Holded, the ERP (enterprise resource planning) software startup, continues to search for new ways to power its business. Just over two years after being acquired by the Norwegian giant Visma for more than 190 million euros, the Catalan company has decided to focus on the new mandatory electronic invoice that has been promoted by the Government’s Create and Grow Law. With this, Holded plans to become the key partner of SMEs and freelancers who, starting this year, will have to issue this digital document, also known as a mandatory e-invoice.
“The idea is to help all users to adopt it in a simple and pleasant way, without putting a lot of stress on companies with their data migration and everything. We will take care of everything and this is one of our main focuses for the next two years”, the co-founder and co-CEO of Holded, Javi Fondevila, told La Información. Its objective is to take regulations by the hand and take advantage of the fact that it is a key segment for its management market, since approximately 30 or 40% of companies continue to invoice in the traditional way, and adapt their business “suddenly” to this format.
The Create and Grow Law tries to reduce delinquency of smaller companies, and digitize the information of the movements they make, in order to improve and streamline processes and transparency in the Spanish market. For this they have implemented the mandatory nature of this ‘e-invoice’ which will be divided into two installments. First of all, it will be required for companies that bill more than 8 million euros annually, and they will have until spring/summer 2024 to fully adapt to this new regulation. In a second stage, there are the companies that invoice less than 8 million per year, and will have a longer term to implement the electronic invoice (before the summer of 2025).
“We are trying to help the community that will be forced to adopt this coup method with our technology and with our system of partner advisors to guide them,” says Fondevila. This last line of business with advisors has been the power for a little over a year, when they decided to focus one hundred percent on their national business after the purchase of Visma. As they commented to this medium in 2022, their idea was to improve their product and support intermediate ‘players’ and become a kind of consultant for companies. One year later, they already have more than 300 partner advisors who help guide SMEs and freelancers on their way.
Its goal is to have more than 600 advisors by the end of this year, because “they are going to be a key piece in the mission that we want to fulfill with electronic invoicing”, and because they are usually the initial interlocutors with SMEs. They decided to go deeper into the accounting and tax solution after becoming part of the Visma group, in order to be able to help their clients, and today this service has become an important part of their business: “This depth opened up a new door because generally the manager for SMEs is usually external, so that way we offer all kinds of solutions in a single platform”, the co-founder settles.
“We are trying to help the community that will be forced to adopt this coup method with our technology”
Visma, which also took over two other Spanish companies – Declarando and Woffu-, initially carried out this operation for 120 million euros, according to La Información, but this operation also contemplated another tens of millions in performance bonuses, called in the slang ‘win’. Thus, the founders would charge another million to meet certain objectives linked to the growth of the company and a few months ago they added 71 million to this account, reaching 190 million for the purchase. Now Fondevila evaluates the operation as something very positive for its business, both because of the power that Visma gives them, and because of the opportunities offered by the other companies that are under the Norwegian umbrella.
One of the “most important” changes that they have had since they were part of the idumbre group, contrary to the episode experienced in 2021: “The financing of the business is guaranteed and we can focus on what is best for the business, such as execution”. In addition, the support that Visma gives them in areas of decision-making and its know-how stands out, the same with the other Norwegian companies with whom they share knowledge.
Now For The Next Months The Company, In addition To Focusing On The ‘E-Invoice’, Will Put Its Energies In Automating Different Processes And Although Functionality “, They Do Have An Important Focus The Use Of New Technologies Such As Artificial Intelligence To Deliver New Values added to their users, such as their system of banking rules and they foresee by the end of the year almost 90-95% of these surroundings are being reconciled or accounted for in an automated way.Currently they are at 14 million euros of ARR (Annual Recurring Revenue) what which represents close to 60% growth per year in the last year and by 2023, they expect to close with a business growth of 50%.
