Spend management software company Ivalua raises $70 million from KKR

French spend and procurement management software company Ivalua has raised $70 million from private equity firm KKR.

Ivalua’s cloud-based software, like its Source-to-Pay (S2P) platform, is used by companies to manage spending and procurement in one platform. Its customer base includes large clients such as Honeywell, the City of New York, and Deutsche Telekom.

“The spend management software market is undergoing a huge transformation, coming out from under the shadow of better-known SaaS sectors. Ivalua is a success story in this strategic market,” said David Khuat-Duy, CEO of the company, which is now headquartered in California.

The investment from KKR will accelerate the company’s software development as well as help improve its reach into other markets.

The market for spend management software is worth nearly $25 billion, said Lucian Schoenefelder, director at KKR.

“The market is currently at an interesting inflection point away from really niche solution providers to more full suite providers like Ivalua; at the same time away from legacy on-premise ERP linked software towards more flexible cloud solutions,” he told tech.eu.

KKR will assist Ivalua with its growth in Europe and the US with an eventual push into the Asian market as well as provide business connections for its software.

“We have a big portfolio of around 120 companies, mostly PE-backed companies, that are large and profitable and have significant spend,” explained Schoenefelder. These are all companies that need to manage their procurement costs and may use Ivalua, he added.

Ivalua previously raised €3 million from Ardian (formerly Axa Private Equity) in 2011, who remain shareholders in the company.