Constituent relationship management firm Keela has been acquired by Aplos Software and will become part of a three-application cloud solution for nonprofits. Aplos’ flagship product is accounting software. Aplos already owns Raisely, a fundraising software.

Terms of the deal were not disclosed. Aplos is backed by private equity firm Alpine Investors in San Francisco.

The plan is to have all three products on one platform, according to Anush Vinod, CEO of Aplos in Fresno, California. “We are building one cohesive front-end system,” he said, with “one design language, one look and feel.” Vinod described the target audience as “mid-market” of between $1 million and $10 million in revenue, although it is intended for any sized organization.

He explained the similarity of the components. “These were not built by institutions. They were built by users,” he said. Keela has baseline artificial intelligence built in and Raisely has machine learning. Aplos is working on several AI-driven technologies, said Vinod. There is a “stick in the ground” to have a single sign-in for the platform by late 2024 or early spring 2025, he said.

The name Keela will be kept, Vinod said. There are 200 employees across the three firms and what he described as minimal overlap, but strong alignment, of clients. Aplos started looking for a CRM component during the fall of 2023.

Founded in 2009, Aplos Software develops finance software for nonprofits and churches. Aplos has had more than 10,000 clients. It was acquired by Alpine Software Group (ASG) in December 2021, with the deal announced in February 2022. Raisely was acquired by ASG in 2023.

Shortly thereafter founding, Aplos launched a web-based accounting solution. The firm released an online donation product, along with a CRM and communication tool, in 2014 and unveiled Advanced Accounting in 2016, the same year the firm secured $4 million in Series A funding from San Joaquin Capital. There was also seed funding in both 2009 and 2012.

Along the way, Keela has had investments from Active Impact Investments, Emerging Ventures, Spring Activator, WUTIF, Stonewood Investors and Pallasite Ventures. Keela founder Nejeed Kassam will take a non-executive advisory role with the company while most of the management will stay with the firm, said Vinod.

Keela has worked with more than 1,000 nonprofits across the U.S. and Canada for acquiring and retaining donors via the CRM and personalized communications tools, resulting in more than $2 billion (CAD) raised since its founding in 2013 in Vancouver B.C., Canada, according to data from the firm.

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Source From Non Profit Times