Visma

Visma (acronym for ''Visual management'') is a privately held company headquartered in Oslo, Norway, that provides cloud accounting, payroll, invoicing, and HR business software products. The majority of the company is owned by HgCapital, a private equity firm.

The company was formed in 1996 in Norway, through the merging of Multisoft, SpecTec and Dovre Information Systems. The Group's market segments include small business, medium business, public, and ecosystem.

The Visma Group operates across Europe and a number of countries in Latin America.

Øystein Moan (CEO 1997–2020)

Former Visma CEO and now chair of the board, Øystein Moan (born 1959), earned an MSc in computer science at the University of Oslo. Prior to Visma, Moan was the founder and managing director o
Cinet AS
After becoming CEO of the Visma Group in 1997, he grew the company from 300 to 8,500 employees and increased the revenue from NOK 250 million to €1.1 billion (2019 figures).

In 2020, Moan was succeeded by Merete Hverven.

Merete Hverven (CEO 2020–Present)

Current Visma CEO, Merete Hverven (born 1977), has a Master's degree in Finance and International Leadership from the University of St. Gallen and NHH Norwegian School of Economics. After joining Visma in 2011, she held several roles including Deputy CEO and Chief HR Officer. Since she became CEO in March 2020, Visma's revenue has increased from €1.13B in 2019 to €2.39B in 2023, while the number of employees has risen from 9,113 to 15,107 in the same period. Visma has also entered 9 new countries since she began as CEO, bringing the total to 32 as of June 2024.

Corporate history

1996: The Visma Group had its first year of operations and was listed on the Oslo Stock Exchange. Shortly after listing, Visma started operating as a public company. MultiSoft ASA, SpecTec ASA and Dovre Information Systems AS merged. They had three key products: SpecTec (marine), Visma Logistics and Visma Business.

1997: Due to growth ambitions that exceeded the company's resources, the company experienced a financial crisis in the year's second quarter. The company had to be refinanced and re-structured and most of the management and the Board of Directors were replaced. Øystein Moan joined as CEO and the new board managed to raise MNOK100 in new share capital but had to lay off one-third of the company's staff.

1999: Visma established subsidiaries in Denmark and United Kingdom. The company made its first step towards SaaS launching Visma Business e-commerce and starting work on developing web and WAP extensions of all the Visma applications.

2000: The major event of 2000 was the sale of Visma Marine ASA's operations to Dutch company Station12. Visma received a cash payment of MNOK730, which was a considerable financial resource that was used to generate more growth. The new strategy was to offer both software and outsourcing within accounting, finance and payroll.

2001: Visma acquired (formerly Scandinavian PC Systems), the Swedish market leader within the small business segment. Later in the year, the company entered the Finnish market through the acquisition of Liinos.

2002: With the Spcs developed software “Avendo”, Visma entered the Norwegian micro market. The acquisition of Møre Datasystemer saw Visma enter the public sector in Denmark.

2003: Visma entered major cooperation agreements with Norway's largest bank ( DNB) and the national postal service.

2004: Visma established an electronic data center in Oslo, which processed 2 million incoming invoices in 2005. The company also increased its offering in the public sector with debt collection and temp services added to the portfolio.

2005: There was steady growth – both organically and through eleven acquisitions. Visma's Management Trainee program was initiated.

2006–2008: Visma entered the Dutch market through the acquisition of software company AccountView. A change of ownership saw British private equity firm Hg Capital become the new majority owner. Hg Capital de-listed Visma from the Oslo Stock Exchange.

2009: The company's Retail IT division was established, providing retail businesses with hardware and consultancy services to aid with implementation and support. This was also the year Visma's new headquarters in Skøyen, Oslo was completed ready to house over 1,000 of the company's Norwegian staff. Visma reached 10,000 SaaS users and became Finland's second largest accounting firm.

2010: KKR acquired a 76.9% ownership in Visma. At the time, the transaction valued Visma at an enterprise value of NOK11 billion. Visma was KKR's first investment in Norway. Hg Capital, the previous majority owner of Visma, retained a significant minority ownership of 17.7%. At the same time, Visma's management increased its ownership in the business to 5.3%.
Earlier that year, Visma entered the IT consultancy market in Norway, Sweden and Denmark through the acquisition of Sirius IT.

2011: In Norway, Visma acquired Mamut, its rival in the micro segment. Included in the acquisition was an international web hosting company Active24.

2012: Visma launched Visma.net – for small and medium-sized businesses. At the launch, the suite included ERP, CRM and Expense Management. Later that year, Visma introduced Net Promoter Score, a customer satisfaction and nurturing program, for all of its products.

2013: Visma signed a significant deal in Norway to develop administrative and communication solutions for Norwegian schools. Through the acquisition of the Duetto Group, Visma entered the Finnish debt collection market.

2014: Visma widened its shareholder base to include Cinven, gaining a new valuation of NOK21 billion. The new ownership structure gave Cinven, Hg Capital and KKR 31.3% ownership each, and the Visma management received 6% ownership.

2015: Visma established a new business unit – Visma Employee Management – for payroll and HRM outsourcing services. Visma also conducted several major acquisitions: e-conomic (DK), SpeedLedger (SE), Huldt & Lillevik(NO), PBJ (DK), Viklo Oy (FI), Aditro Public (SE), Digital Booker (FI) and Abalon (SE).

2016: Visma sold its BPO division (outsourced accounting, payroll and HR services) to Hg Capital to focus on its cloud software business. Visma also acquired over 20 cloud software companies in Europe.

2017: Visma acquired Bluegarden, improving its position in the Danish payroll segment. During the year, Visma acquired a total of 12 companies, including Admincontrol, Megaflex Oy and NYCE solutions, expanding its offering in several new business areas.

In June 2017, Visma's shareholder structure changed after KKR sold its entire remaining stake in Visma to an investor group led by Hg Capital together with GIC, Montagu and ICG.

2018: Visma acquired Raet, a large Dutch enterprise providing payroll and HCM (Human Capital Management) software.

2019: Visma had a total turnover of NOK 16,500,000,000.

2020: Visma acquire
Yuki
a Dutch bookkeeping software platform.

2021: Visma acquired ProSaldo.net, an Austrian bookkeeping and billing software platform, and Holded, a Spanish ERP and accounting company.

2022: Visma entered the French market via the acquisition of Inqom. Visma also acquired Dutch financial software company Lyanthe and Belgian software developers IonProjects and Teamleader. In May 2022, Visma announced the acquisition of Danish time registration system Intempus. Visma sold one of its Lithuanian subsidiaries to CVC Capital Partners. The remaining one is Visma's external programming service, based in Vilnius CBD.

2023: Visma entered the German market with the acquisitions of German financial software companies H&H and BuchhaltungsButler. Visma also acquired Belgian company Silverfin, a provider of cloud accounting software.

Sponsorship

In 2018, Visma signed a five-year sponsorship deal with the professional road cycling team Team-Jumbo Visma, which was one of the teams that competed in the UCI World Tour. The sponsorship began 1 January 2019. The team won the 2022 Tour de France with Jonas Vingegaard, the 2023 Giro d'Italia with Primož Roglič, the 2023 Tour de France with Jonas Vingegaard, and the 2023 Vuelta a España with Sepp Kuss. It also took the Green Jersey in Le Tour de France Femmes with Marianne Vos.

Following the change of the CEO at Jumbo and its subsequent withdrawal from its World Tour cycling sponsorship, Visma took over as the primary sponsor, from the beginning of the 2024 season, for the team now called Team Visma , Lease a Bike.

From the 2015/2016 through 2021/2022 ski seasons, Visma was also the title sponsor of Visma Ski Classics, a long-distance ski racing championship.

References

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Companies based in Oslo
Companies formerly listed on the Oslo Stock Exchange
Customer relationship management software companies
ERP software companies
Kohlberg Kravis Roberts companies
Software companies of Norway
1996 establishments in Norway