Fastbill is sold to Canada

The start-up has a new owner. As the fintech announced, the Canadian start-up Freshbooks has taken over the Frankfurt-based company.

The Frankfurt-based company Fastbill is now owned by Freshbooks, a Canadian start-up with unicorn status. The employees and services of Fastbill will be taken over and integrated into Freshbooks. Fastbill founder René Maudrich will also remain CEO and Managing Director of Freshbooks Germany. He comments on the acquisition: "The takeover of Fastbill by Freshbooks is a win-win situation for everyone. By pooling our expertise, we can expand our offering and meet the needs of small businesses in Germany and throughout Europe even more specifically and quickly."

Both fintechs support small and medium-sized companies and the self-employed with their accounting. Maurich founded Fastbill in 2011 together with Christian Häfner. The Frankfurt-based company first raised money from investors four years ago. The start-up currently has customers in 16 European countries, which Fastbill is now taking with it to Freshbooks. The Canadians only recently raised 120 million US dollars, giving them a billion-dollar valuation. Some of the money will certainly now flow into the takeover of Fastbill; the exact amount is not known, but according to Finance Forward but is likely to be in the upper double-digit million range.

Freshbooks CEO Don Epperson is delighted about the merger of the companies: "Fastbill has a very similar philosophy and corporate culture to us, and the acquisition therefore strengthens our strategy of continuing to grow globally." The fintech offers its platform in 160 countries and has offices in Canada, Croatia, Mexico, the Netherlands and the USA.

In a personal statement, Maurich explains that "even though Fastbill is now part of a larger international company", customers will "not take a step backwards", but can rely on "dedicated customer service, stability and continuous product improvements".