Who we are

About us

More than 25 years of software innovation have made us who we are today: a pure play software company serving global needs.

What we do

Connected by software
– driven by people

We develop and deliver software to small businesses, medium businesses, and the public sector – improving the work-life of millions of people around the world. Our software simplifies and automates complex and manual work processes, empowering people’s everyday lives.

Visma is a collection of entrepreneurial companies, each with their own start-up mentality, personality, and leadership. All our companies have business autonomy and go-to-market freedom – a key ingredient to our growth.

Our mission

Empower people by simplifying and automating complex processes

Our vision

Shaping the future of society through technology

How we grow

We buy brilliant businesses

From our early days in 1996, as a single Norwegian company with just over 300 employees, we’ve developed into one of Europe’s leading software companies. How? By being on the constant lookout for one-of-a-kind entrepreneurs and businesses.

With new companies joining forces with us almost weekly, we get to empower new markets, and together take software innovation to new heights.

Visma by the numbers

180+

companies

15,800

employees

1.9M

customers

2,719

total revenue LTM

Numbers updated Q3 2024

Our values

"Visma enables businesses and organisations to grow and thrive. We’ll continue our expansion in existing and new markets, to meet the steadily increasing demand for flexible, efficient and secure cloud solutions."

Merete Hverven, CEO

How we grow

Our story

Here are some of the milestones that have shaped Visma and made us who we are today.

1996
acquisitions

Visual management

Visma is founded through the merger of three software companies and listed on the Oslo Stock Exchange. With presence in the Norwegian and Swedish markets, our headquarters are located in Oslo, Norway.

Why Visma? It’s short for visual management applications.

1997–2001
7
acquisitions

Setting a new course

After a period of financial challenges, Øystein Moan is recruited as new CEO in 1997. His journey towards building one of Europe’s largest software companies begins with a successful change in structure and strategy. In 2000, we sell our marine division – freeing up resources to pursue growth within accounting software and business process outsourcing (BPO).

1999
Hej! We enter the Danish market.
2001
Moi! We enter the Finnish market.
2002–2006
53
acquisitions

Expanding our horizon

We continue our expansion within business software and BPO, and enter the public market with debt collection and temp services. In 2006, British private equity firm Hg Capital acquires a controlling stake in Visma, and we are delisted from the Oslo Stock Exchange.

2006
Hoi! We enter the Dutch market, our first step outside the Nordics.
2007–2011
46
acquisitions

Moving to the cloud‍

We’ve now grown from 300 to more than 3700 employees in 12 years, and move into our new HQ at Skøyen, Oslo in 2009. The following year we get a new majority owner in US private equity firm KKR – in a transaction valuing Visma at NOK 11 billion. In this period we also make our first move into IT consulting, as well as identifying cloud computing and SaaS as our strategic priorities.

2012–2016
67
acquisitions

Increasing in value

2012 kicks off with the launch of Visma.net ERP, a pioneering SaaS solution, to the SMB market. We continue to invest heavily in R&D, acquiring more cloud software companies to strengthen our position as Europe’s leading SaaS provider for the private and public sector. 

2014
Čau! We enter the Latvian market. 
2014
Visma is valued at NOK 21 billion in a shareholder transaction.
2016
Our BPO division is sold to Hg Capital.
2017–2019
53
acquisitions

Continued geographical expansion

In 2017, KKR sells its entire remaining stake in Visma to an investor group led by Hg Capital. The transaction values Visma at NOK 45 billion. In 2019, we become a proud title sponsor for the cycling team Team Jumbo-Visma.

2018
Tere, Olá, Hola & Helló! We enter new markets in Estonia, Latin America and Hungary.
2019
Witam! We enter the Polish market.
2020–2021
78
acquisitions

A change at the top

Merete Hverven succeeds Øystein Moan as CEO of Visma, stepping up from her role as Chief HR Officer and Deputy CEO. As the pandemic hits, the significance of flexible, accessible and secure cloud software becomes even more evident for businesses and societies.

2020
Hallo & Bună! We enter the Belgian and Romanian markets.
2021
Servus & Hola! We enter Austria and Spain.
2022
42
acquisitions

A pure play software company‍

We divest our businesses within IT consulting and infrastructure services (CIS), emerging as a pure play software company. Our business model shows resilience through a turbulent period for the global economy, as we achieve record revenue of 1.97 billion and end the year with 1.4 million customers across Europe and Latin America.

2022
Bonjour! We enter the French market.
2022
Willkommen! We enter the German market.
2023
32
acquisitions

New horizons

The digital transformation continues to shape many areas of society, enhanced by the promise of generative AI to drive even more innovation and efficiency. With Visma’s legacy as a driver of the cloud transition, as well as hundreds of AI initiatives ongoing across the Group, we are in a strong position to continue our growth in both existing and new markets. We ended the year with all-time high revenue of €2.4B and over 1.7 million customers.

2023
Olá! We enter the Portuguese market.
2023
Halló! We enter the Icelandic market.

Group governance policies

The aim of our governance policies is to build trust and create value for our investors, customers, and employees.

Where the progress happens

With thousands of employees across the world, we get the best of both worlds: the feeling of local startups, with the perks of belonging to an international group. Our headquarters are in Oslo, Norway.

Our locations

Sustainability

See how we tackle the challenges in our industry