Avalara, provider of cloud-based software for sales tax and transactional tax compliance, announced it has raised $100 million in a financing round from an affiliate of global private equity firm Warburg Pincus.
“Warburg Pincus is a world-class private equity firm with significant experience helping companies like Avalara grow into successful businesses of scale,” stated Scott McFarlane, founder and CEO of Avalara. “This investment by Warburg Pincus will allow us to put more dollars to work in our growth initiatives. It also validates our fundamental belief that sales tax compliance automation is inevitable, and Avalara is at the forefront of this movement. We look forward to leveraging the expertise and funding of our new partners to accelerate our growth.”
In addition to its pioneering cloud-based platform for sales tax automation, Avalara provides compliance solutions for taxes such as VAT and excise tax in an end-to-end suite of solutions. Company plans include international expansion and strategic acquisitions.
“Avalara has secured a leading position in tax software and compliance, bringing new and sophisticated technology solutions to help its customers navigate an increasingly complex regulatory environment,” stated Justin Sadrian, managing director at Warburg Pincus and new member of the Avalara board of directors. “The company fits squarely into our investment thesis of compliance-driven SaaS software and data businesses, and we are incredibly excited to partner with Scott and the talented Avalara team as they continue to build their business and expand their product offerings.”
With this investment, which marks Warburg Pincus’ third active technology investment in a Seattle-area company, Avalara has now raised more than $200 million in capital since 2004, from investors including Sageview Capital and Battery Ventures.
Warburg Pincus previously invested in tax software companies Chipsoft, the maker of TurboTax, which was acquired by Intuit, and MLM Information Services/CorpTax, which was acquired by Corporation Service Company (CSC).
