An online subscription commerce platform has raised $185 million from pension fund Caisse de dépôt et placement du Québec (CDPQ) and other investors.
AppDirect, which has offices in San Francisco and Montreal, Quebec, among other locations, plans to use the funding to support hiring and additional acquisitions to power a global expansion, the firm said this week. In total, the recurring digital services company has raised about $465 million since its first funding round in 2015.
“Businesses are facing unprecedented challenges. Many companies began digital selling practically overnight, but need assistance integrating new technologies and processes into their operations and making them work at scale for the long term,” said Daniel Saks, president and co-CEO at AppDirect.
“Our mission at AppDirect has always been to make technology globally accessible, and we are rising to meet that calling at a time when it feels especially urgent,” he added.
The Quebec pension fund has about $38 billion devoted to private equity, about 15% of its $253 billion total portfolio. Some 22% of its private equity assets are allocated to information technology (IT) and telecommunications.
“AppDirect plays a key role in simplifying the digitalization of businesses through cloud services, and CDPQ’s investment will contribute to the acceleration of its growth plan,” said Thomas Birch, global managing director of venture capital and technology at CDPQ.
The transition to online commerce has accelerated since the start of the pandemic. AppDirect is expanding its business as experts forecast that the global service subscription market will grow to more than $340 million in four years, about a 24% compound annualized growth rate, according to market research firm IMARC Group.
AppDirect already counts cable company Comcast and human resources (HR) software firm ADP, among others, as clients.
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Tags: AppDirect, Caisse de dépôt et placement du Québec, Canada, CDPQ, Pension