Avalara and Shopgate announce partnership to boost global mobile payment

Merchants taking mobile payments offered simplified tax automation technology as direct tax and mobile payments leaders join forces

London, UK - December 9, 2014 - Avalara, Inc., a leading provider of cloud-based transactional tax compliance solutions, and Shopgate, a leading software-as-a-service mcommerce platform, have today announced a new global partnership that will help merchants remain tax compliant when taking mobile payments.

The partnership strengthens Avalara’s support of the mobile commerce industry by integrating AvaTax™, Avalara’s proven sales tax compliance solution, into the Shopgate mobile commerce platform. The collaboration will allow Shopgate to offer its merchants fully-automated sales tax compliance services as it expands into North America, whilst continuing to support its 5,500+ merchants across Europe.

Kevin Boland, VP Global Business Development at Avalara, said, “This partnership offers integrated, automated tax compliance as part of an efficient, reliable mobile payments process, expanding our reach to more merchants using a comprehensive global mcommerce solution online. We are excited to join with Shopgate to help merchants using m-payments to ensure they are tax compliant when processing transactions across the world’s markets.”

Andrea Anderheggen, Founder & CEO at Shopgate, commented: “At Shopgate, we are dedicated to delivering the best possible mobile experience so merchants can maximize conversion rates and sales around the world. We are delighted to announce this partnership with Avalara, a leader in sales tax automation in the US, which will support our expansion in North American markets, whilst ensuring all our international customers are able to remain compliant with the complexities of transactional taxes globally.”

Shopgate’s 5,500+ merchants serve millions of customers every day, seamlessly integrating with over 60 of the world’s most popular shopping carts and cooperating with the leading mobile and ecommerce companies so that online customers can shop anytime, anywhere. Avalara supports automated tax calculation in over 100 countries, combining its vast proprietary database with address validation and geolocation, applying the correct taxability rules and rates and handling filing and remittance.

About Avalara
Avalara helps businesses of all sizes achieve compliance with sales tax, excise tax, and other transactional tax requirements by delivering comprehensive, automated, cloud-based solutions that are fast, accurate, and easy to use. Avalara’s end-to-end suite of solutions is designed to effectively manage complicated and burdensome tax compliance obligations imposed by state, local, and other taxing authorities in the United States and internationally.

Avalara offers hundreds of pre-built connectors into leading accounting, ERP, ecommerce and other business applications. The company processes millions of tax transactions for customers and free users every day, files hundreds of thousands of transactional tax returns per year, and manages millions of exemption certificates and other compliance related documents.

A privately held company, Avalara’s venture capital investors include Sageview Capital, Battery Ventures, Warburg Pincus, Arthur Ventures, and other institutional and individual investors. Avalara employs more than 750 people at its headquarters on Bainbridge Island, WA and in offices across the U.S. and in London, England and Pune, India. More information at: www.avalara.com

About Shopgate
Shopgate is an award-winning mobile shopping solution provider. Shopgate develops customized native apps and mobile sites for online shops. More than 5,500 merchants in five countries already use Shopgate, increasing their mobile revenues by up to 900%. Every day, over 500,000 orders are made through a shopping app or mobile website provided by Shopgate. Shopgate is shaping the future of mobile commerce and enables consumers to purchase their goods from wherever they are.

Shopgate was founded in Butzbach, Germany and Palo Alto, CA by Andrea Anderheggen and Ortwin Kartmann. The company is now powered by more than 150 mobile enthusiastic talents all over the world. Amongst others, Shopgate won the “Red Herring Global 100” award as one of the most promising and fastest growing IT-technologies in the world and the E-Commerce award 2014 in the mobile commerce category. More information about Shopgate’s products and services can be found at www.shopgate.com