Fexco dynasty enjoys further success as Taxamo sold in $200m deal

Co Kerry fintech Taxamo, which is led by John McCarthy, a son of the Fexco founder Brian McCarthy, has been acquired in a $200 million (€165.5 million) deal.

Vertex, a tax compliance software and services company headquartered in Pennsylvania, has agreed to buy the fintech in an all-cash transaction.

Taxamo was founded and is still led by John McCarthy. The son of the Fexco founder and brother of the financial services group’s current chief executive Denis McCarthy, he established the business in 2011.

The company’s technology is for ecommerce businesses that need to automate compliance and commerce across cross-border transactions from merchant to seller to payer and revenue authority. It counts the likes of SurveyMonkey, Teamwork and Penguin Random House as customers.

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Deal

The company last year agreed a multimillion-euro deal with Deloitte for a new digital tax compliance service, in what Mr McCarthy described at the time was a “game-changer” for Taxamo.

“This acquisition supports and accelerates our growth strategies across e-commerce platforms and marketplaces in the enterprise and mid-market in Europe and North America, and among our existing global customers,” said David DeStefano, chief executive of Vertex.

“We also believe the addition of Taxamo opens up entirely new market opportunities as global marketplaces continue to expand, and tax complexity grows across the interconnected supply chain of logistics, shipping, customs and payment platforms,” he added.

Taxamo solutions are expected to be integrated into the Vertex cloud portfolio following completion of the deal.

‘Extremely proud’

Mr McCarthy is to take on a senior leadership role in Vertex overseeing the company’s global ecommerce and marketplace strategy.

“We are extremely proud of the company we’ve built over the past 10 years, and I am excited to join such a recognised, trusted leader in tax technology,” he said.”

“Taxamo is based on a vision that as the global economy grows, more companies will need to pay more taxes in more countries. This causes challenges for both business and government, and it is these challenges that we have sought to understand and craft innovative solutions for,” he added.

Founded in 1981 in Kilorglin, Co Kerry, Fexco processes upwards of €14 billion in transactions a year across FX, treasury, digital tax and government-backed financing sectors.

It has operations in 29 countries and employs more than 2,500 people globally.