M&A cloud platform provider startup Midaxo raises $16 million to accelerate product development and expansion

IT poses a major risk during merger and acquisition (M&A) because legacy systems, platforms and processes serve as bottlenecks for achieving business objectives. The traditional and the linear approach IT used to work around the bottlenecks during M&A, is to perform integration first, followed by transformation. Now with maturation of cloud platforms and as-a-service models, it is now possible to  achieving transformation during the post deal planning phase of M&A. One Boston, Massachusetts-based startup is helping businesses and organization to do just that. The startup is called Midaxo. Founded in 2011 by Kaija Katariina Erkkilä and Kalle Kilpi,  Midaxo offers a cloud-based platform for companies to systematize and run their M&A and other complex management processes.

In a company release, Midaxo today announced it has raised $16 million in Series B funding to accelerate product development and expansion. The funding is led by Idinvest Partners, a major French growth investor. The existing institutional investors Tesi (Industry Investment) and EOC Capital also participated. This B round brings Midaxo’s total funding to $23 million. In 2017, Midaxo more than doubled its revenue and expanded its customer base to hundreds of corporations, consultants, and private equity firms, including over 40 companies on the Fortune 1000 list, such as HP Enterprise, Philips, Daimler, and Verizon.

The company’s award-winning platform helps M&A teams drive an end-to-end M&A from deal sourcing though evaluation, transaction, and integration. With Midaxo, businesses and organizations can ensure systematic deal evaluation, avoid risks, and to capture synergies earlier. Midaxo includes all tools M&A professionals need to seamlessly manage M&A: process, project, and issue management, documents, team coordination, collaboration, audit, and reporting.

With Midaxo, companies run successful M&A and corporate development projects – minimizing deal risks and maximizing value creation. Commenting on Midaxo’s rapid expansion, CEO Ari Salonen says: “Virtually all larger corporations and 60% of mid-market companies actively use M&A to grow and accelerate their transformation. To succeed in M&A, thought-leaders use Midaxo’s platform to drive systematic, transparent, and constantly improving deal execution from opportunity identification through integration. For example, their due diligence efforts take 50% less time and 50% less effort, enabling faster reaction and efficient use of resources.” Midaxo also works closely with leading M&A consultancies and private equity firms. “Our partner program is particularly relevant to post-merger integration where our partners help in-house teams drive deal value,” says Ari Salonen.

After establishing a solid base in the US, Midaxo now focuses on expanding its global reach. Midaxo has 70 employees across four offices in Boston, Helsinki, Amsterdam, and Riga. The company’s headcount doubled in 2017 and is set to increase further with ongoing recruitment for a number of roles in sales, marketing, and software development.

With the new investment, Midaxo will also deploy artificial intelligence technology to assist and enhance its customers’ M&A activity. “We are already the most widely adopted and fastest growing M&A software. The additional funding allows us to introduce significant innovations to benefit the smartest deal-makers of the world,” says Kalle Kilpi, Head of Product at Midaxo.

“We are truly impressed by the substantial and tangible benefits Midaxo’s customers achieve in M&A and corporate development – including strategic partnerships, corporate venturing, legal processes, and complex sales cases, etc. We are investing in Midaxo to modernize how M&A is done worldwide and to enable corporations to manage their strategic efforts better,” says Alban Wyniecki, Investment Director at Idinvest Partners and a former M&A professional himself.

Midaxo Oy’s cloud software helps companies succeed in mergers & acquisitions by driving an efficient end-to-end process from target identification and due diligence to integration