Björn Lundén acquires KING Software, backed by Main Capital Partners

Björn Lundén, the Swedish accounting and financial administration software provider, today announces a partnership with Dutch accounting, financial administration and ERP software provider KING Software. The acquisition was backed by leading European software investor Main Capital Partners (“Main”). King was also majority owned by Main and has grown substantially under the ownership of Main.

KING Software represents the third add-on acquisition for the Björn Lundén group since Main Capital Partners became a majority investor in July 2021. Björn Lundén acquired TimeKeeper in November 2021 and QLogic in February 2022. Both of these Swedish companies are active and prominent players in the sector for time, project and expense-based management. This new partnership for the Netherlands-based KING Software represents Björn Lundén’s first move into the Benelux accounting and financial administration market.

The combined group will generate c.EUR30 million in mostly subscription revenues in The Nordics and The Benelux, is profitable and has an attractive growth rate. The group serves approximately 40,000 clients.

KING Software is a well-established accounting and enterprise resource planning (“ERP”) software provider for the Dutch market. It already has a strong foothold among accounting firms and SMEs, servicing over 9,000 customers. KING Software has a broad product suite that enables its clients and companies to both simplify and streamline their administrative processes. King Software achieves this through the provision of solutions for accounting, reporting, consolidation, tax administration, invoicing, collaboration, ERP and warehouse management respectively. In addition, KING Software is also able to cater to the wide and varying needs of SMEs based in different verticals through its network of over 250 application programming interface (“API”) partners.

Software solutions to simplify administrative processes
Accounting firms are facing a continuous pressure to increase overall efficiency, particularly for administrative tasks, while also being confronted with increased compliancy needs and regulations. As a result, accounting firms need software solutions to help them with increasing efficiency and workflow management.

The accounting software market is predicted to grow by 10% annually over the next 5 years, with this upward trajectory driven by both a need for accounting firms to increase their efficiency as well as SMEs wanting to handle their activity internally. Cloud-based accounting software solutions are projected to increase more rapidly than the rest of the market due to an increasing demand to automate and adopt better technological solutions. This trend is set to benefit market players such as Björn Lundén with its advanced and modern cloud-based SaaS offerings.

Cross-border growth strategy
Wessel Ploegmakers, Partner and Head of the Nordics activities at Main, commented:
“We see significant opportunities for the Björn Lundén group to continue its growth in both the Nordics as well as the Benelux through a combination of organic growth, driven by the group’s modern SaaS solutions, as well as through the continuation of an already successful buy-and-build strategy. The strategy will also include internationalisation and entrance into new markets, as well as the acquisitions of complementary solutions which will simplify administration for SMEs and accounting firms. KING Software represents the third add-on acquisition already completed since Main invested in the Björn Lundén group in July 2021. The group has impressively grown from 100 FTEs to more than 200 FTEs in less than a year, making it a significant player in Europe.”

KING Software’s product portfolio is highly complementary to Björn Lundén’s current offering of accounting and financial administration solutions and both companies sell to very similar customer bases of accountancy firms and SMEs.

Ulf Svensson, Chief Executive Officer Björn Lundén, added:
“By partnering with KING Software, we improve our international growth prospects while also being able to offer an enhanced value proposition particularly to our existing SME customers in the Nordics with new solutions for ERP and warehouse management.”

KING Software brand will continue
Mattijs Wilms, Chief Executive Officer at KING Software, concluded:
“We are very excited for this next phase of growth and to join forces with the Björn Lundén group. The customers of KING Software will benefit from an even stronger combined product offering and through the synergies of a larger, joint organisation, while the KING Software brand and personal approach will be continued.”

Björn Lundén
Björn Lundén, founded in 1987, provides accounting and financial software solutions targeted at accountancy firms and SMEs throughout the Nordics. From its office in Hudiksvall, the company serves over 30.000 companies in the Swedish market. The company has developed a comprehensive portfolio of solutions and tools for administration, finance, accounting, tax, legal and personnel administration and in addition offers knowledge tools, books and courses in the aforementioned areas.

KING Software
KING Software is the business platform for ERP, accountancy, trade, production and business services in small and medium-sized enterprises. KING Software ensures that entrepreneurs can focus on what is really important: doing business. Thanks to KING Software’s many years of knowledge and experience, the company understands better than anyone the importance of working efficiently. KING Software has offices in Heemskerk (HQ) and Rotterdam in the Netherlands and employs 82 FTEs.

Main Capital Partners
Main Capital Partners is a leading software investor in the Benelux, DACH and the Nordics. Main has almost 20 years of experience in strengthening software companies and works closely together with management teams of its portfolio companies as a strategic partner, in order to realise sustainable growth and build excellent software groups. Main counts over 50 employees and has offices in The Hague, Stockholm and Düsseldorf. As of October 2021, Main has over EUR2.2 billion of assets under management. Main has invested in more than 130 software companies to date. These companies have approximately 5,000 employees. The current active portfolio consists of 35 software groups with over EUR 600 million in combined revenues.