Supply chain payments specialist Tradeshift has bought privately held cloud integration provider Babelway for an undisclosed sum.
The deal, announced today, allows Tradeshift to bring in-house a service it has relied on extensively for the past six years.
Babelway’s Software-as-a-Service allows the exchange and transformation of documents in formats ranging from Amazon to Chorus Pro, CSV, FTP, email, Excelt, Edifact, Dropbox, UBL, Tradacoms, X400, XML and more.
It allows users to control document flow, trigger notifications to particular users or partners, and view metrics of an entire B2B network.
Tradeshift is a global business-to-business platform that uses cloud-based technology to improve processes like invoicing, workflow and supplier financing.
Tradeshift Babelway Acquisition: SaaS to be Sold as “Tradeshift Link”
Belgium-based Babelway’s technology will now be offered as Tradeshift Link and used to accelerate the integration of disconnected systems used for B2B buying, paying, and selling; a significant challenge for companies digitalising their supply chains.
Tradeshift Co-Founder and SVP APAC, Mikkel Hippe Brun, told Computer Business Review in a call: “We’ve been in love with Babelshift since the start and made no secret of the fact that we’d like to buy it. We’ll be celebrating this afternoon with the whole team and founders.”
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He added: “It’s been a core part of our services to on-boarding customers and is very, very good for integrating a banking partner or a third party application developer who wants to bring their app to our platform.”
Christian Lanng, CEO and founder of Tradeshift added in a release: “This significantly extends the capabilities of our platform and takes the friction out of integration.”
The release noted: “Small and medium-sized sellers, who traditionally have smaller ERP systems and smaller teams, will benefit from Tradeshift Link because it allows them to work more easily with large Fortune 500 buyers.
The acquisition follows a $250 million Series E funding round for the aggressively expanding Tradeshift, which saw its valuation hit $1.1 billion in late May.
Tradeshift enables supply chain payments and marketplaces for more than 1.5 million businesses globally, including Fortune 1000 brands Air France-KLM, DHL, Fujitsu, HSBC, Siemens, Societe Generale, Unilever, and Volvo.
The company’s solutions support trade financing, spend and receivables management, lending and payments, and private marketplaces, and aim to help unlock the $9 trillion of capital estimated to be trapped in online payments.
