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Kyriba

Finding Success in SaaS for Corporate Treasury Management

Kyriba Case Study

Sumeru Equity Partners and Kyriba collaborate on growth acceleration strategy for SaaS provider of financial management software solutions that helps lead to $1.2B acquisition

“We saw an opportunity to drive a new strategy and accelerate growth for Kyriba that wasn’t readily apparent – and then we executed on that plan.”

– Kyle Ryland, Managing Partner at Sumeru Equity Partners

Founder and Company Background

San Diego-based SaaS company Kyriba develops financial management software that offers treasury, risk-management, payments and working capital solutions to optimize liquidity, manage risk and improve operational efficiency. Kyriba’s solutions help companies overcome challenges including achieving operational efficiencies for financial management, maximizing cash flow, improving fraud prevention, and optimizing risk analysis.

Kyriba’s SaaS platform supports these activities for over 2,500 clients in 100 countries across sectors including consumer goods, retail, financial services, higher education, healthcare, and manufacturing. While the company had achieved strong growth, much of the market remained underserved, offering the opportunity to invest more aggressively to build out go-to-market and expand new customer relationships. Existing customers also presented an opportunity to offer more products, driving a significant upsell opportunity that would also increase strong levels of historical customer retention.

Although Kyriba had a strong presence in Europe and was expanding in the United States, they wanted to accelerate growth — and fast. Sumeru recognized the exciting potential for this partnership working with management and the Board.

Managing Partner Kyle Ryland of Sumeru explained:

“This was a company that had been venture-backed and had grown steadily over a relatively long period of time. Kyriba had success but needed a new investor who could bring in not only capital but also capabilities and strategies that were additive to what the existing shareholders were providing.”

Sumeru quickly identified a clear path to achieve Kyriba’s potential and accelerate their already impressive growth. This strategic plan and comprehensive approach to customer acquisition and product expansion included more aggressive investment in building an enterprise sales organization, a digital marketing program that targeted new customers, content creation, and media strategies. Sumeru engaged in market studies and strategies surrounding product expansion as well, along with recruiting talent to support new growth opportunities.

Value Creation and Revenue Growth

Sumeru creatively identified an innovative approach to product-led growth and expansion for Kyriba. This began with a clearly defined “path to victory” that we aligned on and executed as a team.

Ryland expanded on the strategic vision:

“We saw a path to victory for Kyriba where we could be more aggressive and more strategic about investing in the growth of the business and expanding its offerings. The team aligned with this strategic vision and executed it very well.”

To support this product-led growth, Sumeru helped Kyriba expand and build out its leadership team. We helped identify and recruit some of the market’s top executives who were integrated with an already successful collection of leaders. This team collaborated to drive the global expansion of Kyriba’s business while staying true to the core principles of the company.

We also worked to find software specialists that could drill down on currency risk management features, thereby expanding the company’s product offerings. We helped Kyriba draw attention to the most innovative features of its products, too, increasing exposure among leading SaaS analysts and industry experts. This heightened visibility led to further growth and new customer acquisitions that made Kyriba an even more attractive opportunity for investors.

Private Equity Firm Acquires Kyriba for $1.2B

The outcome of this strategy was an acceleration of growth, expansion of the customer base, growth of the product portfolio and increased revenue per customer. As a result, Kyriba became recognized as a clear leader in cloud treasury and finance solutions. In 2019, an international private equity group purchased the company for $1.2 billion, and Sumeru successfully exited the investment.

Ryland concluded:

“Sumeru and Kyriba worked together to drive new strategic direction in the business, which ultimately culminated in a very successful exit that our team is proud to have impacted in a meaningful way.”