Argentum Portfolio Company Chrome River and Certify Combine in Transaction Valued at Over $1 Billion

Certify and Chrome River Technologies, two global leaders in travel, expense, and invoice management software, are merging in a transaction valued at over $1 billion. The combination creates the industry’s most comprehensive suite of products for monitoring, managing and analyzing corporate spend. K1 Investment Management will hold a majority stake in the combined organization.

“Over the past 11 years, Chrome River has established itself as the leader for global enterprises looking for sophisticated, highly-scalable, expense and invoice management software,” said Alan Rich, CEO and co-founder of Chrome River. “Combining our resources with those of Certify, we can continue toward our goal of delivering the most innovative and agile solutions on the market. I look forward to the combined organization continuing to earn an even greater share of a rapidly-growing industry.”

With this merger, Certify and Chrome River will have more than 11,000 combined customers across 100+ countries, and solutions available in more than 60 languages. The companies offer best-in-class integrations to all leading ERP systems, including those offered by SAP, Oracle, NetSuite, Sage Intacct, Microsoft Dynamics, PeopleSoft, JD Edwards and QuickBooks.

Argentum was the lead investor of Chrome River’s first outside capital round in 2012, and continued to support the company in subsequent funding rounds. “It’s been a pleasure working with Alan Rich and the entire Chrome River team as they have built a world-class company and achieved a fabulous outcome for their shareholders and employees,” said Dan Raynor, Managing Partner of Argentum and former Chrome River board member. “Chrome River aligned perfectly with Argentum’s investment focus and strategy, representing a capital-efficient, bootstrapped company delivering best-in-class B2B enterprise solutions to a rapidly growing market. Over the ensuing 6+ years, the Company grew at a rapid pace and established itself as a global leader in its market.”

About Chrome River

Chrome River provides expense and invoice automation solutions that let business flow for more than 1,000 organizations worldwide. The company’s easy-to-use, enterprise-scale solutions enable future-readiness for its customers. As a result of this focus on innovation, Chrome River is rated as a Leader in expense management by analyst firm IDC. Chrome River’s commitment to delivering a superior customer journey by creating long-term value for its customers, makes it a preferred choice of CFOs, CIOs, AP teams, travel managers and business travelers. More than two million business travelers around the world trust Chrome River.

About Certify

Certify, Inc., is the world’s largest independent provider of travel, expense and invoice management software. The Certify, Inc. family of brands includes leading SaaS platforms Certify, Nexonia, Tallie, Abacus, and Captio. With innovative spend management applications such as real-time expense reporting, integrated travel booking, time tracking, and accounts payable automation, Certify has transformed how more than 10,000 organizations manage corporate T&E. Customers include Circle K, Garmin, H&R Block, LogMeIn, Mailchimp, McDonald’s, Pinterest, Red Bull, Shopify, Subway, SurveyMonkey, Toyota, and Virgin Galactic.

About K1 Investment Management

K1 is a leading investment firm focusing on high-growth enterprise software companies globally. K1 seeks to help dynamic businesses achieve successful outcomes by identifying and executing organic and acquisition-based growth opportunities that position its companies as industry leaders. K1 typically invests alongside strong management teams that continue to guide their organizations on a day-to-day basis. K1’s investments vary in the level of ownership in order to meet the needs of entrepreneurs and managers. Representative past and present portfolio companies include industry leaders such as Apttus, Buildium, Clarizen, Checkmarx, ChiroTouch, Granicus, IronScales, Jobvite, Litera Microsystems, RFPIO, Smarsh and Workforce Software. For more information about K1, please visit www.k1capital.com or https://www.linkedin.com/company/k1im.

About Argentum

Argentum is a New York-based growth equity firm that partners with entrepreneurial owners to build industry-leading B2B software, technology-enabled and business services companies. The firm invests in companies with revenues of $5 million to $25 million, providing capital to accelerate growth, fund acquisitions or generate shareholder liquidity. Over its 25+ year history, Argentum has invested in 85 companies and supported nearly 200 add-on acquisitions. Argentum fills the growing gap between early stage venture capital investors and later stage growth equity firms by targeting bootstrapped companies seeking $5 to $15 million of capital. To learn more, visit: https://argentumgroup.com