FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Storecove Establishes Australian Presence to Provide e-Invoicing Solutions for Australia, New Zealand and Singapore
Acquires Squirrel Street’s e-invoicing business and appoints Simon Foster as APAC general manager
SYDNEY, Australia, 4 November 2019 – Storecove, a SaaS e-invoicing solution provider based in The Netherlands, has established its Asia-Pacific presence with the successful acquisition of Squirrel Street’s e-invoicing business. Initially based in Australia, the company plans to set up Singapore as its Asia-Pacific centre of operations and is expected to announce its first major customers in Australia, New Zealand and Singapore within the next month.
The acquisition was formalised on 18 October with Squirrel Street completing the sale by sending Storecove the world’s first Peppol e-invoice using the Australia and New Zealand specification which was released only hours beforehand. The financial terms of the acquisition have not been disclosed.
Storecove has also announced the appointment of Squirrel Street’s founder and CEO, Simon Foster as Storecove’s APAC general manager.
Foster is an Australian technology entrepreneur with more than two decades’ experience working for early stage and high growth technology startups, mid-size enterprises and multi-nationals across Australia, Europe, Asia and North America. He founded Squirrel Street (formerly Shoeboxed Australia) in 2010, and is also the Vice President and e-Invoicing Lead of ABSIA – Australian Business Software Industry Association, and the NSW chair of the Pearcey Foundation. Squirrel Street will continue to operate its core Receipt & Invoice Management solution, with Foster retaining a seat on the board.
Storecove’s e-invoicing solutions are used widely by companies, service providers and government agencies across the European Union, with the EU mandating the use of e-invoicing between government contracting authorities and their suppliers, and encouraging its broader use more generally across businesses in the EU. The e-invoicing standard adopted by the EU –Peppol – has also been adopted by both the Australian and New Zealand Governments as part of a trans-Tasman agreement to create an interoperability framework for e-invoicing that will increase opportunities for ANZ businesses to integrate with the global trading environment. The Australian Government estimates that with 1.2 billion invoices exchanged in Australia each year, the adoption of e-invoicing will generate savings to the economy of $28 billion over 10 years.
“The Australian Tax Office has identified a number of key benefits from e-invoicing. For small to medium businesses, the biggest benefit will be reduced payment times and improved cash flow, especially with Federal and State Governments committing to faster payment terms for supplier invoices under $1 million from the start of 2020. Organisations are also expected to save up to 70% on invoice processing costs for e-invoicing compared to paper or PDF invoices,” says Foster.
Singapore adopted the Peppol e-invoicing standard in early 2019, and is currently in negotiations with Australia to facilitate digital trade through cross-border e-invoicing and other digital initiatives under the Australia and Singapore Digital Economy Agreement.
For more information on e-invoicing in relation to the Australian, New Zealand or Singaporean Governments, go to:
https://www.ato.gov.au/Business/E-invoicing/
https://www.nzbn.govt.nz/using-the-nzbn/e-invoicing/
https://www2.imda.gov.sg/einvoice
About Storecove
Storecove helps thousands of companies with faster and more efficient invoicing. As a fully AS4 compliant Peppol Access Point, Storecove connects large companies and ERP systems to the Peppol network. Companies choose Storecove for its unique global invoice format conversion and delivery. One connection, global connectivity.
For more information, please visit www.storecove.com.
