Software group SAP to buy majority stake in US fintech firm Taulia

[STOCKHOLM] SAP said on Thursday (Jan 27) it has agreed to buy a majority stake in privately held US fintech firm Taulia as the German business software group seeks to expand its presence across supply-chain financing and working capital loans.

Taulia works with financial institutions to allow suppliers that use its platform to receive early payments on their delivered goods and services, and the market has significantly increased due to the pandemic disrupting supply chains.

SAP, which provides some of the supply-chain financing through its Ariba brand, said acquisition of Taulia will help the company remove the limited growth rates for its own products.

While SAP did not disclose the deal price, SAP chief executive officer Christian Klein said the value is less than US$1 billion. Taulia had raised more than US$200 million from the likes of Trinity Ventures, Questmark Partner and Lakestar.

The fintech firm had also secured a credit facility worth more than US$6 billion from JPMorgan last year after its partner for supply-chain financing, Greensill Capital, filed for insolvency.

SAP said JPMorgan's relationship with Taulia remains unchanged, and the bank will continue to operate their strategic alliance as well as maintain its equity stake.

About 2 million suppliers use Taulia, resulting in more than US$500 billion in annual transaction volume, with 87 per cent of the customers running SAP's software.

SAP's former CEO Leo Apotheker also serves as an independent director at Taulia, and both companies have joint customers such as Airbus, Nissan and AstraZeneca.

Separately, SAP confirmed its preliminary fourth-quarter results were boosted by growth at its cloud business. It forecast 2022 cloud revenue of between 11.6 billion euros (S$17.6 billion) and 11.9 billion euros, up from 9.4 billion in 2021. REUTERS