Sage Buys Task Sheriff To Boost AI Proficiency

Cloud business solution company Sage has acquired artificial intelligence (AI)-based Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) company Task Sheriff, according to a press release.

Although terms of the deal were not disclosed, Sage’s purchase of the Tel Aviv-based Task Sheriff marks its third recent investment in cloud-based FinTech companies that target the small- to medium-sized business (SMB) market, the release stated. Since December, Sage has invested over 20 million pounds (about $27.6 million) in startups that help SMBs simplify and digitize back-office operations.

Earlier in March, Sage invested in a funding round for Countingup, a London-based firm working on a business current account with built-in accounting software, according to the release. In December, it invested 17 million pounds (about $23.5 million) in digital operations platform Brightpearl, which helps retail customers streamline and automate their operations through changes to order management, customer relationship management (CRM), fulfillment, retail accounting inventory and warehouse management.

Task Sheriff will help Sage boost its customer service with the use of tech to drive business, the release stated. The company works to automate the accounting process for SMBs using AI and machine learning (ML) to accurately capture and integrate the needed data.

The acquisition allows Sage to improve its AI tech, and Sage will also see Task Sheriff founders joining Sage AI Labs, which is a global team of engineers, product managers and data scientists based in San Francisco, Melbourne, Barcelona and Tel Aviv, according to the release.

Sage Chief Corporate Development Officer Derk Bleeker said in the release that the company’s goal is “to empower small and medium businesses to benefit from the rapid innovation in AI and other automation technologies to ensure they stay competitive in this fast-moving macro-economic climate.”

“Task Sheriff, Countingup, Brightpearl and our earlier acquisition of AutoEntry all focus on removing the headaches and friction that our customers face every day so we can help them to grow and thrive,” he said, according to the release.

AI can be used in a variety of ways to help companies with back-office tasks, like overspending, which is exactly what a new solution via the partnership of Beeline and Brightfield intends to accomplish. The product, SmartBuyer, aims to fix issues caused by uninformed buying behavior and ineffective job descriptions.