Float, a Ghanaian fintech startup , has announced that it has fully acquired of Accounteer, a Nigerian cloud-based accounting service that combines bookkeeping, tax prep, and financial advisory services all in one platform, for an undisclosed amount.
This deal has been closed 8 months after Float secured its $17 million equity and debt seed funding.
According to Jesse Ghansah, co-founder of Float, the conversation that led to the acquisition started in 2021, and it took close to 10 months before the deal was finally closed.
Besides its core service, which is flexible credit lines for businesses to cover cash flow gaps, Float also provides bill automation, vendor or supplier payments and invoice collections, while helping businesses connect and manage all their bank accounts and digital wallets in one dashboard.
It also helps its users open business accounts, generate payment links, and manage budgeting and spending cards. The company has introduced more features like revenue advances and instant payouts, and is currently testing cross-border remittance in partnership with companies that offer this service.
Float wants to be the “financial operating system” for Africa’s small and medium businesses.
According to Ghansah, one of the biggest reasons business credit penetration is so low ,is because most small businesses don’t have structured financial processes and records so it’s difficult for big lenders to underwrite them and extend them credit.
Ghansah told TechCabal that“Most business owners are conflating their personal transactions with their business transactions and they don’t have proper accounting practices and proper bookkeeping practice in place. We wanted to fix this at scale.” The new Accounteer’s dashboard will therefore help to solve this problem for Float customers.
Founded in 2015 by Merijn Campsteyn, Accounteer allows users to create invoices, track expenses and register payments, among other things. The venture-backed company provides accounting software that allows businesses to continue operations offline. For Accounteer, the exit came as it was looking to provide credit to its over 14,000 users in and outside Nigeria.
Ghansah said he’s been monitoring some accounting startups since they identified the accounting problem, and was “particularly impressed by Accounteer’s trajectory over the years to become the cloud accounting software choice for 14,000+ SMBs in Nigeria and beyond”.
He believes the addition of Accounteer to Float’s ecosystem of products and services will be game-changing as they scale into new markets with the 2 businesses.
Ghansah believes that Accounteer has built a solid enough business and will continue running independently under Float.“ Float would provide credit while Accounteer bookkeeping and accounting.
Although most of the Accounteer talent pool will be joining Float, the CEO Campsetyn, who is currently helping with the redesigning and integration of both platforms will serve as an advisor for now.
Float is currently operational in Nigeria and Ghana with a plan to expand into Kenya before the fourth quarter of this year.
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