Our Story

Ageras Group is a built on a passion for entrepreneurship. Serial entrepreneurs Rico Andersen and Martin Hegelund founded the company in 2012 and has since turned their vision into a global venture with a strong offering.

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The humble beginning

In 2010 the founders, Rico Andersen and Martin Hegelund, had just started their own business venture, Få Det Gjort (“Get It Done”). Just like Ageras Marketplace, it was an online platform, but unlike Ageras, it was a platform for household services.

With their childhood savings and a bank loan invested into the project, they went off to build a business around this concept.

A lot of mistakes were made in these early years, but learning on their own dime was an important aspect in having a razor-sharp focus in developing the product, the technology and team.

The bookkeeping and accounting, however, was outsourced to a traditional accountant. The receipts were delivered in a bag after the end of a calendar quarter and Rico and Martin would in turn receive a trial balance after a few weeks.

There were several problems: First, the two founders did have business acumen, but were definitely not well equipped in specific accounting terms.

Second, the numbers were already up to four months old. Third, the numbers were not actionable and forward-looking - they were merely reflecting a three month old reality.

As the company grew, they realized that they needed a completely different accounting setup: New software that they could actually understand and explore their numbers further and a new accountant that could help transform finance into business intelligence and strategic advice on the next phase of the business.

Once they did that, they realized that the fundamentals of the business were broken - after losing everything they had. They did not blame the accountant, but wanted to change how small businesses find the financial overview and tools they need.

They sold Få Det Gjort for pennies and acted on their vision by founding Ageras - a group of companies with a strong vision to enable success for small companies.

Ageras was born

In 2012 Ageras was born with a simple offering: an online marketplace where small and medium-sized businesses could find an accountant or bookkeeper that suits their needs, statutory requirements and budget range. At the same time, accountants could grow their business by subscribing to the platform.

The marketplace grew across borders - first Sweden and Norway, then the Netherlands and Germany and lastly Ageras expanded to the US.

Along the journey the technology fund of Investcorp, an international private equity firm, joined the business to broaden the scope: Instead of just operating a marketplace, Ageras wanted to offer a full suite of products that makes life as a business owner easier.

Therefore Meneto was founded - a digital accounting solution where the business owner does not need to do anything - all is taken care of by software using latest AI and machine learning technology to automate the accounting. And what is not automated, a network of trusted bookkeepers is taking care of.

Since then we have not relaxed. We have continued to innovate and building new products, while also acquiring new solutions that we can offer to our customers. For instance we have acquired cloud-based accounting software solutions Billy, Tellow and Zervant, the German neobank Kontist and last also added payroll software to our offering with Salary.dk.

In 2021 we identified a large gap in capital available for small businesses. We have also identified a large gap in capital available for small businesses. While larger businesses have access to banks and investors, that is not as easy for small businesses and freelancers. Therefore we have launched our own fintech solution, Ageras Finance, where we enable embedded financial services directly in our software offerings. We now help entrepreneurs all over Europe and the US to grow their business with flexible capital - all based on their own financial data that enables better credit decisions and thereby better rates.

To support our growth, we have also secured investments from leading global tech investors joining Investcorp. In 2020 Rabobank joined to support our fintech endeavours and in 2021 Lugard Road Capital and Roosgruppen joined as shareholders as well.

Thank you for reading,

Rico Andersen & Martin Hegelund

Timeline

2012
Jan’12

Launched Ageras Marketplace DK

2013
Sep’13

Launched Ageras Marketplace SE

2014
Aug'14

Launched Ageras Marketplace NO

2015
Jul’15

JUF joined the group

Sep'15

Launched Ageras Marketplace NL

2016
May'16

Launched Ageras Marketplace DE

Oct'16

Received a Børsen Gazelle award as one of Denmark’s fastest growing companies

Won EY Entrepreneur of the Year – Startup in Copenhagen

2017
Mar’17

Ageras reached 100.000 signups

Investcorp acquired a majority stake

May’17

Ageras won e-handelsprisen (Best B2B business)

June’17

Zoek Mijn Boekhouder in the Netherlands joined the group

2018
Feb’18

Moved to Industriens Hus

June’18

Launched Meneto

2019
Jan’19

Ageras became a subscription-based business

May’19

Established Ageras Marketplace office in Amsterdam

Launched Ageras Marketplace US and established office in Philadelphia

Aug’19

Billy joined the group

Sep’19

Established Ageras Marketplace office in Munich

2020
Jan’20

Billy obtained a PSD2 license to create a live bank connection for customers

Feb’20

Ageras reached 200.000 signups

Jun’20

Tellow joined the group

Strategic investment from Rabobank

Oct'20

Billy turned 10 years old

2021
Feb’21

Lugard Road Capital invested 73M USD

Jul’21

Salary joined the Group

Jul’21

Zervant joined the Group

Launched Ageras Finance

2022
Jan’22

Ageras turned 10 years old

Aug’22

Kontist joined the Group

2023