Appical & Visma team | Image credit: Visma
Amsterdam-based Appical, an IT company that delivers employee-centric onboarding experience to brands, has been acquired by Oslo-based Visma, a company that provides business software and services for accounting and administration.
With this development, Visma has added onboarding tech to its HR software portfolio. Under Visma’s wings, the Amsterdam HRtech scale-up wants to accelerate its growth plans in Europe.
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What does Appical offer?
Founded in 2012 by Roy Terenstra and currently led by CEO Hans van Rijnswoud, Appical is an easy-to-use platform that supports employees in all phases of the employment process. Through how-to videos, gamification, quizzes, to-do lists, and documentation, new hires can prepare for their new job and employer from the moment of contract signing.
The platform also has functionalities and content to support internal mobility and offboarding. Currently, Appical has more than 360+ customers in 140+ countries. The software is available in 35 languages via mobile app and desktop is growing with 300,000+ new users annually.
Some of its clients include PepsiCo, HP, HelloFresh, NS, GGD, Amsterdam Umc, Ministry of Health, Welfare and Sport, De Rechtspraak, and the Municipality of Maastricht.
Business software and services for accounting and administration
Visma was founded in 1996 and is based in Oslo, Norway. It offers software and services that simplify and digitise business processes in the private and (semi) public sectors. For the public and non-profit sectors, the company provides solutions for improving work processes, reducing bureaucracy and simplifying collaboration.
The company’s target market includes small businesses and startups; central and local government as well as institutions and organisations providing education, welfare services, and healthcare services; non-profit and non-government organisations; large enterprises and retailers; and enterprises of all sizes looking to outsource parts of or their entire administrative processes.
The Visma Group is active throughout Scandinavia, the Benelux, and Central and Eastern Europe. With more than 14,000 employees and a net turnover of more than €1,741M in 2021, Visma claims to be one of Europe’s leading software companies.
The company’s software offering on the Dutch and Belgian market includes solutions for financial management, HRM, procurement, and e-government. Visma Benelux consists of 36 companies that all focus on mission-critical cloud software.
Aim of this acquisition
Appical’s international growth is characterised by “land and expansion”. In addition, good experiences at one department extend to other organisational units, but also to other large organisations. This strategy makes Appical Europe’s market leader in onboarding tech in 2022.
Speaking on the acquisition, CEO of Appical, Hans van Rijnswoud, says, “Visma’s products are complementary to our platform. By offering these together, we create added value for organisations in the European market. The enthusiasm, knowledge and the way in which we have been received also gives us a fantastic feeling that we can jointly support successful customers to be an attractive employer.”
As per the deal, Appical will continue to operate under its own name and with the current team as an independent part of the Visma Group. It will, however, set up partnerships with Visma companies.
John Reynders, Area Director Benelux at Visma, says, “We find ourselves in a historically tight labour market in which more and more organisations are struggling to attract and retain staff. A good onboarding experience demonstrably contributes to the retention of employees for longer. That is why we are happy and proud that Appical is joining the Visma family.”
“With this partnership, we can offer our customers the leading and most valued onboarding platform in Europe to strengthen their attractiveness as an employer. This way they are better prepared for future success. In addition, Appical is a perfect addition to our existing HR cloud applications,” adds Reynders.
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