$15 million into accountancy software company Xero<\/a> <\/b>in February this year.<\/p>\n\u00a0<\/p>\n
Xero co-founder Rod Drury says the company has raised an additional US$49 million (NZ$60 million) from Valar Ventures and Matrix Capital Management; another existing investor.<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
This is Thiel\u2019s third investment in Xero. In addition to the funds he contributed in February, he invested $US3 million back in 2010.<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s a huge endorsement for what we\u2019re doing and the great work our team continues to do,\u201d Drury says.<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re just at the beginning of the business SaaS market and we have the resources to keep our foot on the throttle.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s been a pleasure dealing with Matrix and Valar. Both of them continue to provide fantastic experience and advice.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
Valar Ventures is investing NZ$24 million and Matrix Capital is investing NZ$58 million. Their total investment of NZ$82 million includes a purchase of NZ$22 million of shares from Xero\u2019s three largest shareholders.<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
The decision to increase funding follows the announcement that Xero will accelerate its investment in the business to take advantage of market conditions.<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
Xero recently reported revenue of NZ$38.7 million as of 30 September 2012, up from NZ$18 million a year earlier.<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
The company expects to double its operating revenue for the full year to March 31, 2013.<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cOver the past two years of our involvement with Xero, we have seen the team consistently meet and exceed their ambitious goals,\u201d Valar Ventures\u2019 Andrew McCormack said in a statement.<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cThe combination of an experienced and focused team, superlative product, good timing and an absolutely huge market give us confidence that Xero has a very long runway.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
A venture capital firm backed by PayPal co-founder Peter Thiel has teamed up with another investor to pour US$49 million<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":61945,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37333"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=37333"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37333\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/61945"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=37333"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=37333"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=37333"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}