British cloud accounting startup, Clear Books, has transformed from a one man band working from home to a SaaS technology company valued at £6 million in four years.
4th October 2012
(London, UK) Clear Books, a leading provider of online accounting software to British businesses, has accepted an offer of investment of £300,000 which values the fledgling company at £6 million, but it’s not getting complacent.
The investment brings with it new investor, WAKR! Holding B.V. run by Tjeerd Kramer, a successful Dutch entrepreneur. Mr Kramer is highly experienced with rolling out web products in different languages and geographies and specialises in conversion optimisation. Whilst the company has no current plans for international expansion Mr Kramer’s experience opens doors for the future.
31 year old Managing Director of Clear Books, Tim Fouracre, explains, “As a Chartered Accountant who trained at KPMG, I have always kept a tight control on the company’s finances. This investment provides a small injection of capital to build our team as we anticipate continued strong growth and increasingly take market share away from Sage and QuickBooks.”
Clear Books was started in the depths of the credit crunch, and although a daunting prospect, it proved to be the perfect time to launch its disruptive new cloud technology. People made redundant in the recessionary climate have set up new businesses and flocked to Clear Books in their droves, attracted by the cost effective pay as you go subscription plans and flexible access to their financial data.
From July 2008 to November 2009 Clear Books was operating as a one man band with a trading address that read, “founder’s lounge”. Fast forward to today and in the six months to September 2012 the company is profitable on annualised revenue in excess of half a million pounds. Almost 5,000 businesses use its online accounting software, supported by a London based team of 17.
Mr Fouracre concludes, “Clear Books is passionate about changing how small businesses do business. This investment allows us to push ahead with helping our small business customers succeed that little bit quicker. We want to help as many businesses as possible and we won’t rest until we’ve displaced Sage as the UK’s largest accounting software provider. Admittedly, we still have a lot of work to do, but our team is up for the challenge”.
Notes to editors
Clear Books is a London based Software as a Service company that provides cloud accounting software to thousands of small business customers. It has been praised for its simplicity and ease of use by non-accountant business owners. The company aims to help its customers become more innovative, have fun, keep things simple, do things faster and work in more open and collaborative ways.
Spokesperson
Lizzie Fouracre
Clear Books Limited
e: press@clearbooks.co.uk
w: www.clearbooks.co.uk
p: 08448 160 616
