Auckland’s Vend taps Peter Thiel and others for US$20 mln

Auckland’s Vend taps Peter Thiel and others for US$20 mln to fund growth

March 26 (BusinessDesk) – Vend, which sells online point-of-sale software, raised US$20 million from investors including PayPal founder Peter Thiel to help fund its expansion in North America and Europe.

Auckland-based Vend, which counts Trade Me founder Sam Morgan among its shareholders, said Thiel’s Valar Ventures and Australia’s Square Peg Capital led the fund raising. The company previously raised $8 million last May and $3 million between 2011 and 2012.

The capital raising extends Thiel’s interests in New Zealand, which include Xero.

Vend started in late 2010 and its software is now used in more than 10,000 stores in more than 100 countries, the company said in a statement. The expansion made it the world’s fastest-growing online POS software provider, it said.

“2014 is going to be a very big year for Vend,” said Vaughan Rowsell, Vend chief executive. “With the support of Peter Thiel and Square Peg Capital, the additional funding will accelerate our North American plans, allowing us to grow our major market and extend into small and independent retail shops across the continent."

The company has global partners including PayPal, Xero, Stitchlabs, Swarm and SelfPay. Thiel participated in Xero’s $180 million capital raising in October last year. Morgan also holds Xero shares.

Berlin-based Point Nine Capital also participated in Vend’s fund raising.

Thiel said that cloud computing is bringing “a revolution” to small businesses via companies such as Vend, which was “poised to help millions of small to medium businesses move onto the cloud to do better business and ultimately fuel economic growth.”

Vend’s cloud-based software allows retailers to process sales, track inventory and manage customers and can operate on a range of devices including iPads.

(BusinessDesk)

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