $46.2 million CAD ($35.3 million USD) in cash and the issuance of 306,290 subordinate voting shares in the capital of Lightspeed, at a value of $25.054 USD per share.
The acquisition deal also has additional terms that require Kounta to reach agreed-upon milestones. If certain (undisclosed) Kounta employees continue to be employed by the company they will receive $7.5 million USD in deferred cash consideration along with the issuance of 299,692 Lightspeed subordinate voting shares, through to October 2021.
Founded in 2012, Kounta is an Australian FinTech startup that offers device-agnostic POS solutions and business management systems for the restaurant and hospitality industry. To date, the company claims to have more than 7,000 customers across Australia and New Zealand.
“Kounta’s impressive track record is thanks to its team, and we are excited to welcome them into the Lightspeed family,” said Dax Dasilva, founder and CEO of Lightspeed. “When smart minds collaborate, our merchants are the main beneficiaries of the resulting innovation, ultimately enabling SMBs around the world to reach their full potential through our technology.”
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Lightspeed, which already operates in Australia, along with Canada, the US, and Europe, is looking to use the acquisition to take advantage of Kounta’s customer base to bolster Lightspeed’s footprint across Australia and New Zealand.
The closing of the acquisition for Kounta would mark the third acquisition for Lightspeed this year, since the company went public on the TSX. Lightspeed announced the acquisition of its strategic software partner, Chronogolf, which uses Lightspeed’s retail and restaurant platform to offer a golf course management solution for golf course operators, in May. In July, the company announced its acquisition of iKentoo, a Switzerland-based POS solutions provider for small-and-medium-sized businesses.
Following its IPO, and prior to announcing its 2019 acquisitions, Lightspeed secured a $30 million stand-by acquisition term loan from CIBC, with Dasilva telling BetaKit at the time that Lightspeed is always looking for mergers and acquisitions opportunities, to expand into new markets and geographies.
