Unifiedpost Group — one of Europe's leading Fintech companies — has significantly strengthened its equity base by approximately 47 million euro via a share capital increase to predominantly existing shareholders and conversion of a majority of its outstanding convertible bonds in order to further achieve its international growth ambitions.
Chairman of the Board Stefan Yee (CEO PE Group): “A capital round with predominantly existing shareholders has raised +10 million euro of new financial resources. In addition, there will be a voluntary early conversion of a majority of its outstanding convertible bonds, resulting in an overall increase in equity of approximately 47 million euros. I am particularly pleased that many existing investors are participating in this important capital round as it is a clear vote of confidence.”
The additional funds from the capital increase will be used to further strengthen the company‘s position in order to become the leading cloud-based platform for SME business services built on Documents, Identity and Payments and to continue the rapid growth that has been achieved over the recent years.
CEO Hans Leybaert: “Unifiedpost Group has recently achieved several important milestones in its European expansion, including the acquisitions of Fitek in Central and Eastern Europe and Prime Document in the UK, the accelerated development of the eHerkenning authentication and authorisation system in the Netherlands, the launch of the JeFacture in France and the introduction of payment options in the Billtobox platform in various countries.”
Unifiedpost Group is targeting further international growth through both organic and external growth opportunities. The additional funds will allow the company to tap into attractive growth potential within the e-invoicing, identity and payment services markets driven by the digital transformation of businesses and other structural tailwinds.
Board member Jürgen Ingels (founder of Smartfin Capital) adds: “We want to further strengthen our position as a leading player in the European Fintech sector. As more people are working from home because of the COVID-19 pandemic, more and more SMEs appear to be seeing the benefits of digitalising administrative and financial tasks. This period has acted as a catalyst for digital transformation. The trend toward e-invoicing is also being accelerated as a result of new regulations being introduced by European and national policymakers. More and more governments are already mandating that companies send digital invoices.”
It is expected that by 2025, 80% of organisations will be required to invoice electronically, either due to legislation or at the request of major trading partners.