Morgan Stanley Investment Management announced today that funds managed by Morgan Stanley Expansion Capital and Morgan Stanley Private Credit have provided $125 million in senior debt financing to FreshBooks, one of the leaders in cloud-based accounting software for small businesses. This investment will refinance existing debt and is expected to fuel the company’s continued growth.
Toronto-based FreshBooks provides SaaS software that is built for service-based SMBs with a focus on the U.S. and Canadian markets. Serving as a core operating system for its customers, FreshBooks offers an easy-to-use platform that enables the company to handle everything from invoicing clients and receiving payments to managing time tracking and payroll processing.
Pete Chung, Head of Morgan Stanley Expansion Capital, and Ashwin Krishnan, North America Co-head of Morgan Stanley Private Credit, said: “We are pleased to be FreshBooks’ financing partner. We believe FreshBooks’ SaaS accounting software benefits from strong secular tailwinds, including increasing digital transformation and a shift to global e-invoicing and payments digitization. We believe FreshBooks has a tremendous market opportunity ahead of it and are confident that our growth credit and capital solutions teams are uniquely positioned to support FreshBooks in this important stage of its growth.”
“We’re thrilled to partner with Morgan Stanley’s Expansion Capital and Private Credit groups, who support our vision of empowering small business owners through technology. FreshBooks looks forward to leveraging their expertise in this next chapter of growth,” said Shaheen Javadizadeh, CEO at FreshBooks.
The FreshBooks investment was led by Morgan Stanley Executive Director Nick Nocito.
About Morgan Stanley Expansion Capital
Morgan Stanley Expansion Capital is the growth-focused private investment platform within Morgan Stanley Investment Management. Morgan Stanley Expansion Capital targets late-stage growth equity and credit investments within consumer, technology, healthcare, and other high-growth sectors. For over three decades, Morgan Stanley Expansion Capital has successfully pursued growth investment opportunities and has completed investments in over 200 companies, leveraging the global brand and network of Morgan Stanley.
About Morgan Stanley Private Credit
Morgan Stanley Private Credit, part of Morgan Stanley Investment Management, is a private credit platform focused on direct lending and opportunistic private credit investment in North America and Western Europe. The Morgan Stanley Private Credit team invests across the capital structure, including senior secured term loans, unitranche loans, junior debt, structured equity and common equity co-investments.
About Morgan Stanley Investment Management
Morgan Stanley Investment Management, together with its investment advisory affiliates, has more than 1,400 investment professionals around the world and $1.7 trillion in assets under management or supervision as of December 31, 2024. Morgan Stanley Investment Management strives to provide outstanding long-term investment performance, service, and a comprehensive suite of investment management solutions to a diverse client base, which includes governments, institutions, corporations and individuals worldwide. For further information about Morgan Stanley Investment Management, please visit www.morganstanley.com/im.
About Morgan Stanley
Morgan Stanley (NYSE: MS) is a leading global financial services firm providing a wide range of investment banking, securities, wealth management and investment management services. With offices in 42 countries, the Firm's employees serve clients worldwide including corporations, governments, institutions and individuals. For more information about Morgan Stanley, please visit www.morganstanley.com.
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alyson.barnes@morganstanley.com
