Lightspeed (company)

Lightspeed Commerce is a point-of-sale and e-commerce software provider based in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. It was founded in 2005 by Dax da Silva who served as the CEO of the company until February 2, 2022.[3] It has offices in Montreal, New York, Ottawa, Toronto, London, Belfast, Amsterdam, Berlin, Geneva, Ghent and Melbourne. It offers its services to retail, restaurant, and hospitality businesses.[4][5][6][7]

Lightspeed Commerce Inc.
TypePublic
Industry
Founded2005 (2005)
FounderDax da Silva
Headquarters
Montreal, Quebec, Canada
Products
  • Lightspeed Retail
  • Lightspeed eCommerce
  • Lightspeed OnSite
  • Lightspeed Restaurant
RevenueIncrease US$548 million (2022)
Decrease US$−318 million (2022)
Decrease US$−288 million (2022)
Total assetsIncrease US$3.62 billion (2022)
Total equityIncrease US$3.40 billion (2022)
Number of employees
c. 3,000 (March 2022)
Websitewww.lightspeedhq.com
Footnotes / references
[1][2]

History

Lightspeed was founded by Dax da Silva in 2005, with its headquarters in Montreal, to provide point-of-sale and e-commerce software to retail businesses. In 2014, it expanded its customer base to include the hospitality industry.[4][5] It has its offices in Montreal, New York, Ottawa, Toronto, London, Paris, Belfast, Amsterdam, Berlin, Geneva, Ghent and Melbourne.[8][5] The company is backed by iNovia Capital and Accel Partners.[4][6][7] Profit has ranked Lightspeed 24th in 2011 and 61st in 2012 on its list of "Canada's 200 fastest growing companies".[9]

Accel Partners led a $30 million investment round in 2012 and from 2012 to 2013, the company observed a 120% growth in annual transactions. It acquired MerchantOS, point-of-sale software developer, and Lightspeed Retail, an HTML5 web-based product that can be used from any computer in 2013. Lightspeed's customers processed $7.5 billion in 2013. At the time, the company had more than 15,000 store locations.[9][8][10][11][12]

On June 18, 2014, the company added Advanced Analytics to Lightspeed Retail's feature roster. In September, Lightspeed closed a $35 million investment round led by iNovia Capital. The same year, it expanded its reach into the restaurant and hospitality industry in 2014 by the Belgian startup POSIOS. Lightspeed was serving 21,000 businesses and its per year transactions increased from $6 billion to $8.2 billion.[13][5][14][15]

The next year, its client base increased to 23,000 businesses in more than 30 countries. In September 2015, Lightspeed closed a $61 million Series C round of funding led by Caisse de dépôt et placement du Québec and Investissement Québec, with participation from earlier investors Accel Partners and iNovia. The next month Lightspeed acquired Amsterdam-based eCommerce software developer SEOShop and announced that it would be expanding its product offering to serve both brick-and-mortar and online retailers. SEOShop's eCommerce platform was rebranded as Lightspeed eCom and further refined to offer complete integration with the company's retail POS software.[13][16][17][18]

In October 2017, Lightspeed POS Inc. raised about C$200 million ($160 million) in a new round of venture-capital funding.[19]

In April 2018, Lightspeed added Patrick Pichette, the former chief financial officer at Google, Paul McFeeters, the former chief financial officer of OpenText to its board of Directors. Lightspeed POS, Inc. Lightspeed unveiled Retail Success Index Tool in October. Later that year, the company announced Lightspeed Loyalty, a platform for customer engagement. The technology was a result of the company's acquisition of Toronto-based ReUp, a digital platform that allows business owners to build a branded loyalty program.[20][21][22]

On January 30, 2019, Lightspeed Payments rolled out.[23] In March, the company went public on the Toronto Stock Exchange under the symbol LSPD.[24]

In November 2020, Lightspeed acquired ShopKeep for US$440 million.[25][26]

On March 12, 2021, New Zealand cloud-based retail software company Vend was bought by Lightspeed for US$350 million.[27]

In fiscal 2022, the company generated revenue of US$548 million with US$3.62 billion in total assets[1]: 5–6  and had about 3,000 employees.[28]

Criticism

On September 29 2021, short seller Spruce Point Capital Management publicly accused Lightspeed of exaggerating its finances to investors. The stock fell 11% following the firm's report, closing at $126 a share on the Toronto Stock Exchange. The firm alleged that Lightspeed has covered up "massive inflation" of how many customers it has, how much money it makes from them and how much growth potential it has. Spruce Point argued that the company is massively overvalued and is poised to plummet to as low as $22 a share.[29]

Following Spruce Point's report, Lightspeed released a statement saying, "The report contains numerous important inaccuracies and mischaracterizations which Lightspeed believes are misleading and clearly intended to benefit Spruce Point, which itself has disclosed that it stands to profit in the event that the stock price of Lightspeed declines."[30]

References
  1. "Lightspeed Commerce Inc. Consolidated Financial Statements". U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. 19 May 2022. Archived from the original on 5 July 2022. Retrieved 17 August 2022.
  2. "Lightspeed Commerce Inc. Annual Information Form". U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. 19 May 2022. Archived from the original on 5 July 2022. Retrieved 5 July 2022.
  3. "Lightspeed Founder Dasilva Steps Down; Chauvet Rises to CEO". Bloomberg News. 2 February 2022. Archived from the original on 2022-02-04. Retrieved 2022-02-04.
  4. "Retail Software Startup LightSpeed Now Caters For Restaurants After Buying Belgian Startup POSIOS". TechCrunch. Retrieved 2020-07-09.
  5. "LightSpeed Retail Expands Into Restaurant Industry With Acquisition of Belgium's POSIOS". Cantech Letter. 2014-10-22. Archived from the original on 2020-07-09. Retrieved 2020-07-09.
  6. Meyers, Tracey (2017-10-18). "Lightspeed Closes $166 Million Series D Round Investment". WWD. Archived from the original on 2020-07-11. Retrieved 2020-07-09.
  7. Nisen, Max. "LightSpeed Is Helping Stores Kill Off 'Showrooming' For Good". Business Insider. Archived from the original on 2020-07-09. Retrieved 2020-07-09.
  8. De Vynck, Gerrit (2014-11-17). "LightSpeed Plans Payments System With $35 Million Funding". www.bloomberg.com. Archived from the original on 2021-10-29. Retrieved 2020-08-30.
  9. Dobby, Christine (12 June 2012). "LightSpeed secures US$30-million from Accel". Financial Post. Archived from the original on 2020-09-25. Retrieved 2020-08-18.
  10. "Stores using LightSpeed processed $6B in transactions last year". VentureBeat. 2014-01-13. Archived from the original on 2021-01-27. Retrieved 2020-08-18.
  11. "Room At The Top: How LightSpeed Retail Became a Dominant Player in Mobile POS". Cantech Letter. 2014-06-11. Archived from the original on 2020-07-11. Retrieved 2020-08-18.
  12. "Accel Invests $30M in LightSpeed, and the Top VC Was the One Doing the Wooing". Pando. 2012-06-12. Archived from the original on 2021-01-05. Retrieved 2020-08-18.
  13. "Retail Software Startup LightSpeed Now Caters For Restaurants After Buying Belgian Startup POSIOS". TechCrunch. Retrieved 2020-08-18.
  14. "Montreal's Lightspeed Retail Adds Big Data Analytics to Its Cloud-Based POS System | BetaKit". 2014-06-18. Archived from the original on 2020-08-04. Retrieved 2020-08-18.
  15. "LightSpeed raises $35M, debuts new payments platform". VatorNews. 2014-09-17. Archived from the original on 2021-01-23. Retrieved 2020-08-18.
  16. "Montreal's Lightspeed to cash in on changes to outdated U.S. card security". Archived from the original on 2020-08-13. Retrieved 2020-08-18.
  17. "Montreal's Lightspeed launches eCom platform for North American market". Cantech Letter. 2016-03-09. Archived from the original on 2021-01-21. Retrieved 2020-08-18.
  18. "Retail Software Maker Lightspeed POS Acquires SEOshop For E-Commerce Push". TechCrunch. Archived from the original on 2022-08-17. Retrieved 2020-08-18.
  19. George-Cosh, David (2017-10-17). "Lightspeed POS Receives Among the Largest Investments for a Canadian Startup". Wall Street Journal. ISSN 0099-9660. Archived from the original on 2020-11-11. Retrieved 2020-08-18.
  20. "Former Google, OpenText CFOs join Lightspeed's board | BetaKit". 2018-11-12. Archived from the original on 2020-08-11. Retrieved 2020-08-18.
  21. "Lightspeed Unveils Revolutionary 'Retail Success Index' Educational Tool". RETAIL INSIDER. 16 October 2018. Archived from the original on 2021-10-17. Retrieved 2020-08-18.
  22. "Lightspeed acquires ReUp, rebrands it to Lightspeed Loyalty | BetaKit". 2018-12-14. Archived from the original on 2020-09-29. Retrieved 2020-08-18.
  23. "With eyes on an IPO, Montreal's Lightspeed POS launches its payments system". Archived from the original on 2020-08-03. Retrieved 2020-08-18.
  24. "Lightspeed shares surge after TSX IPO | BetaKit". 2019-03-11. Archived from the original on 2020-08-13. Retrieved 2020-08-18.
  25. Gagliordi, Natalie (5 November 2020). "Lightspeed to acquire point of sale rival ShopKeep for $440 million". ZDNet. Archived from the original on 10 August 2022. Retrieved 10 August 2022.
  26. Simpson, Meagan (5 November 2020). "Lightspeed to acquire ShopKeep for $440 million USD, reports strong Q2 results". betakit.com. Archived from the original on 16 August 2021. Retrieved 10 August 2022.
  27. "NZ retail software company Vend sold for $350m". NZ Herald. Archived from the original on 2021-03-11. Retrieved 2021-03-12.
  28. Silcoff, Sean (2022-08-04). "Lightspeed in hiring, not firing mode as it posts better-than-expected earnings and holds guidance". The Globe and Mail. Archived from the original on 2022-08-10. Retrieved 2022-08-10.
  29. "Canadian tech firm Lightspeed walloped by short-seller attack". CBC. Archived from the original on 2021-10-05. Retrieved 2021-10-05.
  30. "Lightspeed responds to short-seller attack that caused stock to drop". Yahoo! Finance. 30 September 2021. Archived from the original on 2021-10-05. Retrieved 2021-10-05.
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