Yesterday, Lightspeed announced their acquisition of New Zealand startup Vend for about NZ$500 million:
Lightspeed will acquire Vend for total estimated consideration of approximately $350 million, satisfied by way of payment on closing of approximately $192.5 million in cash and the issuance of subordinate voting shares in the capital of Lightspeed valued at approximately $157.5 million.
This marks the end of a 10-year journey for the company, a journey I was a part of for the first four years.
Vend had a profound effect on my life both personally and professionally. It’s how I met my wife Vic and 6 years on we have a 2-year old daughter and another on the way. I grew substantially as an engineer, and this experience helped propel me to Techstars in Berlin, then San Francisco and Slack.
The story is similar for so many others that passed through Vend’s doors. It’s a natural New Zealand success story. And now to see this acquisition reward so many of the people that were integral to the company’s success over the years is just wonderful.
There’s one tweet that stuck out to me, though, amid all the congratulations. This from Simon Pound, also a former Vend employee:
Which is so bleak. 500 houses don’t inspire other companies, create hundreds of high skill jobs, build an ecosystem and bring in hundreds of millions in export revenue. Our housing crisis is even making our dreams poorer.
— Simon Pound (@simon_pound) March 12, 2021
This so perfectly captures my frustration with our country. Vend has paid the salaries of hundreds of people, made all sorts of contributions to society, and made a great return for its investors. And yet, for all its success, it’s eclipsed by our runaway housing market.
In December 2020 alone, almost $10 billion dollars of new mortgages were issued. That’s 20 times the value of Vend, and for what benefit to our country? Arguably none. How many Vends would there be if we weren’t so caught up in buying houses?
I’m celebrating this win, for Vend and for all of us that were a part of it. I hope it serves as a reminder of what we can achieve when we invest in something productive.