Peter Thiel Invests Big in POS Software Provider Vend

New Zealand point of sale, cloud-based software provider Vend has new investors – Peter Thiel, the PayPal cofounder and the first outside investor in Facebook, is among a group that has agreed to invest US$20 million in the company.

Thiel’s Valar Ventures and Australian VC firm Square Peg Capital are the co-lead investors of the latest round of financing for Vend, which has already received NZ$11 million in outside funding in previous years.

“The best tech companies are those that enable you to do more with less,” Thiel said. “Vend’s powerful software is poised to enable millions of small and medium-sized businesses to focus less on paperwork and more on bringing better products and services to their customers.”

Vend, whose software is used by more than 10,000 store owners in more than 100 countries, said the new round of financing will be used to expand its channel of reseller partners and to secure more industry partners.

The Auckland-based company’s current business relationships include payments platform PayPal, online accounting firm Xero, inventory management company Stitchlabs and Swarm, an in-store customer analytics business.

Original article by Brett Cole, The Australian, March 26, 2014.

Photo by Vend.