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Dax Dasilva, Lightspeed’s CEO, said in an interview by phone Friday that a U.S. listing had been on the company’s radar since its Canadian IPO in March 2019.
Now, though, the company sees the coronavirus pandemic prompting businesses to add to or upgrade their technology and e-commerce capabilities, making it an ideal time for Lightspeed to promote itself further to possible customers and investors.
“I think that many of our merchants … may have really focused on the part of our toolkit that’s for their physical businesses,” Dasilva said. “But now with COVID, they’ve lit up e-commerce, they’ve lit up curbside pickup and takeout and delivery, and other ways to transact in the digital space.”
There is also “an opportunity to consolidate the market,” Dasilva said.
“We’ve had good execution on (mergers and acquisitions) and we have active conversations with lots of good companies that we think could help us continue to scale,” he added.
We have active conversations with lots of good companies that we think could help us continue to scale
Dax Dasilva
Lightspeed’s M&A strategy, Dasilva said, involves acquiring companies that can add capabilities, verticals and geographies to Lightspeed’s repertoire. The company has made several acquisitions since it was founded in 2005, including German hospitality-software firm Gastrofix, Australia-based point-of-sale provider Kounta Holdings Pty Ltd. and Montreal’s Chronogolf, which provides cloud-based software that helps manage golf courses.
So far, that strategy, as well as some pandemic-related tailwinds, has translated into growing revenue and customer numbers for Lightspeed. It just hasn’t translated into profit yet.
