Shopbox has acquired Sofier, a smaller competitor offering a similar product. This acquisition is part of the consolidation strategy announced by chairman and founder Christian Zigler, who is actively exploring further acquisitions and is in discussions with a Swedish company. Learn more about the acquisition here and discover five key benefits of acquisitions and why they can be a valuable addition to your business strategy.
A few years from now, Shopbox will be the fintech market leader in the payments industry, stated Shopbox’s founder and chairman Christian Zigler earlier this year. That vision has now moved a step closer with the acquisition of Sofier, completed through a share swap.
"Shares are much better than cash if you believe in the product. At Sofier, they believe in us and see Shopbox as an exciting journey to be part of - potentially even in a future public listing," says Christian Zigler.
Sofier has a team of approximately 10 employees. Currently, it is led by Bjarne Søballe. Both Bjarne and his team will transition into the new organization as part of the acquisition.
"It is evolving rapidly, and there’s no doubt that further consolidation will take place over the next few years. By joining forces with Shopbox, we’re becoming stronger and part of something bigger. We’re excited about this journey and impressed by their team and ambitions," Bjarne commented.
Both companies provide an all-in-one register system that meets the full range of needs for business owners. With Shopbox, you can manage your inventory, webshop, accounting, and payment process all in one place.
"Customers want one product that covers everything. There are several companies in this field, but we believe Shopbox can become the leader," says Zigler, who is also in talks with a major Swedish POS company.
There are many manual cash register systems on the market, that simply cannot compare to a digital system. Additionally, many other companies in the established industry are a step behind Shopbox. The majority of these businesses rely on more traditional technology, which essentially involves downloading a program and running it locally. Updating such systems can be a significant challenge. Shopbox, along with many of the newer players, has opted from the outset for a cloud-based solution, which is easier and more flexible to work with once implemented.
"It’s too difficult to make changes to the old systems. This causes the solutions to fall behind and become outdated. That’s where we have a major advantage, as we chose to invest in cloud technology from the very beginning," says Zigler.
With the integration of Sofier, Shopbox will achieve subscription revenue, also known as ARR, of just under 10 million DKK.
But what exactly is the advantage of an acquisition? We asked Christian Zigler for his perspective. Here are his thoughts on why an acquisition can be a value-creating initiative.
An acquisition generates synergies across sales, support, and development by boosting resources. It also allows us to consolidate two budgets under the same brand.
The larger the company, the better the agreements and discounts it can negotiate. For instance, in our case, this applies to payment processing and hardware.
Both companies bring unique features that the other can benefit from. Together, we can build the best possible product.
A larger team enables more knowledge sharing, which can drive remarkable growth and innovation within the company.
Larger companies with strong creditworthiness have an easier time raising funds for future growth.
Lear more about Shopbox here.