Tungsten Spent $6.5 Million for DocuSphere

When global electronic trading network Tungsten Network purchased DocuSphere last month, it spent $6.5 million, according to a report published Thursday (Oct. 23) by the Global Trade Review.

The price for the acquisition of DocuSphere, an accounts payable automation vendor, had not been disclosed when the deal was announced.

The CEO of Tungsten Network’s America’s division, Rick Hurwitz, said that the move “significantly extends Tungsten’s invoice-automation technologies to help companies streamline their accounts payable functions” and “that it will also assist firms to adhere to tax and regulatory compliance and have greater transparency of the entire invoice-to-pay process,” the story noted.

“There are roughly 80 to 100 customers using DocuSphere’s own software technologies. Not all of these are what Tungsten would call ‘buyer customers’ relative to accounts payable (AP) processing, as some are using the software in other ways outside of AP,” Hurwitz said.

Tungsten CEO Edmund Truell added that the acquisition “enhances our control of implementation by reducing our reliance on third parties. It also introduces new revenue opportunities and helps customers achieve straight-through processing.”

The executives said that Tungsten’s focus next year will be to continue to invest heavily in people, infrastructure and working capital and that Tungsten has already launched a large-scale recruitment and retention programs and the company plans to hire 100 people this year. It is also seeking on becoming compliant in new countries, including India, China, Qatar, Chile and Japan.

The story also detailed some of the financing that enabled the acquisition.

“Since being admitted to trading on the London Stock Exchange’s AIM on October 16, 2013, Tungsten has attracted £160mn of gross new money and a market capitalization of £225mn, which sits close to £400mn today,” it reported. “The funding for the Tungsten acquisition came from recently raised AIM funds, Truell said in the company’s latest AGM: ‘We recently raised another £12mn, with part of the proceeds being used to finance the acquisition of DocuSphere, a complementary business that that will enable us to generate revenues from large contract wins faster.'”