While the venture capital industry spent the last decade chasing consumer apps and foundation models, a quieter kind of software company was getting built: the vertical SaaS tools that manage POS systems for retailers, run logistics operations, and handle accounts payable for thousands of businesses that have never heard of a Series A round. They are also where AI has the most still to do. Now those companies have become the target of a new class of acquirer.
In the last month alone, two of these acquirers have made headlines. In Toronto, Beacon Software has raised more than $550 million in two years, including a $225 million Series C led by General Catalyst, to acquire niche software businesses and rebuild them on a shared AI platform. In Milan, Bending Spoons is reportedly eyeing a Nasdaq IPO at a $20 billion-plus valuation,though its focus is consumer software. And in London, the group behind Shop Circle has stepped out under a new holding company brand.
The company has launched Circeus as its holding company, alongside an equity investment from the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development and other investors. Shop Circle continues as the group’s retail and commerce software division; Circeus is the brand for the wider B2B software portfolio sitting above it. The new name and the institutional backer are, taken together, a signal of intent: a group positioning itself at the front of Europe’s AI-native software acquirers, in the same bracket as Beacon Software in North America.
