Californian enterprise software private equity firm K1 Investment Management has led a $350 million-plus investment round in Brisbane-based field service management software company simPRO.
The transaction is believed to value simPRO at more than $1 billion making it another Australian dollar unicorn. The funding and is to be used to develop the company’s products and further scale-up its already global operations.
The fundraising was supported by existing investor, New York-based growth capital firm Level Equity.
SimPRO provides cloud-based job and project management software to contracting businesses across sectors such as plumbing, air conditioning, electrical, security and fire protection services.
Alongside announcing the new capital, simPRO said it had made two acquisitions, ClockShark, a US time-sheet and scheduling platform and Australian job management software provider AroFlo.
SimPRO chief executive Sean Diljore said: “Both companies are leaders in their spaces and have incredibly valuable product offerings that will benefit our combined customer bases and help our customers increase revenue.”
The acquired businesses are to continue to operate independently under their existing management teams.
AroFlo chief executive Guy Arrowsmith said he expected the business to continue its current growth trajectory under simPRO.
According to simPRO, the three platforms are used by a total of 17,000 businesses and service 320,000 users. The combined operation now has more than 500 staff in Australia, New Zealand, the UK and the US.
K1 Investment Management senior vice president Simon Yu said his firm’s investment recognised simPRO as a global category leader “that is transforming the way field service operators do business”. He said he expected the acquisitions would help accelerate growth.
Level Equity invested $40 million in simPRO in 2016.
Established in 2002, simPRO has grown to become one of the world’s leading providers of job management software. While remaining Brisbane-based, the company has, in recent years focused on US expansion particularly targeting California.
SimPRO was founded by electrical contractor Stephen Bradshaw and software engineer Vaughan McKillop. As he sought to expand his business, Bradshaw realised he needed to introduce systemisation and automation into the job management process. He sought McKillop’s help to develop a software platform. That platform attracted interest from other trades businesses and simPRO was born. Since then, the software has gone through many iterations based on feedback from users.