More than a decade after selling their first payroll start-up to local tech giant Xero, Karbon co-founders Stuart McLeod and John Freeman have scored $US66 million for their accounting practice management software company from one of the world’s best investors in industry-specific software businesses.
The funding from Tidemark came with a $US285 million post-money valuation, which represents a 5.7 times jump in 11 months since Karbon raised It has 2500 accounting firms signed up in 20 countries and is increasing its revenue by about 100 per cent year-on-year. Based on LinkedIn data, there are between 160,000 and 170,000 accounting firms globally, giving Karbon a little over 1 per cent of the market.Mr McLeod said the latest raise was a contrast to its earlier rounds, where investors were less enthusiastic.