D.A. Davidson & Co. Serves as Exclusive Financial Advisor to SafeSend in its Significant Growth Round Provided by Lead Edge Capital

COSTA MESA, Calif.–(BUSINESS WIRE)–#growth–D.A. Davidson & Co. announced today that it served as exclusive financial advisor to SafeSend, a company that automates the cumbersome tax return assembly and delivery process, for its significant growth round provided by Lead Edge Capital, a growth stage investment fund with over $3 billion of capital raised since inception, and portfolio companies across the internet, software, consumer, and tech-enabled services sectors.

The SafeSend Suite is the only platform in the market enabling full digitization of the “last mile” of professional tax preparation, displacing archaic, labor intensive traditional methods with digital assembly, secure delivery, and integrated e-sign of tax returns. Tax preparers benefit from automated, centralized, and standardized workflows, and the firm’s clients benefit from an intuitive, secure, and engaging online experience. SafeSend is compatible with the most commonly used professional tax systems in full service accounting firms including Wolters Kluwer CCH Axcess™ Tax and ProSystem fx® Tax, Thomson Reuters UltraTax CS® and GoSystem® Tax RS, and Intuit Lacerte®. SafeSend has experienced incredibly rapid growth the last few years as it has scaled to serving more than 50% of the top 300 U.S. accounting firms. The company’s track record of outstanding innovation has garnered numerous, high-profile industry awards. SafeSend was founded in 2008 by Steve Dusablon and Andrew Hatfield and is headquartered in Ann Arbor, Mich. with regional offices in Bangalore, India, and Boise, Idaho, and corporate offices in Newport Beach, Calif.

“The SafeSend management team has leveraged deep industry expertise and visionary product innovation to deliver impressive growth at scale the last few years,” said Joe Morgan, head of D.A. Davidson’s technology investment banking group. “With their market leading position and new partner, SafeSend is extremely excited about the prospects of its next evolutionary phase as it aims to accelerate various growth drivers.”

“We are eminently grateful for the expert advice provided by the D.A. Davidson technology investment banking team that was delivered this transaction,” Steve Dusablon, co-founder and chairman of SafeSend, said. “Their buyer knowledge, transaction expertise, and ability to navigate a highly-competitive process in an expedited fashion was incredibly impressive.”

“The transaction outcome exceeded even our loftiest expectations. We are very excited for our next phase of growth with Lead Edge,” added Andrew Hatfield, co-founder and chief of growth at SafeSend. “We could not be more thankful to the D.A. Davidson team that assisted on this transaction. From day one we could tell that they were fully invested in maximizing the outcome for what was a seminal transaction for our company. We are thrilled to have found a fantastic partner in Lead Edge.”

“SafeSend is capitalizing on some very powerful secular tailwinds with an incredibly intuitive, easy-to-use product suite, said Jack Robbins, a director within the technology investment banking group. “I’m looking forward to seeing how their partnership with Lead Edge can propel the business to even greater heights.”

D.A. Davidson’s investment banking division is a leading full-service investment bank that offers comprehensive financial advisory and capital markets expertise. The group has extensive transaction experience serving middle market clients worldwide across five industry verticals: consumer, diversified industrials, financial institutions, real estate and technology.

Together with its European strategic partner, MCF Corporate Finance, D.A. Davidson originates and executes transatlantic M&A transactions under the common brand of D.A. Davidson MCF International.

About D.A. Davidson Companies

D.A. Davidson Companies is an employee-owned financial services firm offering a range of financial services and advice to individuals, corporations, institutions and municipalities nationwide. Founded in 1935 and headquartered in Montana, with corporate offices in Denver, Los Angeles, Portland and Seattle, the company has approximately 1,400 employees and offices in 27 states.

Subsidiaries include: D.A. Davidson & Co., the largest full-service investment firm headquartered in the Northwest, providing wealth management, investment banking, equity and fixed income capital markets services and advice; Davidson Investment Advisors, a professional asset management firm; D.A. Davidson Trust Company, a trust and wealth management company; and Davidson Fixed Income Management, a registered investment adviser providing fixed income portfolio and advisory services.

For more information, visit dadavidson.com.

Contacts

Emily Roy

Prosek for D.A. Davidson

(646) 818-9232

eroy@prosek.com