Tradeshift Pursues Basware Takeover

Supply chain payments company Tradeshift is reportedly vying for an acquisition of Finnish eInvoicing and B2B payments company Basware.

Bloomberg reported on Tuesday (Nov. 20) that Basware has confirmed an unsolicited takeover bid proposed by San Francisco-based Tradeshift, following previous Bloomberg reports of a possible deal in the works. Tradeshift has its bid supported by several U.S. investors and Chinese insurance conglomerate Ping An Insurance Group, according to unnamed sources.

Tradeshift reportedly made its bid last month, but Basware is awaiting confirmation that the firm has financing in place. Basware also emphasized that there is no guarantee the companies will agree on a deal.

Representatives for both Tradeshift and Ping An did not comment on the matter, Bloomberg said, adding that an acquisition could position Tradeshift to compete against industry giants like Oracle and SAP in the enterprise financial software market.

Tradeshift secured $250 million in Series E funding earlier this year, with the investment led by Goldman Sachs and the Public Sector Pension Investment Board. The funding pushed the firm’s valuation to $1.1 billion, reports in May said.

At the time, Tradeshift CEO and Co-founder Christian Lanng said the investment would be used for continued global growth for the firm, with particular focus on Europe and Asia, as well as to invest in artificial intelligence and blockchain technologies.

A few weeks later, in August, Basware announced the addition into its solution of NetworkPay, which supports B2B payments for companies receiving eInvoices via Basware. The solution supports invoice payments via check, ACH, virtual card and wire.

Other Basware partners include AcceptEasy and Xerox.

The B2B payments space is likely to see continued increases in M&A activity. Earlier this year, another corporate payments player, WEX, released its quarterly earnings report and pointed to new mergers and acquisitions as a core component of its growth strategy. One of its business units, FLEETCOR, is now rumored to be planning an acquisition of the business payment operations of Western Union.