Toronto-based cloud-accounting software company FreshBooks has raised US$30-million in funding as it aims to grow its user base beyond 10 million and more than double the number of employees at its Canadian headquarters.
The funding, its first institutional round, was led by U.S. venture capital firm Oak Investment Partners, with participation by Toronto’s Georgian Partners and U.S.-based Atlas Venture, FreshBooks said in a statement Wednesday.
The US$30-million will help fuel growth for FreshBooks, which caters to small businesses with its cloud-based accounting platform.
Mike McDerment, FreshBooks chief executive and co-founder, said the company decided to take raise institutional funding after years of building up the Toronto-based company and its management team. FreshBooks’ core customer base of small businesses are also ramping up their adoption of cloud solutions, he said.
“We did all the right things, and the next piece of the puzzle is taking on additional capital to accelerate the expansion of the business,” he said.
FreshBooks also plans to increase its employee headcount from 150 to 400 by 2016, mainly hiring developers, product managers and marketing staff.
Mr. McDerment says FreshBooks plans on keeping its operations exclusively in Toronto for the forseeable future.
Building a “global technology company headquartered in Toronto” is “something that gets me up in the morning, and lots of the team as well.”
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