Rhythm Client Achieved $1.4 Billion Valuation

Yesterday was a big day for Michael Praeger, CEO of AvidXchange. No… Sorry, it was a huge day! Yesterday, Michael had press conference at their newly opened Charlotte campus. They were announcing not one but three great wins towards his dream of building Charlotte into the “Silicon of the South.”

Win #1: MasterCard announced that they are partnering with Avidxchange to create a B2B hub that  brings AvidXchange technology to their network of banks.

Win #2: Closing an additional $300 million in growth investment funding from a diverse and well known group of new investors that include Mastercard Inc., Singapore state investment firm Temasek Holdings Pte Ltd, and Canadian pension fund Caisse de dépôt et. AvidXchange is now valued at $1.4 billion as reported in the Wall Street Journal.

Win #3: Opening of their newest building on their Charlotte campus - the Foundry.

AvidXChange is now leading the charge in B2B electronic payment services, alongside B2C payment giants Venmo, PayPal, and Apple Pay. The Rhythm System provides AvidXchange a framework for innovation in the ever-changing tech landscape. It has taken 17 years to create this overnight success. As I reflect on how I started on this journey with Michael 17 years ago, it is truly inspiring to see the impact AvidXchange has had on the city of Charlotte and the financial technology industry. Through all the ups and downs of growing AvidXchange, Michael has never missed a quarterly planning session these last 17 years. He used Rhythm to build a strong cadence of working on the business, planning what needs to be done, and relentlessly doing the work every single week, making critical adjustments when necessary to achieve his goals. This rhythm of thinking, planning, and doing has helped build habits that foster a culture of innovation, allowing them to stay ahead of market changes. It has also helped them roll out their plan to all employees every quarter with a town hall celebration. They work hard to achieve both vertical alignment as well as horizontal alignment between departments and different teams.

Building and maintaining a culture of innovation and performance as well as growing leaders is a huge challenge for growing companies. AvidXchange has been able to grow top leaders from within the organization as well as hire top talent. Bringing top talent in and integrating them with rising stars has allowed their leadership team to grow and keep pace with growth opportunities. Their employees are some of the most engaged that I have ever seen!

That’s what it takes to build an overnight success. That’s what it took to build a unicorn (a privately held company with a valuation greater than $1 billion).

This was a huge day. Congratulations, Michael! Your dream of creating the Silicon of the South is slowly and surely becoming a reality. Congratulations to every member of AvidXchange. 

Michael will be speaking at this year’s Breakthrough Conference. In his keynote, "Becoming an Industry Giant," he will share the behind-the-scenes story of how AvidXchange uses the Rhythm System as their secret weapon.