Thoma Bravo adds to growing portfolio with $8b Coupa Software acquisition

American software investment firm Thoma Bravo has announced yet another acquisition – snapping up Coupa Software (NASDAQ: COUP) in an all-cash $8 billion deal.

The deal values Coupa at $81 a share, which is a 77% premium on the company’s share price on last day of trading on 22 November.

Experts believe the premium offered was driven by high inflation, declining consumer demand and Russia’s war with Ukraine, all which have heavily affected the technology sector across the globe in recent times.

Thoma Bravo managing partner Holden Spaht said acquiring Coupa was the right addition to the company’s growing portfolio.

“Coupa has created and led the large and growing business spend management category. We’ve followed the company’s success for many years and have been impressed by its consistent track record of delivering high levels of value for its global customer base,” he said.

“We look forward to partnering with [Coupa] and [its] management team to keep investing in the company’s product strategy while driving growth both organically and through M&A.”

Coupa chairman and chief executive officer Rob Bernshteyn said the deal would help put the company’s name on the map.

“For more than a decade, we’ve been building an incredible business spend management community and have proudly cemented our position as the market-leading platform in our category,” he said.

“We’re looking forward to partnering with Thoma Bravo and accelerating our vision to digitally transform the office of the CFO.”

Coupa boasts more than 1,500 staff as a leading provider of business spend management (BSM) solutions, offering one of the most valuable procure to pay (P2P) platform specialists.

The company recently posted Q4 2022 total revenues at $193.3 million, up 18% on the previous corresponding period.

Procure to Play interest mounts

Although Coupa’s stock has followed a downwards trend for the best part of the last 12 months, its market-leading procure-to-pay (P2P) offering has become hugely attractive to businesses.

P2P systems help companies integrate purchasing and accounts payable departments, through supply management, requisition, purchase orders, invoice reconciliation and accounts payable.

With so much volatility in today’s world, such systems have become more attractive to businesses than what they were in pre-pandemic times.

Coupa’s market-leading P2P system allows businesses to centralise spending in a single place, simplifying the CFO’s duties, and an overview that allows for actionable insights across areas such as supply chain, sustainability and risk.

Thoma Bravo grows enterprise software company portfolio

Thoma Bravo’s latest acquisition adds to a busy year, having completed the acquisitions of other enterprise software companies: Ping Identity, SailPoint, Anaplan and Bottomline Technologies.

With software stocks declining heavily since the market peak in November 2021, Thoma Bravo has used the downturn to pile up a war chest.

To fund its plans, Thoma Bravo recently completed its largest fundraising ever last week – raising $32.4 billion in fresh capital commitments from investors.

Thoma Bravo founder Orlando Bravo said the cash “will enable us to further our strategy of collaborating with management teams to build leading software companies.”