Filed Pursuant to Rule 424(b)(4)
Registration No. 333-259101

Prospectus

14,550,000 shares

 

 

Common stock

This is an initial public offering of the common stock of EngageSmart, Inc. We are offering 13,000,000 shares of our common stock, and the selling stockholders named in this prospectus are offering 1,550,000 shares of our common stock.

The public offering price of our shares is $26.00 per share. We have been approved to list our common stock on the New York Stock Exchange (the “NYSE”) under the symbol “ESMT.”

 

		Per Share				Total
Public offering price		$	26.00			$	378,300,000
Underwriting discounts and commissions(1)		$	1.625			$	23,643,750
Proceeds, before expenses, to us		$	24.375			$	316,875,000
Proceeds, before expenses, to the selling stockholders		$	24.375			$	37,781,250

(1)

See “Underwriting” for additional information regarding compensation payable to the underwriters.

At our request, the underwriters have reserved up to five percent of the shares of common stock offered by this prospectus for sale, at the initial public offering price, to certain persons associated with us. See “Underwriting—Directed share program.”

We and the selling stockholders have granted the underwriters an option for a period of 30 days to purchase up to an additional 620,054 and 1,562,446 of shares of our common stock, respectively, at the initial public offering price less underwriting discounts and commissions. We will not receive any proceeds from the sale of shares of our common stock offered by the selling stockholders, including upon the sale of shares of our common by the selling stockholders if the underwriters exercise their option.

Certain entities affiliated with Dragoneer Investment Group, LLC, which we refer to as the cornerstone investors, have indicated an interest in purchasing up to an aggregate of 2.1 million shares, or approximately $50.4 million, of our common stock in this offering at the initial public offering price. Because these indications of interest are not binding agreements or commitments to purchase, the cornerstone investors may decide to purchase more, fewer or no shares of our common stock in this offering, or the underwriters may decide to sell more, fewer or no shares of our common stock in this offering to the cornerstone investors. The underwriters will receive the same discount from any shares of common stock sold to the cornerstone investors as they will from any other shares of common stock sold to the public in this offering.

Investing in our common stock involves high degree of risk. See the “Risk factors” section beginning on page 19 of this prospectus for factors you should consider before investing in our common stock.

Neither the Securities and Exchange Commission nor any state securities commission has approved, or disapproved of these securities or passed upon the adequacy or accuracy of this prospectus. Any representation to the contrary is a criminal offense.

Upon completion of this offering, we will be a “controlled company” as defined under the corporate governance rules of the NYSE. We are an “emerging growth company” as defined under the federal securities laws and, as such, have elected to comply with certain reduced public company reporting requirements for this prospectus and future filings.

The underwriters expect to deliver shares of our common stock against payment in New York, New York on September 27, 2021.

 

J.P. Morgan		Goldman Sachs & Co. LLC		BofA Securities		Citigroup

Deutsche Bank Securities		Raymond James		Truist Securities		William Blair

KeyBanc Capital Markets		Needham & Company		Penserra Securities LLC		Roberts & Ryan		R. Seelaus & Co., LLC

September 22, 2021.

 

 

 

 

Letter from Bob Bennett, Founder and CEO

“This shouldn’t be that hard.”

I have come back to this phrase time and time again over my career as an entrepreneur and CEO.

Prior to founding EngageSmart, I spent several years growing an electronic payments company. While electronic payment technology was already available, it seemed more difficult to use than it should have been. We delivered some great innovations at that company to address this problem, delighting end-users and creating highly attractive returns for our shareholders along the way.

Similarly, it was my personal experience and frustration around paying a utility bill that sparked our journey at EngageSmart. The simple premise that going paperless and paying a bill online “shouldn’t be that hard” led my co-founders and me to launch InvoiceCloud, the predecessor to EngageSmart. I believed that technology and innovation could be employed once again to simplify and streamline the bill payment process.

Over the past twelve years, we found many other “this shouldn’t be that hard” opportunities, such as scheduling a therapy appointment, opting for paperless billing, managing an insurance claim, making a charitable donation, and paying a medical bill. These are common tasks that we believe should be easy to perform in today’s world, but they have not been digitized at the rate of other common consumer experiences. At EngageSmart, our mission is to simplify customer and client engagement to allow our customers to focus their time and energy on initiatives that improve their businesses and better serve their communities. By delivering innovative solutions that meet today’s needs, and are continuously enhanced to meet future demands, EngageSmart enjoys a very big market opportunity with significant tailwinds.

Commercial and non-profit organizations like the ones we serve lack the expertise and resources to create their own digital user experiences. They instead rely on manual processes, or third-party software designed for a different era, to manage their client interactions. EngageSmart solutions are true SaaS, meaning they are single instance, multi-tenant software products. So when a new feature, such as pay by text, is introduced, all customers immediately and simultaneously receive the enhancement. No downloads, no uploads, no patches. It is like having a vehicle in your driveway that is regularly upgraded while you sleep.

With conviction that in life and business, you are declining if you are not growing, we have made organic growth our passion at EngageSmart. Our team has been motivated by growth from day one – personal and professional growth, growth for customers, employees, partners, shareholders, and organic growth for our business. We have intentionally chosen our end markets, our true SaaS architecture, our people, and our organizational structure with long-term growth in mind.

I am a serial entrepreneur who has been leading companies for the past thirty years. I love it! As a “math major,” I think in terms of problem-solving and building foundations that drive continuous improvement and sustained organic growth. At EngageSmart, our success is built on three key foundational principles: People, Product and Partnership.

People

We are a people-first organization, and this extends beyond employees to include our customers, their clients, our partners, and our investors. Their opinions, needs, and aspirations drive us, and we strive to respond with transparency and a sense of urgency. We promote a customer-first organizational model that places customers at the top of our organizational chart, as shown below.

 

 

All employees have the primary role of removing barriers for those above them, especially customers.

I am, quite happily and appropriately, at the very bottom of our company’s organization.

Good companies have good people, but it takes great people to make a great company. We are still in the early days of our journey, but we understand how to recruit, retain, and develop great people — this is the key to our success.

Product

We believe that the best product wins, and we are motivated by the ongoing pursuit of innovation and market leadership. Our software is mission critical for our customers and therefore difficult to replace, resulting in very high customer retention. While some software offerings grow complacent in this position, our collective competitive spirit drives us to constantly invest in our solutions and deepen the value they deliver.

For our InvoiceCloud product, this has meant steadily improving end-user digital adoption by expanding payment types, ongoing optimization of UI/UX, and deeper integrations with our software partners. At SimplePractice, we have seamlessly incorporated telehealth into the software (well before COVID-19), introduced features such as a professional website builder and continuing education opportunities, and launched Monarch, a marketplace for connecting our clinicians to therapy seekers. These are just a few examples, and the journey never ends.

It is worth reemphasizing that this ongoing innovation — and allowing all customers to benefit from it in real time — is driven by our true SaaS architecture, which we view as a key differentiator in our markets.

Partnership

At EngageSmart, we recognize that our solutions operate within an ecosystem, and we view all participants in this ecosystem as our partners. This includes our customers, the adjacent software and service providers they may use, and their clients. By viewing these constituents as partners and treating them as such, we accrue the benefit of focused product feedback and enhanced distribution, which have helped drive our organic growth.

Our view of partnership also extends to our customers’ communities, where we hope to make an impact through engagement. Our customers play an incredibly important role in their communities by serving a wide variety of wellness seekers (mental and physical health), non-profits, taxpayers, utility customers, financial service consumers, and medical patients. We are proud of the small part we play in these communities by providing solutions that are easy to deploy and use, that address their unique functional requirements, and that turn complex processes like payments and self-service into engaging digital experiences.

Our success is a direct reflection of the success of our customers, partners, investors, and employees and I greatly appreciate their incredibly strong contributions to our growth, and their selfless support of our customers’ communities.

We have had a blast growing our company and believe we have just scratched the surface of our opportunity. Shareholders can expect us to continue our relentless focus on people, product, and partnership to drive growth. We invite you to join us as investors who love to grow and help our communities at the same time. I hope that you enjoy our story and we look forward to having you participate as we write our next chapter!

Sincerely,

Bob Bennett

Table of contents

 

		Page
Market and industry data			iii
Trademarks, service marks, and trade names			iii
Basis of presentation			iii
Prospectus summary			1
Risk factors			19
Use of proceeds			78
Dividend policy			79
Capitalization			80
Dilution			82
Corporate Conversion			84
Management’s discussion and analysis of financial condition and results of operations			85
Business			110
Management			135
Executive and director compensation			142
Certain relationships and related party transactions			157
Principal and selling stockholders			161
Description of capital stock			165
Description of indebtedness			172
Shares eligible for future sale			175
Material U.S. federal income tax consequences to non-U.S. holders			178
Underwriting			183
Legal matters			193
Experts			193
Where you can find more information			193
Cautionary note regarding forward-looking statements			194
Index to financial statements			F-1

 

 

Neither we, the selling stockholders, nor the underwriters have authorized anyone to provide any information or to make any representations other than those contained in this prospectus or in any free writing prospectuses we have prepared or that have been prepared on our behalf, or to which we have referred you. We, the selling stockholders and the underwriters take no responsibility for, and can provide no assurance as to the reliability of, any other information that others may give you. This prospectus is an offer to sell only the shares offered by this prospectus, but only under circumstances and in jurisdictions where it is lawful to do so. The information contained in this prospectus is current only as of its date. Our business, financial condition, results of operations and prospects may have changed since that date.

 

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For investors outside the United States: Neither we, the selling stockholders, nor the underwriters have done anything that would permit this offering or possession or distribution of this prospectus in any jurisdiction where action for that purpose is required, other than in the United States. Persons outside of the United States who come into possession of this prospectus must inform themselves about, and observe any restrictions relating to, the offering of the shares of our common stock and the distribution of this prospectus outside of the United States.

Through and including October 17, 2021 (the 25th day after the commencement of this offering), all dealers that buy, sell or trade shares of our common stock, whether or not participating in this offering, may be required to deliver a prospectus. This delivery requirement is in addition to the dealers’ obligation to deliver a prospectus when acting as underwriters and with respect to their unsold allotments or subscriptions.

 

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Market and industry data

Unless otherwise indicated, information contained in this prospectus concerning our industry, competitive position and the markets in which we operate is based on information from independent industry and research organizations, other third-party sources and management estimates. Management estimates are derived from publicly available information released by independent industry analysts and other third-party sources, as well as data from our internal research, and are based on assumptions made by us upon reviewing such data, and our experience in, and knowledge of, such industry and markets, which we believe to be reasonable. In presenting this information, we have made certain assumptions that we believe to be reasonable based on such data and other similar sources and on our knowledge of, and our experience to date in, the markets in which we operate. While we believe the market and industry data included in this prospectus and upon which the management estimates included herein are in part based are generally reliable, such information, is inherently uncertain and imprecise, and you are cautioned not to give undue weight to such data or the management estimates based on such data. Market and industry data are subject to change and may be limited by the availability of raw data, the voluntary nature of the data gathering process and other limitations inherent in any statistical survey of such data. Certain of these publications, studies and reports were published before the COVID-19 pandemic and therefore do not reflect any impact of COVID-19 on any specific market or globally. In addition, projections, assumptions and estimates of the future performance of the markets in which we operate and our future performance are necessarily subject to uncertainty and risk due to a variety of factors, including those described in “Risk factors” and “Cautionary note regarding forward-looking statements.” These and other factors could cause results to differ materially from those expressed in the estimates made by third parties and by us. Accordingly, you are cautioned not to place undue reliance on such market and industry data or any other such estimates. The content of, or accessibility through, the sources and websites identified herein, except to the extent specifically set forth in this prospectus, does not constitute a portion of this prospectus and is not incorporated herein, and any websites are an inactive textual reference only. In addition, references to the third-party publications and research reports named above are not intended to imply, and should not be construed to imply, a relationship with, or endorsement of us by, the third-party producing any such publication or report.

Trademarks, service marks, and trade names

This prospectus includes our trademarks, service marks, and trade names, including but not limited to EngageSmart, InvoiceCloud, SimplePractice, HealthPay24 and DonorDrive, and our logo, which are protected under applicable intellectual property laws. This prospectus also contains trademarks, service marks, and trade names of other companies, which are the property of their respective owners. We do not intend our use or display of other parties’ trademarks, service marks, or trade names to imply, and such use or display should not be construed to imply, a relationship with, or endorsement or sponsorship of us by, these other parties. Solely for convenience, trademarks, service marks, and trade names referred to in this prospectus may appear without the ^® , ^™, or SM symbols, but such references are not intended to indicate, in any way, that we will not assert, to the fullest extent permitted under applicable law, our rights or the right of the applicable licensor to these trademarks, service marks, and trade names.

Basis of presentation

The consolidated financial statements include the accounts of EngageSmart, LLC, which is treated as a corporation for U.S. federal tax purposes, and its subsidiaries. Immediately prior to the effectiveness of the registration statement of which this prospectus forms a part, EngageSmart, LLC converted into a Delaware corporation pursuant to a statutory conversion, and changed its name to EngageSmart, Inc. All holders of

 

iii

shares of common stock of EngageSmart, LLC (“LLC Shares”) became holders of shares of common stock of EngageSmart, Inc., as described under the heading “Corporate Conversion.” In this prospectus, we refer to all transactions related to our conversion to a corporation as the “Corporate Conversion.” We expect that the Corporate Conversion will not have a material effect on our consolidated financial statements.

Presentation of financial information

EngageSmart, LLC, which is now EngageSmart, Inc. due to the Corporate Conversion, was formed on December 7, 2018 as Hancock Parent, LLC and is a holding company with no material operating assets or operations. On December 11, 2018, EngageSmart, LLC entered a series of arrangements to indirectly acquire (the “InvoiceCloud Acquisition”), through its wholly-owned subsidiary Hancock Midco, LLC, 100% of the equity interest in Invoice Cloud, Inc. On February 11, 2019, Hancock Merger Sub, Inc., a transitory merger company of Hancock Midco, LLC, merged into InvoiceCloud, with InvoiceCloud continuing as the surviving corporation and a wholly-owned subsidiary of Hancock Midco, LLC. For all of the periods reported in these consolidated financial statements, we have not and do not have any material operations on a standalone basis, and all of our material operations are carried out by our subsidiaries.

As a result of the InvoiceCloud Acquisition, this prospectus presents certain financial information for two periods, the Predecessor and Successor periods, which relate to the period preceding the Acquisition on February 11, 2019 and the period succeeding the Acquisition, respectively. References to the “Successor 2019 Period” refer to the period from February 11, 2019 to December 31, 2019, and references to the “Predecessor 2019 Period” refer to the period from January 1, 2019 to February 10, 2019. Financial information in the Predecessor 2019 Period principally relates to Invoice Cloud, Inc. and its subsidiaries.

Certain monetary amounts, percentages and other figures included in this prospectus have been subject to rounding adjustments. Accordingly, figures shown as totals in certain tables or charts and figures expressed as percentages in the text may not total 100% or, as applicable, when aggregated may not be the arithmetic aggregation of the percentages that precede them.

Non-GAAP measures and other data

Our consolidated financial statements and the other financial data included in this prospectus have been prepared in a manner that complies with generally accepted accounting principles in the United States (“GAAP”) and the regulations published by the Securities and Exchange Commission (“SEC”). However, we use Adjusted EBITDA, Adjusted EBITDA Margin and Adjusted Gross Margin as described in “Prospectus summary—Summary consolidated financial and operating information,” in various places in this prospectus. These non-GAAP financial measures are presented as supplemental disclosure and should not be considered in isolation from, or as a substitute for, the financial information prepared in accordance with GAAP, and should be read in conjunction with the consolidated financial statements included elsewhere in this prospectus. Adjusted EBITDA, Adjusted EBITDA Margin and Adjusted Gross Margin may differ from similarly titled measures presented by other companies.

See “Prospectus summary—Summary consolidated financial and operating information” for a reconciliation of these non-GAAP financial measures to their most directly comparable financial measure calculated in accordance with GAAP, and a discussion of our management’s use of Adjusted EBITDA, Adjusted EBITDA Margin and Adjusted Gross Margin.

Throughout this prospectus, we also provide a number of key business metrics used by management and sometimes used by others in our industry. These and other key business metrics are discussed in more detail in the section titled “Management’s discussion and analysis of financial condition and results of operations.”

 

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Certain definitions

As used in this prospectus, unless the context otherwise requires:

 

•

“EngageSmart,” “we,” “us,” “our,” “our company,” “Company,” and “our business” refer, prior to the Corporate Conversion discussed herein, to EngageSmart, LLC, and after the Corporate Conversion, to EngageSmart, Inc.

 

•

“client” refers to individuals or entities that purchase goods or services from our customers.

 

•

“customer” refers to individuals or entities with whom we directly contract to use our solutions.

 

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“Dollar-based net retention rate” is calculated as of the end of a given period by using (a) the revenue from all customers during the twelve months ending one year prior to such period as the denominator and (b) the revenue from all remaining customers during the twelve months ending as of the end of such period minus the revenue from all customers who are new customers during those twelve months as the numerator. We define new customers as customers with whom we have generated less than twelve months of revenue. Acquired businesses are reflected in our dollar-based net retention rate beginning one year following the date of acquisition.

 

•

“Enterprise Solutions” refers to InvoiceCloud, HealthPay24 and DonorDrive solutions and the respective vertical markets and customers each such solution serves. Our Enterprise Solutions are characterized by their go-to-market strategy, as described in “Business—Our go-to-market strategy.”

 

•

“NPS” refers to net promoter score, which can range from a low of negative 100 to a high of positive 100. NPS benchmarks can vary significantly by industry, but a score greater than zero represents a company that has more promoters than detractors.

For EngageSmart employees, NPS reflects employee responses to the following question—“How likely are you to recommend EngageSmart to a friend or colleague?” Responses of 9 or 10 are considered “promoters,” responses of 7 or 8 are considered neutral or “passives,” and responses of 6 or less are considered “detractors.” We then subtract the number of respondents who are detractors from the number of respondents who are promoters, divide that number by the total number of respondents, and then multiply the resulting figure by 100. Our methodology for calculating NPS reflects responses from our employees who choose to respond to the survey question. In particular, our NPS reflects responses given to us between January 1, 2020 and December 31, 2020 and reflects a sample size of 413 responses over that period. NPS gives no weight to employees who decline to answer the survey question.

For EngageSmart customers who use our SimplePractice solution, NPS reflects customer responses to the following question—“How likely are you to recommend SimplePractice to a friend?” Responses of 9 or 10 are considered “promoters,” responses of 7 or 8 are considered neutral or “passives,” and responses of 6 or less are considered “detractors.” We then subtract the number of respondents who are detractors from the number of respondents who are promoters, divide that number by the total number of respondents, and then multiply the resulting figure by 100. Our methodology for calculating NPS reflects responses from our customers who choose to respond to the survey question. In particular, our NPS reflects responses given to us between January 1, 2020 and December 31, 2020 and reflects a sample size of 4,830 responses over that period. NPS gives no weight to customers who decline to answer the survey question.

 

•

“SMB Solutions” refers to the SimplePractice solution and the vertical market and customers such solution serves through its ecosystem of product offerings for health and wellness professionals. Our SMB Solutions are characterized by their go-to-market strategy, as described in “Business—Our go-to-market strategy.”

 

v

•

“Transactions Processed” refers to the number of accepted payment transactions, such as credit card and debit card transactions, automated clearing house (“ACH”) payments, emerging electronic payments, other communication, text messaging and interactive voice response transactions, and other payment transaction types, which are facilitated through our platform during a given period.

 

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Risk factors

Investing in our common stock involves a high degree of risk. You should consider and read carefully all of the risks and uncertainties described below, as well as other information included in this prospectus, including our consolidated financial statements and related notes appearing elsewhere in this prospectus, before making an investment decision. The risks described below are not the only ones we face. The occurrence of any of the following risks or additional risks and uncertainties not presently known to us or that we currently believe to be immaterial could materially and adversely affect our business, financial condition, or results of operations. In such case, the trading price of our common stock could decline, and you may lose some or all of your original investment.

Risks related to our business and industry

Our rapid growth may not be sustainable or indicative of our future growth.

Our recent rapid growth may not be sustainable or indicative of our future growth. Even though the number of customers who use our solutions has grown rapidly in recent years, there can be no assurance that we will be able to attract new customers or retain existing customers. Our ability to attract new customers, retain revenue from existing customers, or increase adoption of our solutions by both new and existing customers is impacted by a number of factors, including:

 

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our fees and certain of our customers’ ability to pass them on to clients;

 

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our ability to timely expand the functionality and scope of our solutions;

 

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our ability to maintain the rates at which our customers pay us and continue to use our solutions;

 

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competitive factors, including the introduction of competing solutions, discount pricing and other strategies that may be implemented by our competitors;

 

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for SimplePractice, our ability to continue to offer free trials at reasonable costs to us that attracts customers to our paid solution;

 

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our ability to recruit, retain and develop the talent needed to continue to grow the business;

 

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our ability to gain the domain knowledge in selected vertical markets needed to appropriately influence product and service roadmaps;

 

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our ability to establish and/or maintain product leadership and growth in our vertical solutions;

 

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our ability to establish and/or maintain efficient go-to-market strategies;

 

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our ability to gain and synthesize the customer feedback needed to appropriately influence product and service roadmaps;

 

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our ability to translate customer needs into working solutions that deliver enough value for customers to keep or select our solutions over competing providers;

 

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our ability to make timely delivery of solutions to customers;

 

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our ability to adequately train customers to use our solutions and enhancements to our solutions when available;

 

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our ability to maintain high-quality customer support for customers and clients;

 

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our ability to attract and retain strategic partners;

 

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our ability to expand into new industries and market segments;

 

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actual or perceived privacy or security breaches;

 

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the frequency and severity of any system outages, technological changes, or similar issues;

 

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the impact of COVID-19;

 

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our ability to successfully identify, acquire and integrate, or invest in businesses, products, or technologies that we believe could complement or expand our solutions;

 

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our ability to increase awareness of our brands and successfully compete with other companies; and

 

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our focus on long-term value over short-term results, meaning that we may make strategic decisions that may not maximize our short-term revenue or profitability if we believe that the decisions are consistent with our mission and will improve our financial performance over the long-term.

Our business could be harmed if we fail to manage our infrastructure to support future growth.

The rapid growth we have experienced in our business places significant demands on our operational infrastructure. The scalability and flexibility of our solutions depend on the functionality of our technology and network infrastructure and its ability to handle increased traffic and demand for bandwidth. The growth in the number of customers and their clients using our solutions has increased the amount of data that we process. Any problems with the transmission of increased data could result in harm to our brand or reputation. Moreover, as our business grows, we will need to devote additional resources to improving our operational infrastructure and continuing to enhance its scalability in order to maintain the performance of our solutions, including customer support, risk and compliance operations, and other SaaS solutions services. Any failure of or delay in these efforts could result in service interruptions, impaired system performance, and reduced customer and client satisfaction. If sustained or repeated, these performance issues could reduce the attractiveness of our solutions to our customers and could result in lost customer opportunities and higher attrition rates, any of which could hurt our revenue growth, customer loyalty and our reputation. Even if our efforts to scale our business are successful, they will be expensive and complex, and require the dedication of significant management time and attention. We could also face inefficiencies or service disruptions as a result of our efforts to scale our internal infrastructure. We cannot be sure that the expansion and improvements to our internal infrastructure will be effectively implemented on a timely basis, if at all, and such failures could adversely affect our business, operating results, and financial condition.

Moreover, our rapid growth has placed, and will likely continue to place, a significant strain on our managerial, administrative, operational, financial, and other resources. We grew from approximately 420 full-time employees as of December 31, 2019 to more than 690 full-time employees as of June 30, 2021. We intend to further expand our overall business, including headcount, with no assurance that our revenue will continue to grow or grow sufficiently to offset the costs associated with increased headcount. As we grow, we will be required to continue to improve our operational and financial controls and reporting procedures, and we may not be able to do so effectively. Furthermore, some members of our management do not have significant experience managing a large public company, so our management may not be able to manage such growth effectively. In managing our growing operations, we are also subject to the risks of over-hiring, over-compensating our employees, and over-expanding our operating infrastructure. As a result, we may be unable to manage our expenses effectively in the future, which may negatively impact our gross profit or operating income.

 

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In addition, we believe that an important contributor to our success has been our corporate culture, which we believe fosters innovation and is rooted in a philosophy of aligning our success with that of our customers. As a result of our rapid growth, a significant portion of our employees have been with us for fewer than three years. As we continue to grow and develop the infrastructure of a public company, we must effectively integrate, develop and motivate a growing number of new employees, who are dispersed geographically, primarily in the U.S. Our geographically dispersed workforce may make it more difficult for our management to manage our growth effectively and preserve our corporate culture. In addition, we must preserve our ability to execute quickly in further developing our solutions and implementing new features and tools. As a result, we may find it difficult to maintain our corporate culture, which could limit our ability to innovate and operate effectively. Any failure to preserve our culture could also negatively affect our ability to recruit and retain personnel, to continue to perform at current levels, or to execute our business strategy effectively and efficiently.

Our risk management efforts may not be effective to prevent fraudulent activities, which could expose us to material financial losses and liability and otherwise harm our business.

We offer solutions that, among other things, automate the entire bill payment lifecycle, providing electronic bill presentment, client engagement, and payment processing for a large number of customers and clients. For some of our solutions, we share in the responsibility of verifying the identity of our customers and monitoring transactions for fraud. We and our customers have been in the past and will continue to be targeted by parties who seek to commit acts of financial fraud using techniques such as stolen identities and bank accounts, compromised business email accounts, employee or insider fraud, account takeover, false applications, and check fraud. We have in the past, and may in the future, suffer losses from acts of financial fraud committed by or against our customers, partners, clients, employees, or other third parties.

The techniques used to attempt to perpetrate fraud through our solutions are continually evolving, and we expend considerable resources to continue to monitor and combat them. In addition, when we introduce new products and functionality, or expand existing products, we may not be able to identify all risks created by the new products or functionality. Our risk management policies, procedures, techniques, and processes may not be sufficient to identify all of the risks to which we are exposed, to enable us to prevent or mitigate the risks we have identified, or to identify additional risks to which we may become subject in the future. Furthermore, our risk management policies, procedures, techniques, and processes may contain errors, or our employees or agents may commit mistakes or errors in judgment, as a result of which we may suffer large financial losses. The software-driven and highly automated nature of our solutions could enable criminals and those committing fraud to cause significant losses to our business. As greater numbers of customers, partners, and clients use our solutions, our exposure to material risk of losses from a single user, or from a small number of users, will increase.

Our current business and anticipated growth will continue to place significant demands on our risk management efforts, and we will need to continue developing and improving our existing risk management infrastructure, policies, procedures, techniques, and processes. As techniques used to perpetrate fraud evolve, we may need to modify our solutions to mitigate fraud risks. As our business grows and becomes more complex, we may be less able to forecast and carry appropriate reserves on our books for fraud related losses. Further, these types of fraudulent activities on our solutions can also expose us to civil and criminal liability and governmental and regulatory sanctions as well as potentially cause us to be in breach of our contractual obligations to our third-party partners.

If we are unable to attract new customers or convert trial customers into paying customers, our revenue growth and operating results will be adversely affected.

To increase our revenue, we must continue to attract new customers and increase sales to those customers. As our market matures, our solutions evolve, and competitors introduce lower cost or differentiated products or services that are perceived to compete with our solutions, our ability to sell our solutions could be impaired.

 

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Similarly, our sales could be adversely affected if customers or users perceive that features incorporated into alternative products reduce the need for our solutions or if they prefer to purchase products that are bundled with offerings by other companies. Further, in an effort to attract new customers, we may offer simpler, lower-priced solutions, which may reduce our profitability.

We rely upon our marketing strategy, most significantly in our SimplePractice solution, of offering risk-free trials of our solutions, and other inbound, digital marketing strategies to generate sales opportunities. Converting these trial customers to paid customers often requires extensive follow-up and engagement. Many prospective customers never convert from the trial version of our solutions to a paid version of our solutions. Further, we often depend on individuals within an organization who initiate the trial versions of our solutions being able to convince decision makers within their organization to convert to a paid version. To the extent that these users do not become, or are unable to convince others to become, paying customers, we will not realize the intended benefits of this marketing strategy, and our ability to grow our revenue, particularly in our SMB Solutions segment, will be adversely affected. As a result of these and other factors, we may be unable to attract new customers, which would have an adverse effect on our business, revenue, gross margins, and operating results.

If we are not able to introduce new features or services successfully and to make enhancements to our solutions, our business and results of operations could be adversely affected.

Our ability to attract new customers and increase revenue from existing customers depends in part on our ability to enhance and improve our solutions and to introduce new features and services. For example, we introduced Monarch in 2021, which reinvents how clinicians connect with therapy seekers through an online marketplace. To grow our business and remain competitive, we must continue to enhance our solutions and develop features that reflect the constantly evolving nature of technology and our customers’ needs. The success of SimplePractice, InvoiceCloud, and any other solutions, products, enhancements, or developments depends on several factors: our anticipation of market changes, demands, and product features, including timely product introduction and conclusion, sufficient customer demand, cost effectiveness in our product development efforts and the proliferation of new technologies that are able to deliver competitive offerings at lower prices, more efficiently, more conveniently or more securely. In addition, because our solutions are designed to operate with a variety of systems, applications, data, and devices, we will need to continuously modify and enhance our solutions to keep pace with changes and updates in such systems. We may not be successful in developing these modifications and enhancements. Furthermore, the addition of features to our solutions will increase our research and development expenses. Any new features that we develop may not be introduced in a timely or cost-effective manner or may not achieve the market acceptance necessary to generate sufficient revenue to justify the related expenses. It is difficult to predict customer adoption of new features. Such uncertainty limits our ability to forecast our future results of operations and subjects us to several challenges, including our ability to plan for and model future growth. If we cannot address such uncertainties and successfully develop new features, enhance our solutions, or otherwise overcome technological challenges and competing technologies, our business and results of operations could be adversely affected.

We also offer certain additional services such as integration and training. If we cannot introduce new solutions or enhance our existing solutions to keep pace with changes in our customers’ deployment strategies, we may not be able to attract new customers, retain existing customers, and expand their use of our software or secure renewal contracts, which are important for the future of our business.

 

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Our business, financial condition, and results of operations depend substantially on our customers renewing their contracts for our solutions with us and expanding their use of our solutions. Any decline in our customer renewals or failure to convince our customers to broaden their use of solutions and related services would harm our business, results of operations, and financial condition.

Our solutions are term-based. In our Enterprise Solutions segment, the majority of our contracts have three-year terms, but we have many contracts which must be renewed on a quarterly basis. In our SMB Solutions segment, substantially all of our contracts must be renewed on a monthly basis. In order for us to maintain or improve our results of operations, it is important that our customers do not terminate their contracts with us, renew their contracts with us when their terms expire, and renew on the same or more favorable terms. For our transaction-based arrangements, it is important that our customers process significant volume with us. Our customers have no obligation to renew their contracts with us, and we may not be able to accurately predict customer renewal rates. In addition, the growth of our business depends in part on our customers expanding their use of solutions. Historically, some of our customers have elected not to renew their contracts with us for a variety of reasons, including as a result of changes in their strategic IT priorities, budgets, costs and, in some instances, due to competing offerings. Our renewal rates may also decline or fluctuate as a result of a number of other factors, including our customers’ satisfaction or dissatisfaction with our solutions or our pricing, the effectiveness of our customer support services, mergers and acquisitions affecting our customer base, global economic conditions, and the other risk factors described herein. Our ability to sell additional functionality to our existing customers may require more sophisticated and costly sales efforts, especially for our larger customers with more senior management and established procurement functions. As a result, we cannot assure you that customers will renew their contracts with us or increase their usage of our solutions. If our customers do not renew their contracts with us or renew on less favorable terms or if we are unable to expand our customers’ use of our solutions, our business, results of operations, and financial condition may be adversely affected.

We have incurred net losses on an annual basis since we were founded, anticipate increasing our operating expenses in the future, and may not achieve or sustain profitability.

We have incurred significant operating losses since our inception. For the Predecessor 2019 Period, Successor 2019 Period and the year ended December 31, 2020, we had net losses of $39.1 million, $14.5 million and $6.7 million, respectively, and (loss) income from operations of $(38.5) million, $(11.9) million and $0.6 million, respectively. For the six months ended June 30, 2020 and 2021, we had a net (loss) income of $(6.4) million and $0.3 million, respectively, and (loss) income from operations of $(4.0) million and $5.0 million, respectively. Our operating expenses may increase substantially in the foreseeable future as we continue to expend financial resources to grow our business, including to build new products and add features and functionality to existing products; expand our salesforce and marketing to win new customers; expand into new verticals; pursue strategic acquisitions or strategic investments; improve our technology infrastructure, including systems architecture, scalability, availability, performance and network security; comply with laws and regulations; purchase directors’ and officers’ liability insurance for public companies; and invest in general administration, including increased legal and accounting expenses associated with being a public company. The increased costs associated with these and other investments we may make in our business may fail to generate the expected benefits. If we are unable to increase our revenue at a rate sufficient to offset the expected increase in our costs, our business, operating results, and financial condition will be harmed, and we may not be able to achieve or, if achieved, maintain profitability over the long term. In particular, we expect net loss may increase and Adjusted EBITDA may decline in the near-term as we incur increased operating costs associated with being a public company.

 

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Public company operations may prove to be more expensive than we currently anticipate, and we may not succeed in increasing our revenue sufficiently to offset these higher expenses. As a result, we may need to raise additional capital through equity and debt financings in order to fund our operations. If we are unable to effectively manage these risks and difficulties as we encounter them, our business, financial condition, and results of operations may suffer and your investment may be further diluted.

If we fail to adapt and respond effectively to rapidly changing technology, evolving industry standards and regulations, and changing business needs, requirements, or preferences, our products may become less competitive, and our growth rate could decline.

The market for our solutions is relatively new and subject to ongoing technological change, evolving industry standards and payment methods, shifting laws and regulations, and changing customer and client needs, requirements, and preferences. The success of our business will depend, in part, on our ability to adapt and respond effectively to these changes on a timely basis, including launching new solutions. The success of any new solutions, or any enhancements or modifications to existing solutions, depends on several factors, including the timely completion, introduction, and market acceptance of such solutions, enhancements, and modifications. If we are unable to enhance our solutions or develop new solutions that keep pace with technological and regulatory change and achieve market acceptance, or if new technologies emerge that are able to deliver competitive solutions at lower prices, more efficiently, more conveniently or more securely than our products, our business, operating results and financial condition would be adversely affected. Moreover, we may experience delays in the development and introduction of new solutions due to the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic. Furthermore, modifications to our existing solutions or technology will increase our research and development expenses. Any of the foregoing could reduce the demand for our services, result in customer, partner and client dissatisfaction and adversely affect our business.

Real or perceived errors, failures or bugs in our solutions could adversely affect our business, results of operations, financial condition, and growth prospects.

Our solutions are complex, and therefore, undetected errors, failures or bugs have occurred in the past and may occur in the future. Our solutions are used in IT environments with different operating systems, system management software, applications, devices, databases, servers, storage, middleware, custom and third-party applications and equipment and networking configurations, which has in the past caused, and may in the future cause, errors or failures in the IT environment into which our solutions are deployed. This diversity increases the likelihood of errors or failures in those IT environments. Despite testing by us, real or perceived errors, failures or bugs may not be found until our customers use our solutions. Real or perceived errors, failures or bugs in our products could result in negative publicity, loss of or delay in market acceptance of our solutions and harm our brand, weakening of our competitive position, claims by customers for losses sustained by them or failure to meet the stated service level commitments in our customer agreements. In such an event, we may be required, or may choose (and have in the past chosen), for customer relations or other reasons, to expend significant additional resources in order to help correct the problem. Any errors, failures or bugs in our software could impair our ability to attract new customers, retain existing customers or expand their use of our software, which would adversely affect our business, results of operations and financial condition.

We may face intense competition, which could limit our ability to maintain or expand market share within our industry, and if we do not maintain or expand our market share our business, financial condition, and operating results will be harmed.

We may face intense competition, which could limit our ability to maintain or expand market share within our industry, and if we do not maintain or expand our market share our business, financial condition, and operating results will be harmed. The market for vertically-tailored, customer engagement software and integrated

 

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payments is highly fragmented. We primarily compete with manual processes, point solution vendors, and legacy and modern solution providers. As costs fall and technology improves, increased market saturation may change the competitive landscape in favor of competitors with greater scale than we currently possess.

For our SimplePractice solution, we primarily compete against pen and paper, point solution vendors, and a number of horizontal and vertically-specialized solutions, including practice management software providers. For our solutions in our Enterprise Solutions segment, we primarily compete against bill presentment and payment systems internally developed by financial institutions, as well as legacy and modern solution providers. Some of our competitors have greater name recognition, longer operating histories and significantly greater resources than we do. As a result, our competitors may be able to respond more quickly and effectively than we can to new or changing opportunities, technologies, standards, or customer requirements. In addition, current and potential competitors have established, and may in the future establish, cooperative relationships with vendors of complementary products, technologies or services to increase the availability of their products to the marketplace. Accordingly, new competitors or alliances may emerge that have greater market share, larger customer bases, more widely adopted proprietary technologies, greater marketing expertise, greater financial resources and larger sales forces than we have, which could put us at a competitive disadvantage.

Further, in light of these advantages, even if our solutions are more effective than the offerings of our competitors, current or potential customers might accept our competitors’ offerings in lieu of purchasing our solutions.

We also compete on the basis of price. We may be subject to pricing pressures as a result of, among other things, competition within the industry, consolidation of our customers, government action, and financial stress experienced by our customers. If our pricing experiences significant downward pressure or clients acquire or develop competing solutions and services, our business will be less profitable and our results of operations will be adversely affected.

We cannot be certain that we will be able to retain our current customers or expand our customer base in this competitive environment. If we do not retain current customers or expand our customer base, or if we have to renegotiate existing contracts, our business, financial condition, and results of operations will be harmed. If one or more of our competitors or potential competitors were to merge or partner with another of our competitors, the change in the competitive landscape could also adversely affect our ability to compete effectively and could harm our business, financial condition, and results of operations.

If we are unsuccessful in establishing, growing or maintaining strategic partnerships, our ability to compete could be impaired, and our operating results may suffer.

We rely on integration of our various solutions into third-party software products, including customer information systems, enterprise risk management systems and accounting systems, which enables us to power such software products’ capabilities. We also rely on strategic partnerships to refer new customers to our solutions in our Enterprise Solutions segment, where we rely on a few strategic partners to help us generate a significant portion of the revenue for certain of our solutions. Although our relationships with strategic partners are independent of one another, if our reputation in the industries in which we operate were to suffer, or if we were unable to establish relationships with new strategic partners and grow our relationships with existing strategic partners, our growth prospects would weaken and our business, financial position, and operating results may be adversely affected. In addition, we have revenue sharing arrangements with certain of our strategic partners. If our strategic partners request a greater percentage of revenue from their referrals, our operating results will be adversely impacted.

 

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To grow our business, we will seek to expand our existing relationships and establish additional relationships with our partners. Establishing such relationships, particularly with core system providers and other large enterprises, entails extensive sales and marketing efforts with no guarantee of success. Sales and marketing to large organizations involve risks that may not be present, or that are present to a lesser extent, with sales and marketing to other, smaller organizations. We must invest significant time educating and selling to multiple management and technical decision-makers to obtain their support. In addition, we may be required to meet wide-ranging and detailed ancillary requirements. For example, insurance and consumer finance organizations generally require us to submit to an exhaustive security audit, given the sensitivity and importance of storing customer billing and payment data on our solutions. Adoption is also frequently subject to budget constraints and unplanned administrative, processing and other delays, including considerable efforts to negotiate and document relationships. Further, deployment of solutions and integration with partners’ software require significant efforts. If we are unable to increase adoption of our solutions by partners and manage the costs associated with marketing our solutions to potential partners and integrating with their systems, our business, operating results and financial condition may be adversely affected. In addition, if we are unsuccessful in establishing, growing or maintaining partnerships, our ability to compete could be impaired, and our operating results may suffer. If we lost one or more of our largest partnerships, we could also lose associated customer relationships or payment channels and our business, operating results and financial condition could be harmed.

We expect fluctuations in our quarterly operating results, making it difficult to project future results, and if we fail to meet the expectations of securities analysts or investors with respect to our operating results, the market price of our common stock could decline.

Our rapid growth makes it difficult for us to forecast our future operating results. Our quarterly operating results have fluctuated in the past and are expected to fluctuate in the future due to a variety of factors, many of which are outside of our control. As a result, our past results may not be indicative of our future performance.

In addition to the other risks described herein, factors that may affect our operating results include the following:

 

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fluctuations in demand for our solutions;

 

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our ability to attract new customers and retain and increase adoption by our existing customers;

 

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our ability to expand our relationships with our partners and identify and attract new partners;

 

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changes in payment method preferences and channels by clients, which may affect our revenue, particularly as a result of interchange fees and other related transaction processing fees;

 

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variations across the industries of our customers, which may affect payment methods used by clients and average payment amounts and, in turn, our revenue, particularly as a result of interchange fees and other related transaction processing fees;

 

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the continued impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on our operating results, liquidity and financial condition and on our employees, customers, partners, clients and other key stakeholders;

 

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changes in customer preference for cloud-based services as a result of security breaches in the industry or privacy concerns, or other security or reliability concerns regarding our products;

 

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fluctuations or delays in purchasing decisions in anticipation of new products or product enhancements by us or our competitors;

 

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•

changes in customer and client budgets and in the timing of their budget and billing cycles and purchasing decisions;

 

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changes in the implementation timeline of our solutions with new customers;

 

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potential and existing customers choosing our competitors’ products or developing their own solutions in-house;

 

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the development or introduction of new solutions that are easier to use or more advanced than our current solutions;

 

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our ability to adapt to new forms of payment that become widely accepted, including cryptocurrencies;

 

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the adoption or retention of more entrenched or rival services in the markets where we compete or plan to compete;

 

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our ability to control costs, including our operating expenses;

 

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the amount and timing of payment for operating expenses, particularly research and development and sales and marketing expenses, including commissions;

 

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the amount and timing of non-cash expenses, including stock-based compensation, goodwill impairments and other non-cash charges;

 

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the amount and timing of costs associated with recruiting, training and integrating new employees, and retaining and motivating existing employees;

 

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the effects of acquisitions and their integration;

 

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general economic conditions (including inflation), both domestically and internationally, as well as economic conditions specifically affecting industries in which our customers operate;

 

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the impact of new accounting pronouncements;

 

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changes in the competitive dynamics of our markets;

 

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security breaches of, technical difficulties with, or interruptions to, the delivery and use of our solutions from our payment vendors, technology vendors, and/or our own developed technology; and

 

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awareness of our brand and our reputation in our target markets.

Any of these and other factors, or the cumulative effect of some of these factors, may cause our operating results to vary significantly. In addition, we expect to incur significant additional expenses due to the increased costs of operating as a public company. If the assumptions used to plan our business are incorrect, our revenue may fail to meet our expectations and we may fail to meet profitability expectations. Further, if our quarterly operating results fall below the expectations of investors and securities analysts who follow our common stock, the price of our common stock could decline substantially, and we could face costly lawsuits, including securities class action lawsuits.

We have in the past and may in the future acquire or invest in companies, which may divert our management’s attention and result in additional dilution to our stockholders. We may be unable to integrate acquired businesses and technologies successfully or achieve the expected benefits of such acquisitions.

Our success will depend, in part, on our ability to grow our business in response to changing technologies, customer demands and competitive pressures. In some circumstances, we may choose to do so through the acquisition of businesses and technologies rather than through internal development. See “Management’s discussion and analysis of financial condition and results of operations—Acquisitions” for a summary of recent acquisitions. The identification of suitable acquisition candidates can be difficult, time-consuming and costly,

 

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and we may not be able to successfully complete identified acquisitions. The risks we face in connection with acquisitions include:

 

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an acquisition may negatively affect our results of operations because it may require us to incur charges or assume substantial debt or other liabilities, may cause adverse tax consequences or unfavorable accounting treatment, may expose us to claims and disputes by stockholders and third parties, including intellectual property claims and disputes, or may not generate sufficient financial return to offset additional costs and expenses related to the acquisition;

 

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we may encounter difficulties or unforeseen expenditures in integrating the business, technologies, products, personnel or operations of any company that we acquire, particularly if key personnel of the acquired company decide not to work for us;

 

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we may not be able to realize anticipated synergies;

 

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an acquisition may disrupt our ongoing business, divert resources, increase our expenses, and distract our management;

 

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we may encounter challenges integrating the employees of the acquired company into our company culture;

 

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we may encounter difficulties in, or may be unable to, successfully sell any acquired products;

 

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our use of cash to pay for acquisitions would limit other potential uses for our cash;

 

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if we incur debt to fund any acquisitions, such debt may subject us to material restrictions on our ability to conduct our business financial maintenance covenants; and

 

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if we issue a significant amount of equity securities in connection with future acquisitions, existing stockholders may be diluted and earnings per share may decrease.

The occurrence of any of these risks could have an adverse effect on our business, results of operations and financial condition.

In addition, we face a variety of tax risks related to acquisitions, including that we may be required to make tax withholdings in various jurisdictions in connection with such transactions or as part of our continuing operations following a transaction, and that the companies or businesses we acquire may cause us to alter our international tax structure or otherwise create more complexity with respect to tax matters. Additionally, while we typically include indemnification provisions in our definitive agreements related to acquisitions and other strategic transactions, these indemnification provisions may be insufficient in the event that tax liabilities are greater than expected or in areas that are not fully covered by indemnification. If we are unable to adequately predict and address such tax issues as they arise, our business, financial condition, and results of operations could be adversely affected.

We derive most of our revenue from InvoiceCloud and SimplePractice.

We derive most of our revenue from our InvoiceCloud and SimplePractice solutions, which comprised, in the aggregate, over 74%, 76% and 85% of our revenue for the Predecessor 2019 Period, Successor 2019 Period and for the year ended December 31, 2020, respectively and 85% and 88% of our revenue for the six months ended June 30, 2020 and 2021, respectively. Our InvoiceCloud and SimplePractice solutions are sold in the highly competitive markets of billing/payments and healthcare, respectively, and there can be no assurance that we will be able to continue to compete effectively in such markets in the future. Because we derive a significant majority of our revenue from our InvoiceCloud and SimplePractice solutions, any material decline in revenue derived from those solutions would have a material adverse impact on our business, results of operations and financial condition.

 

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The COVID-19 pandemic could have a material adverse impact on our employees, customers, partners, clients and other key stakeholders, which could materially and adversely impact our business, operating results and financial condition.

The COVID-19 pandemic and efforts to control its spread have significantly curtailed the movement of people, goods and services in the United States, where we generate substantially all of our revenue, and worldwide, where we may target future growth. It has also caused extreme societal, economic and financial market volatility, resulting in business shutdowns and a global economic downturn. The magnitude and duration of the COVID-19 pandemic and the magnitude and duration of its effect on business activity cannot be predicted with any certainty. In addition, as the COVID-19 pandemic subsides, we cannot predict how our business may be impacted.

In light of the uncertainty relating to the spread of COVID-19, we have taken precautionary measures intended to reduce the risk of the virus spreading to our employees, customers and partners, and we may take further precautionary measures. In particular, governmental authorities have at times instituted, and in the future may again institute, shelter-in-place policies and other restrictions in many jurisdictions in which we operate, including in Massachusetts, where our headquarters are located, and California, Texas, and other states where we maintain significant operations, which policies and restrictions have required us to implement remote working capabilities and temporarily eliminate corporate travel. Even as shelter-in-place policies or other governmental restrictions are lifted, we are taking, and expect to continue to take, a measured and careful approach to having employees return to offices and travel for business. These precautionary measures and policies could negatively impact employee productivity, training and collaboration or otherwise disrupt our business operations. In addition, such restrictions impact certain of our sales efforts, marketing efforts and implementations, adversely affecting the effectiveness of such efforts in some cases and potentially inhibiting future growth.

Our customers and partners were impacted and will continue to be impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic, which ultimately affects our business operations and results. The impact of COVID-19 differed across the verticals we serve. For our solutions in our SMB Solutions segment, clinicians accelerated adoption of our practice management software as they transitioned to virtual healthcare. Our pre-built features like telehealth, online scheduling, AutoPay, and secure messaging proved to be invaluable to our customers. For our solutions in our Enterprise Solutions segment, COVID-19 accelerated adoption of our online and automatic payment features, and we were able to provide customers the digital engagement and electronic payment capabilities they needed to serve their clients. On the other hand, certain solutions experienced a slowdown in usage. For example, elective procedures and nonessential hospital visits were delayed or canceled, and charities and nonprofits were unable to host large, in-person events given shelter-in-place policies. These headwinds were partially offset by our ability to offer digital engagement, such as virtual fundraising and online donations, which enabled our customers to continue hosting events.

Further, the extent and duration of working remotely exposes us, customers, partners and others with whom we have business relationships to increased risks of security breaches or incidents. The increase in remote working may also result in privacy, data protection, data security, and fraud risks, and our understanding of applicable legal and regulatory requirements, as well as the latest guidance from regulatory authorities in connection with the COVID-19 pandemic, may be subject to legal or regulatory challenge, particularly as regulatory guidance evolves in response to pandemic-related developments. Furthermore, we may need to enhance the security of our solutions, our data and our internal IT infrastructure, which may require us to expend additional resources and may not be successful.

 

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More generally, the COVID-19 pandemic has adversely affected economies and financial markets globally, potentially leading to a prolonged economic downturn, which could decrease technology spending, lengthen sales and implementation cycles, and adversely affect demand for our products and harm our business and operating results. The COVID-19 pandemic may delay, or prevent us from making collections and disrupt our ability to develop or enhance offerings. As the COVID-19 pandemic persists, government authorities and companies may continue to implement or reimpose restrictions or policies that could adversely impact consumer spending and payment volumes, global capital markets, the global economy and the market price of our common stock.

We are subject to economic risk, the business cycles and credit risk of our customers, partners and their clients, and the overall level of consumer, business and government spending, which could negatively affect our business, operating results and financial condition.

Industries in which we operate depend heavily on the overall level of consumer, business and government spending. We are exposed to general economic conditions that affect consumer confidence, consumer spending, consumer discretionary income and changes in consumer purchasing habits. A sustained deterioration in general economic conditions in the markets in which we operate or increases in interest rates may adversely affect our financial performance by reducing the number or average payment amounts of transactions made using electronic bill payments, reducing the number of customers that use our SimplePractice solution, and reducing other types of transactions through our solutions. Relatedly, a reduction in the amount of consumer spending could result in a decrease in our revenue and profit. For example, if our customers present fewer bills to clients using electronic billing or clients making electronic bill payments spend less per transaction, we will have fewer transactions relying on our solutions or lower transaction amounts, each of which would contribute to lower revenue. Additionally, in our SimplePractice solution, despite the cost benefits that we believe our practice management solutions provide, prospective healthcare provider customers may delay contract decisions or be reluctant to make any material changes in their established business methods based upon the economic climate. With a reduction in tax revenue, state and federal government healthcare programs, including reimbursement programs such as Medicaid or initiatives under the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (the “ACA”), may be reduced or eliminated, which could negatively impact the payments that our healthcare provider customers receive. These developments could have a material adverse impact on our business, operating results and financial condition.

Further, a downturn in the economy could force our customers or partners or their clients to close or declare bankruptcy, resulting in lower revenue and earnings for us and greater exposure to potential credit losses and future transaction declines. We have a certain amount of fixed and other costs, including rent and salaries, which could limit our ability to quickly adjust costs and respond to changes in our business and the economy. We are also subject to the risks of inflation, which may increase our costs, and we may not be able to charge more for our solutions to offset the increase in costs. Changes in economic conditions could also adversely affect our future revenue and profit and cause a materially adverse effect on our business, operating results and financial condition.

Interruptions or performance problems associated with our technology and infrastructure may adversely affect our business, results of operations and financial condition.

Our continued growth depends in part on the ability of our existing customers and new customers to access our solutions at any time and within an acceptable amount of time. We have in the past, and may in the future, experience service disruptions, outages and other performance problems due to a variety of factors, including infrastructure changes or failures, human or software errors, malicious acts, terrorism or capacity constraints. Capacity constraints could be due to a number of potential causes including technical failures, natural disasters, fraud or security attacks. In some instances, we may not be able to identify and/or remedy the cause or causes

 

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of these performance problems within an acceptable period of time. It may become increasingly difficult to maintain and improve our performance as our solutions and customer implementations become more complex. If our solutions are unavailable or if our customers are unable to access features of our solutions within a reasonable amount of time or at all, or if other performance problems occur, our business, results of operations and financial conditions may be adversely affected.

We depend on third-party payment processors to process bill payments made through our solutions and our business, operating results and reputation could be harmed if we experience service interruptions related to our payment processors or additional consolidation among payment processors increases prices.

We depend on third-party payment processors to process bill payments made through our solutions, including payments made by or though credit and debit cards, ACH transfers, eChecks and PayPal. The per-transaction settlement fees we pay under our agreements are significant. Rapid industry consolidation and reduced competition among payment processors could lead to higher settlement fees that we are not able to pass along to our customers. We also rely on payment processors to collect and store payment card information and provide certain fraud detection services. Our multi-year agreements with payment processors contain industry-standard terms and conditions, including technical requirements for the facilitation of payments and the settlement of transactions and chargebacks. These agreements also obligate us to comply with payment networks’ security standards and guidelines, and to reimburse the payment processors for any fines they are assessed by payment networks as a result of any Payment Network Rule violations by us.

If any of our third-party payment processors were to terminate their relationship with us or cease providing us or our customers with payment processing services, whether as a result of a failure by us to meet our contractual obligations or for other reasons, or if any of them were to refuse to renew its agreement with us on commercially reasonable terms, we would need to engage one or more alternate payment processors. In that case, we could experience service interruptions and incur significant expenses in transitioning to or arranging for replacement payment processing services. Such interruptions could also negatively impact our reputation and our relationships with existing or potential customers and partners, as well as, under certain contracts with our customers, cause us to become obligated to provide service credits or refunds under our service level commitments. Likewise, our third-party payment processors have in the past and may in the future experience outages that have and may cause the temporarily loss of the ability to process transactions through our solutions. If any of our third-party payment processors fails to meet our standards and expectations, becomes compromised or suffers errors, outages or vulnerabilities, the ability to process transactions through our solutions may be interrupted or suspended until such issues have been remedied or we have engaged one or more alternate payment processors.

We might not implement our growth strategies successfully which would limit our growth and cause our stock price to decline.

Our future profitability will depend, in part, on our ability to implement successfully our growth strategies. See “Business—Our growth strategies.” We expect to invest substantial amounts to:

 

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build new products and add features and functionality to existing products;

 

•

grow our salesforce and marketing to win new customers;

 

•

expand relationships with our existing customers;

 

•

expand into new verticals;

 

•

pursue strategic acquisitions or strategic investments;

 

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