David Leach (Cin7)
Auckland-based SaaS developer Cin7 has engineered two buyouts in the fragmented cloud-based inventory management software market.
The inventory and order management software company has acquired Sydney-based DEAR Systems and US company Orderhive to add to its own inventory management software offerings.
Cin7 is well placed to play a role in consolidating the market after Rubicon Technology Partners bought what was described as a majority stake in the company in October 2019.
Neither the value nor the terms of the transaction were disclosed at the time but have now been revealed in an Overseas Investment Office case report: Rubicon bought 100 per cent of Cin7 for $133.3 million.
Founder Danny Ing said at the time there was no clear category leader for inventory management software so Cin7 had an opportunity, the support and a plan to claim that role.
Cin7's CEO, David Leach, told Reseller News this week that all three products would continue and do what each does best.
“The combination of these three great products covers the full range of product seller needs, immediately creating a significantly larger and fast-growing company with a massive global market opportunity,” Leach said.
With the acquisitions Cin7 now served over 6000 product sellers globally, making it a major player in the market.
Leach said Rubicon brought a lot of expertise to Cin7, not just capital. That was helping to deliver both organisational and cultural improvement at the company.
Priorities were to ensure Cin7 was a great place to work with great benefits and a sense of purpose, where staff were challenged and learning, he said.
While Cin7 planned to stick to its knitting in the inventory management market, it was now about delivering systems that were better and smarter and that delivered actionable insights for customers.
The cash acquisitions of DEAR Systems and Orderhive are expected to extend Cin7’s ability to help sellers with shipping, manufacturing, warehouse management and automations.
DEAR Systems brings added manufacturing functionality and a simplified user interface suited to small- and medium-sized businesses and manufacturers.
Orderhive, meanwhile, took was pitched at high-volume, high-velocity native e-commerce sellers.
Leach said the inventory management market was fragmented with suppliers overlapping in their concepts and functionality.
In large part that was due to the complexity of the market opportunities as business migrated to online and mobile commerce, a process only accelerated by the COVID-19 pandemic and from which, he said, there was no going back.
Sellers had to be able to integrate with a very long list of online marketplaces and channels, for instance, as well as managing their own web sales.
With a greater range of solutions, the combined Cin7 could do more to reduce reliance on disconnected software solutions and manual processes.
“Together, we will empower product sellers to thrive and accelerate our growth by continuing to do what we each do best, working together to get every customer the best product for their needs, regardless of how they find and engage our combined business," Leach said.
DEAR Systems' founder and CEO Dr Serguei Piltiaev said the company's success had been driven by rapid product development and strong relationships with its partner network.”
Niraj Patel, founder of Orderhive, said Cin7 was gaining one of the industry’s leading ecommerce solutions along with a very skilled development team.
"We view this combination as an opportunity to further accelerate Orderhive’s growth in new markets, together with Cin7 and DEAR,” he said.
In November, another New Zealand based inventory management SaaS company, Unleashed, was also sold. UK-based Access Group bought the company for an undisclosed sum over $100 million.
