Xero Raises $110M, Appoints U.S. President

Xero announced it has raised more than $110 million in investments from Accel Partners and Matrix Capital Management.

Accel Partners, a Silicon Valley venture capital firm focused on early stage and growth stage investments, agreed to invest $100 million through funds under its management and current shareholder Matrix Capital Management, Xero’s largest institutional investor, agreed to invest an additional $10.8 million.

The completed transaction will give Xero a cash balance of approximately $215 million that the company will use to fuel innovation and growth globally and specifically in the U.S. and U.K.

Xero also announced the appointment of Russell Fujioka as U.S. president, based in San Francisco, and Graham Smith to the Xero board as an additional independent, non-executive director. A former Dell executive, Fujioka has a background in sales, digital marketing and operational management of high growth technology business. Smith has experience in scaling SaaS business from his tenure as Salesforce’s chief financial officer and a board member of other industry companies such as Splunk.

“We welcome the Accel Funds as strategic investors in Xero, and are delighted with Matrix’s continued support,” stated Xero CEO Rod Drury. “Our ability to attract capital and leadership of this caliber is testament to our success and our potential to become the small business SaaS platform of choice for entrepreneurs around the globe.”

“Accel always looks for enduring technologies with global reach and we see the need and opportunity for millions of small businesses to grow on Xero’s platform,” stated Accel partner Andrew Braccia. “We’ve worked with several other leading companies in the region to broaden their global reach and we hope this experience will be valuable as Xero’s strong leadership team looks to expand in the United States.”

The Accel Partners investment is expected to close in March 2015. 

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