Kiwi wealth app Sharesies has completed its first acquisition with the purchase of equity management platform, Orchestra.
Sharesies’ first acquisition, of the Auckland-based platform Orchestra, is part of their B2B growth strategy.
Orchestra offers employees share ownership plans and share registry solutions to private companies in New Zealand and Australia. Clients of Orchestra include Sharesies itself, Les Mills, Beca, Harrison Grierson, Parkable and HNRY.
Sharesies Co-founder and co-CEO Brooke Roberts says this acquisition evolves their B2B offering and will allow their company to support both unlisted and listed companies across New Zealand and Australia with employee and investor equity management, and also offer registry services.
“We already support more than 30 listed companies and 10,000 staff with their staff share schemes and shareholder communications. Joining forces with Orchestra, with its 500+ private company clients and 60,000 shareholders means we can work with any business to have better connections with their shareholders and create value for their team,” says Roberts.
“We’ve used Orchestra at Sharesies for several years and love how it helps our shareholders and team stay informed about their holding at any given time. And we’re looking forward to the Orchestra team joining the Sharesies whānau in our Auckland office.”
As part of their acquisition, Orchestra’s platform will continue as is before merging into the Sharesies apps over the next 18 months.
All Orchestra shareholders will also receive shares in Sharesies the company.
This will allow for customers to see their personal investments and staff-allocated shares all in one piece.
Orchestra’s board directors Shane Bradley and Simeon Burnett will become shareholders in Sharesies.
Burnett, also the Co-founder of Orchestra, says that the platform was first born to help businesses have better support when it comes to distributed ownership and encouraging more investors to invest confidently.
“Teaming up with Sharesies allows the Orchestra team to serve a greater range of businesses in Australasia across the public and private markets, accelerating growth and value for businesses, investors and employees,” he adds.
