Following software revamp, FreshBooks closes $43M in Series B funding

FreshBooks has closed a Series B round of funding amounting to $43 million on the heels of the release of its new accounting software platform.

The second round of funding the company has taken in its 14 year history, the $43 million will go to further product development and go-to-market acceleration, FreshBooks co-founder and CEO Mike McDerment said.

For the first decade of FreshBooks’ existence, McDerment resisted venture capital funding because he feared it would cause him to lose control of his company. However, in 2014, he knew he needed an injection of capital to accelerate product development and hire quality executive management. FreshBooks raised $30 million in Series A funding, and the company used that money in a unique way: It created a competitor.

Freshbooks offices

FreshBooks founded another software company, BillSpring, to develop a platform just like FreshBooks--accounting software for the self-employed--and perfect it. FreshBooks kept the connection between the two companies secret, but once it felt it had a great platform and had several users signed on, it switched the BillSpring interface over to FreshBooks, and the users continued on FreshBooks with no transition pains.

This is the new FreshBooks platform, which McDerment calls “by far the easiest product to use on the market.”

Now, McDerment is excited about using the capital to perfect the accounting software platform, making it more attractive to accountants of self-employed clients. For example, the FreshBooks development team is working on making the double ledger and bank reconciliation functionalities of the software more usable.

The Series B funding round was led by existing investor Georgian Partners, with participation from previous investors Accomplice and Oak Investment Partners.

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