Heeros IPOs a year after crowdfunding on Invesdor
- Heeros Oyj, a Finnish growth company specialising in cloud-based financial management solutions, is listing on the Nasdaq First North in Finland
- Heeros raised €660,000 in equity crowdfunding on Invesdor last year
- The IPO is among the first IPOs of crowdfunded companies in Europe and the first of its kind in Finland
Heeros Oyj, a Finnish growth company specialising in cloud-based financial management software solutions, is IPOing on Nasdaq First North growth market in Finland. The subscription period of the IPO started today on October 19th, 2016. Heeros is the first Finnish company and one of the first companies in Europe to do an IPO after having raised crowdfunding.
In late 2015 Heeros raised a €660,000 crowdfunding round. The campaign on Invesdor’s crowdfunding platform also brought the company visibility and close to 200 new shareholders.
“Last year’s crowdfunding round was a pre-IPO operation for us. Through crowdfunding, we had a lot of new retail investors joining us on our growth journey even prior to listing on a public market,” says Heeros CEO Matti Lattu.
“Heeros’s IPO is excellent news for Nordic crowdfunding and for the investors of last year’s crowdfunding round; the investors will now get to track their investment and its value more closely”, says Invesdor’s country manager Thomas Petroff. “We are very happy to play a role in bringing Heeros’s growth story closer to investors for the second time.”
Only a handful of companies in Europe have gone on to IPO after previously raising crowdfunding. However, in the past year growing numbers of public and IPOing companies have begun to use crowdfunding platforms as distribution channels for their equity offerings. Invesdor had its platform’s first IPO, that of logistics group Ahola Transport, in the summer of 2015. In April of this year the IT company Siili Solutions used Invesdor as a platform when moving from the First North growth market to the Nasdaq Helsinki main market.
“Crowdfunding platforms work well also for listing companies because it is a quick and efficient distribution channel for equity offerings. A pre-IPO crowdfunding campaign is a logical step for a company preparing for an IPO; the campaign brings visibility and shareholders that are valuable when listing,” Petroff says.
Heeros has had year-on-year growth of 20% since 2008. The company is reaching towards the Benelux countries for growth as utilisation rates of financial management software and e-invoicing there are much lower than in the Nordic countries, thus there is potential for significant growth. The Heeros Group has three offices in Finland, one in Rotterdam, Netherlands and one in Stockholm, Sweden. Heeros Group’s turnover in 2015 was €5.4 million and EBITDA €0.7 million. The group had 58 employees.
Please note that the Heeros offering is only available in Finland and to limited investors in the EEA. This material does not constitute an offer or a solicitation of an offer to acquire any shares outside Finland or to other than the limited investors in the EEA.
Contact:
Matti Lattu, CEO, Heeros Oyj
matti.lattu@heeros.com, +358 40 762 5525
Tiina Olkkonen, CEO, Bravura Oy
tiina.olkkonen@bravura.fi, +358 40 827 8844
Thomas Petroff, country manager, Invesdor Ltd.
thomas.petroff@invesdor.com, +358 40 555 8340
Mikko Savolainen, communications manager, Invesdor Ltd.
mikko.savolainen@invesdor.com, +358 40 747 5205
Heeros in brief:
Heeros is a Finnish internationally awarded growth company specialising in cloud-based financial management solutions. Heeros offers fully automated solutions for purchase invoice workflow, invoice OCR processing, e-invoicing, e-archiving, SEPA payments, payable and receivable ledgers, general ledger accounting and mobile app. Heeros Oyj has one subsidiary in the Netherlands.
Invesdor in brief:
Invesdor operates an online investment platform that connects ambitious European growth companies with investors worldwide. Invesdor has helped raise more than 17 million euros and hosted more than 60 successful equity crowdfunding campaigns.
A financial technology (fintech) company founded in Finland in 2012, Invesdor is the Nordic market leader in equity crowdfunding measured in invested capital and revenue in 2015. Invesdor's clients include private and publicly traded companies from Finland, the UK, Norway and Denmark as well as investors from more than 50 countries. Invesdor has offices in London and Helsinki.
