Buyout Shrinks The T&E Market

The expansive travel and expense management industry is shrinking, thanks to an acquisition made by Nexonia of one of its main competitors.

The firm said late last week that it reached a deal to buy ExpenseWatch, with reports saying that Nexonia CEO Neil Wainwright confirmed the news, though would not confirm financial details of the purchase.

The move lands Nexonia with a total of 1,200 corporate clients, reports added.

Wainwright told reporters that corporate users of either solution will not see any differences for at least two years. He added that the two companies see some good overlap in their corporate strategy, both targeting mid-market businesses with a focus on customer services.

“The combination of both firms gives us the ability to accelerate our product development and build more features,” he told reporters, adding that those new features will be geared towards the enterprise.

Specifically, Nexonia is looking at the takeover as a way to help expand its accounts payable and purchase order capabilities; Wainwright said the firm will incorporate these features into its solution following the deal.

Reports said the executive is also eyeing more takeovers. “We’re always doing to do [a takeover deal] when they make sense, not just because we get to grow,” he said.

Nexonia, based in Canada, first launched more than a decade ago as a time sheet software player, according to reports. Over the years, it’s expanded into broader expense management solutions as business clients expressed a need to have Nexonia tools integrate into existing accounting and ERP systems.

Last year, the company introduced a feature into its mobile app to integrate its tracking tools into Automatic, a solution that syncs up with a vehicle to track mileage. It’s another partnership for the company that has used these kinds of collaborations to expand.

The company’s customer base is in the U.S. and integrates with major players, like SAP, Salesforce, QuickBooks and NetSuite.