SAN FRANCISCO & MONTREAL–(BUSINESS WIRE)–AppDirect, the leading subscription commerce platform, announced investments of US$185 million from global institutional investor Caisse de dépôt et placement du Québec (CDPQ) and existing investors. The $185 million in funding brought the total equity raised by AppDirect to approximately $465 million.
Strong Growth and Reach
Since its funding round in 2015, AppDirect has experienced tremendous growth across all indicators – increasing Gross Merchandise Value (GMV) more than 1500 percent since 2015 to over US$1 billion, expanding its global footprint, and servicing more than 2000 merchants around the globe. The new funding supports accelerated organic expansion, strategic acquisitions and additional hiring.
“Today, businesses are facing unprecedented challenges. Many companies began digital selling practically overnight, but need assistance integrating new technologies and processes into their operations and making them work at scale for the long-term,” said Daniel Saks, President and Co-CEO of AppDirect. “Our mission at AppDirect has always been to make technology globally accessible, and we are rising to meet that calling at a time when it feels especially urgent. We couldn’t be more excited that CDPQ and our existing investors are partnering with us on that journey as we enter a new phase of expansion. This renewed support from new and existing long-term partners reaffirms their confidence in our vision, our growth trajectory, and the market opportunity.”
AppDirect Goes Beyond Subscription Billing to Drive the Shift to Subscription Commerce
In just the last few years, the “old” world of products and one-time transactions has transformed into a new era of subscription commerce with predictable, recurring revenue for everything from software and consumer media streaming services to heating and air conditioning maintenance. However, many companies are running into the limits of their subscription billing tools, making it difficult to bring products to market quickly, creating a disjointed customer experience, and creating management challenges. Organizations now need to support full subscription commerce. This transition includes integrating commerce flows from any online or off-line sales channels while at the same time meeting customer demand for instant provisioning of tools and services.
As more Business-to-Business (B2B) companies make this shift, the 2020s are set to become the era of B2B subscription commerce. Public cloud offerings have made software-as-a-service (SaaS) ubiquitous, and B2B companies now are looking at subscription models for anything that can be monetized based on value rather than ownership. The IMARC Group predicts that the global anything as a service subscription market will grow to over US$340 billion by 2024, reaching a compound annualized growth rate of approximately 24 percent.
“AppDirect solutions are becoming increasingly popular with organizations that rely on a large, ever-changing list of software to perform most of their basic tasks,” said Chris Arsenault, Managing Partner at Inovia. “AppDirect has a proven business model and a solid client base that uses its platform daily to run their core operations. For Inovia, this announcement is an important milestone in a longstanding relationship that has seen AppDirect flourish from a small startup to a major player in the cloud-based business services market.”
AppDirect opens vast options for organizations to quickly launch, scale, and transform their subscription business. The AppDirect platform powers millions of subscriptions worldwide, transforming commerce for leading companies like Vodafone, Keller Williams, ADP, Honeywell, and Deutsche Telekom; connecting their customers to the solutions they need to reach their full potential in the digital economy.
“AppDirect has established itself as the global leader in the application market for cloud services delivery. They are experiencing rapid growth, and the quality of its client network illustrates the success of its model,” said Thomas Birch, Global Managing Director, Venture Capital and Technology at CDPQ. “AppDirect plays a key role in simplifying the digitalization of businesses through cloud services and CDPQ’s investment will contribute to the acceleration of its growth plan.”
ABOUT APPDIRECT
AppDirect offers a subscription commerce platform that removes the complexity of building a recurring business model. Sell any product, through any channel, on any device – as a service. Our platform opens up endless opportunities for commerce innovation, giving businesses the freedom to grow. We power millions of subscriptions worldwide for organizations like Jaguar Land Rover, Comcast, Sage, Keller Williams, and ADP.
ABOUT CAISSE DE DÉPÔT ET PLACEMENT DU QUÉBEC
Caisse de dépôt et placement du Québec (CDPQ) is a long-term institutional investor that manages funds primarily for public and parapublic pension and insurance plans. As at June 30, 2020, it held CA$333.0 billion in net assets. As one of Canada’s leading institutional fund managers, CDPQ invests globally in major financial markets, private equity, infrastructure, real estate and private debt. For more information, visit cdpq.com, follow us on Twitter @LaCDPQ or consult our Facebook or LinkedIn pages.
ABOUT INOVIA CAPITAL
Inovia Capital is a full-stack venture firm that partners with audacious founders to build enduring global technology companies. We seek to transform venture capital by perfecting the craft of investing in people first. We roll up our sleeves to serve founders with dedicated, long-term mentorship, a global talent network, and strategic support for global scale. Together, we rewrite the rules of complex legacy industries, push technology frontiers and pursue bold visions of a better future. Inovia Capital manages over US $1 billion across five funds including early and growth stages, and holds offices in Montreal, Toronto, Calgary, San Francisco and London. For more information, visit inovia.vc.
