BEIJING, Sept. 9, 2026 /PRNewswire/ — A news report from The Economic Observer: Chinese high-end brand Laopu Gold, through its conscious choice of branding, has become a key benchmark closely observed by overseas luxury researchers. Its robust performance growth, premium store locations, distinctive product portfolio and strong consumer popularity have made it a leading case for observing the value re-evaluation of high-end consumption.

IMD is ranked among the world’s top three business schools for executive education. Professor Stéphane JG Girod specializes in the global luxury industry, corporate strategic transformation and organizational innovation.

Professor Girod began to focus on Laopu Gold earlier this year, inspired by an industry report that shocked the European luxury sector: Laopu Gold’s sales in the Chinese market in 2025 surpassed the jewellery business of the Richemont Group. This breakthrough made him realize that Chinese brands are redefining industry rules, with Laopu Gold serving as a typical example of challenging Western luxury houses through innovative business models and the integration of traditional craftsmanship and modern design.

Professor Girod conducted dedicated research on Laopu Gold recently. Taking the brand as a core case, he analyzed the unique brand value and development path of emerging Chinese luxury brands, as well as pivotal shifts taking place in high-end consumption.

From Professor Girod’s perspective, the most noteworthy strength of Laopu Gold lies in its integration of 100% solid gold (24K), a reinterpretation of Chinese ancestral aesthetics for contemporary lives, traditional craftsmanship, a new retail experience that breaks with standardized Western store design, and customized services, forming a unique luxury value proposition and systematic brand ecosystem.

For a long time, Western luxury brands have dominated China’s high-end consumer market. International reputation, iconic logos, symbolic social status and long brand heritage were the core drivers of luxury consumption. Today, consumers are reconnecting with their own culture. They are shifting from pursuing widely recognized mainstream luxury brands to selecting products that align with their personal aesthetics and cultural roots. Modern consumers pay closer attention to material quality, craftsmanship and service standards. These are constants in luxury, and Laopu Gold adheres to these practices. Alongside its approach to retail design and collections, Laopu Gold pays particularly close attention to the authenticity of the value behind high-end pricing.

The considerations related to “value” matter greatly to the brand: many jewellery brands claim to create heirlooms that can be passed down through generations and retain their value over time. This is, by the way, currently driving the success of branded jewellery, which is one of the few categories to keep growing amid the overall global luxury downturn. But thanks to its choice of 24K gold (which creates its own headaches in terms of margin management for the brand), Laopu Gold offers greater long-term value and value-retention potential in product categories where Western brands tend to use 18K gold.

Laopu Gold perfectly embodies this market shift. Industry data shows that in 2025 and from January to June 2026, Laopu Gold consistently ranked first globally among luxury brands in both single-store sales efficiency and floor area efficiency. In the jewellery category, its performance was several times higher than that of other international jewellery brands. It is now the only Chinese brand to have entered the high jewellery segment of the luxury market.

This fundamental shift poses new challenges to international luxury brands. Professor Girod notes that over the past decade or more, many luxury brands achieved growth in the Chinese market through price hikes, expansion and high market exposure. However, these practices have led to brand dilution and a disconnect between pricing and actual product value. For increasingly sophisticated Chinese consumers, Western luxury symbolism is no longer sufficient. They are re-evaluating the essence of high-end consumption, focusing on superior quality, genuine product value, and innovation in cultural expression and service experience.

Interview with Professor Girod: Laopu Gold Is Far More Than Gold

Q: How do you view the ongoing changes in China’s luxury market and consumer behaviour?

Professor Girod: Chinese consumers today have a wide range of choices, extending far beyond established Western luxury brands. A new generation of outstanding Chinese brands has emerged with highly innovative retail concepts. These brands revitalize and reshape traditional cultural heritage through modern products. Their store designs are sophisticated, integrating traditional Chinese cultural elements with contemporary, forward-looking aesthetics.

The Chinese luxury market has become increasingly diverse. Consumers are now more rational about their spending, carefully evaluating whether a purchase is worthwhile and what unique experience it can deliver. This creates enormous opportunities for emerging Chinese luxury brands. From my observations, Laopu Gold has successfully delivered unique value in this emerging market segment.

Sophisticated Chinese consumers are now paying for brand essence and styling rather than merely brand logos. They are no longer willing to pay premium prices blindly, requiring products to deliver authentic and substantial value. The functionality-quality-price equation that Chinese brands offer makes their value proposition very compelling.

Q: Against such market changes, why has Laopu Gold entered your research scope?

Professor Girod: Chinese consumers are increasingly drawn to innovative products that resonate with their cultural identity, and Laopu Gold precisely fulfils this demand. During my field research in China, I found that Laopu Gold operates a complete, mature brand system, featuring innovative retail experiences and differentiated product lines.

The brand boasts exceptional aesthetic standards. It interprets classic Chinese cultural symbols while creating contemporary artistic works for modern audiences. Its highly recognizable store design, modelled after Ming- and Song-style study rooms, delivers an immersive and refined retail experience that resonates deeply with mature consumers. I was struck by the tea ceremony in the 

Laopu Gold features a multi-tiered product portfolio, covering daily wearable accessories and high-end artistic goldware. While conventional jewellery is purchased predominantly by women from the middle classes who buy for themselves, artistic goldware—including objects of virtu—attracts a large number of mature high-net-worth individuals. This is a product segment with distinct Chinese cultural characteristics and profound heritage that could resonate well with connoisseurs on international markets because the designs are universally attractive and chic. The brand’s unique styling, market positioning and creative capabilities are fully reflected in its jewellery and goldware collections. This has deepened my understanding of China’s luxury market and helps explain the brand’s immense popularity among local consumers.

Q: How do you define Laopu Gold’s high-end positioning? What differentiates it from other jewellery brands?

Professor Girod: Laopu Gold is engaged in long-term brand building that fully complies with core luxury industry principles. Its inherent creativity, profound cultural connections, premium materials and exquisite craftsmanship collectively deliver value that far exceeds the intrinsic value of gold itself. Notably, while some luxury brands are considering introducing less expensive materials, Laopu Gold remains focused on gold, a material of high intrinsic value. This is an important signal.

By adhering strictly to 24K pure gold without compromise or shortcut, but also by shifting from gold sold by the weight to fixed prices Laopu Gold has successfully built consumers’ trust in its value proposition based on creativity even more than on the price of the metal. Both consumer excitement and trust are essential.

Q: Do you believe Laopu Gold already possesses some of the characteristics of a luxury brand? What direction might its future development take?

Professor Girod: There is no unified definition of luxury even within the industry. Some define luxury by scarcity, yet scarcity in the luxury sector is often artificially managed. In my definition, luxury represents a commitment to ultra-high quality and creativity, a promise that products will retain their value over time, and a foundation in the beauty of the product. I believe Laopu Gold meets these criteria. If anyone says that Laopu Gold is not a genuine luxury brand, then one could say that there are no luxury brands in China—or even in the world. Laopu Gold is not trying to mimic Western brands or to be a luxury brand anyway. Most of the brands I study in China eschew the label “luxury.” They all have studied Western brands, they often admire them, but they all want to invent their own path towards a more “honest luxury” as I call it. 

With solid foundations in creative design, refined craftsmanship and service experience, a diversified product portfolio, pricing discipline, and cultural inheritance, Laopu Gold has established important brand pillars that can support its development as a long-term player in the luxury sector rather than a brand focused only on short-term gains.

I study whether traditional Chinese craftsmanship and Eastern aesthetics can evolve into a global language of luxury. What I can already say is that Chinese brands will be able to internationalize because they are not simply concentrating on aesthetics; they are rethinking the business model too. Traditional luxury itself is in flux; my new book “Purposeful Luxury” (Wiley, September 17, 2026) shows that all luxury brands have to considerably adapt to stay legitimate in a world grappling with growing environmental pressures, social polarization and conflict. What is certain is that Laopu Gold has beautiful products, classic cultural elements, precious and distinctive materials and craftsmanship, and a carefully designed product portfolio. These strengths have already laid a solid foundation for entering international markets. If the brand opened a creatively designed store in Europe, would European consumers embrace it? I will explore this question further in my Research Report on Chinese Luxury Brands, scheduled for release on November 5, 2026.

CYBERJAYA, Malaysia, Sept. 9, 2026 /PRNewswire/ — Futurise Sdn Bhd has released its Impact Report 2025: Shaping Future-Ready Regulations, highlighting a year of progress in advancing regulatory innovation, strengthening Malaysia’s emerging technology ecosystem and supporting the development of future-ready policies and regulatory frameworks.

Throughout 2025, Futurise delivered six National Regulatory Sandbox (NRS) guidelines, two policy labs, four Regulatory Talks (RegTalks), two industry studies and two strategic collaborations, reflecting its continued role as a trusted intermediary between government, regulators and industry.

At the heart of Futurise’s work is the National Regulatory Sandbox (NRS), which enables innovative products, services and business models to be tested within controlled environments while allowing regulators to better understand emerging risks and develop appropriate regulatory responses.

Among the key regulatory milestones in 2025 was Futurise’s work with the Department of Personal Data Protection (JPDP) to support the development of risk-based regulatory frameworks following amendments to Malaysia’s personal data protection legislation. These included guidelines addressing cross-border data transfers, automated decision-making and profiling, Data Protection by Design and Data Protection Impact Assessments.

Futurise also continued to advance Malaysia’s Advanced Air Mobility (AAM) ecosystem in collaboration with the Civil Aviation Authority of Malaysia (CAAM), including the development of Malaysia’s AAM Concept of Operations. The framework is intended to support the safe integration and future testing of technologies such as electric vertical take-off and landing (eVTOL) aircraft and drones within Malaysian airspace.

Beyond regulatory sandboxes, Futurise contributed to major national policy and industry initiatives. This includes supporting the development of the National Cloud Computing Policy (NCCP) with the Ministry of Digital and leading work on Malaysia’s Autonomous Vehicle Roadmap, alongside initiatives aimed at strengthening the country’s readiness for emerging mobility, artificial intelligence, data-driven industries and next-generation digital services.

Futurise’s regulatory innovation work also gained international recognition in 2025 when the company received the WITSA Global Innovation & Tech Excellence Award under the Public-Private Partnership category at the WITSA Global AI Summit in Taiwan. The recognition underscored Futurise’s approach of bringing together government, regulators and industry to enable innovation while safeguarding public interest.

“2025 demonstrated how regulatory innovation can move beyond policy discussions into practical frameworks that enable new technologies to be tested, understood and eventually adopted responsibly. Our role has always been to serve as the bridge between innovators and regulators, so that regulation can keep pace with technological change without compromising safety, trust and public interest.

As Malaysia accelerates its digital and technology ambitions, regulatory agility will become increasingly important. Futurise remains committed to supporting government and industry in building an ecosystem where innovation can move from experimentation towards responsible and scalable implementation,” said Siti Shafinaz Salim, Acting CEO, Futurise Sdn Bhd.

The Impact Report also highlights Futurise’s efforts to connect regulatory and technology development with future talent and capacity building through Akademi Kecemerlangan Sukan Dron Negara (AKSADRON), its national centre of excellence for drone sports. A dedicated AKSADRON Impact Report will be released soon, providing a more comprehensive account of the academy’s progress, achievements and contribution to Malaysia’s drone sports ecosystem and future talent pipeline.

Looking ahead, Futurise will continue to strengthen its role in regulatory innovation by working across government, regulators, industry and academia to anticipate regulatory challenges associated with emerging technologies and translate experimentation into practical policy and regulatory outcomes. As Malaysia advances towards becoming an AI Nation, Futurise will contribute by supporting a regulatory environment that enables the responsible adoption and deployment of AI and other emerging technologies.

Through the NRS and its broader regulatory innovation initiatives, Futurise is well positioned to support the AI Nation agenda by identifying regulatory gaps, facilitating cross-sector experimentation, and generating evidence and insights that can inform future policies, guidelines and regulatory frameworks. This will help ensure that Malaysia’s AI ambitions are supported not only by technological advancement, but also by agile, trusted and future-ready regulation.

The Futurise Impact Report 2025: Shaping Future-Ready Regulations reflects the organisation’s broader commitment to ensuring that Malaysia’s regulatory environment evolves alongside technological advancement. As AI increasingly transforms industries, public services and the economy, Futurise will continue to serve as an enabler between innovation and regulation, helping create the conditions for emerging technologies to grow responsibly while strengthening the country’s competitiveness in the digital and future economy.

About Futurise

Futurise is a company under the Ministry of Finance. It is mandated by the Government of Malaysia to manage the National Regulatory Sandbox, providing public policy advisory and acting as a key enabler of regulatory solutions to expedite innovation and future-proof Malaysia’s economy.

Follow Futurise social media for updates:

FB: https://www.facebook.com/futurisemy/
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/futurisemy
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/futurise/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/FuturiseMY

Hong Kong climate-tech company showcases its technology at VivaTech 2026, integrating carbon capture and utilization directly into existing concrete production lines

HONG KONG, Sept. 9, 2026 /PRNewswire/ — As climate change intensifies and extreme weather events become more frequent worldwide, decarbonization is no longer a distant ambition but an urgent industrial priority. In the construction sector, one of the world’s major sources of carbon emissions, the challenge is clear: how to advance low-carbon building materials without compromising efficiency or effective cost control.

Laputa Eco-Construction Materials Co. Ltd. (“Laputa”), a climate-tech company originating from Hong Kong, is addressing this challenge with a practical and deployable solution. The company integrates carbon capture and utilization (CCU) technology directly into concrete production, converting carbon dioxide that would otherwise be released into the atmosphere into low-carbon construction materials. The solution can be adopted within existing production lines without requiring large-scale infrastructure overhaul.

This approach means decarbonization does not need to wait for a complete rebuild of the industry. Instead, it can begin within existing systems, enabling traditional building materials manufacturers to transition with lower barriers to adoption.

Unlike many climate technologies that remain at the laboratory or pilot stage, Laputa has developed an integrated solution covering system design, equipment assembly, and on-site deployment. This ability to move from innovation to implementation strengthens its commercialization potential and positions Hong Kong innovation for broader international relevance.

With support from The Hong Kong Productivity Council (HKPC) under its “The Cradle – Go Global Service Centre” (The Cradle), Laputa recently showcased its technology at VivaTech 2026 in Paris, using the event as a springboard to accelerate its European expansion. As the European market continues to push for low-carbon and circular economy solutions, demand is growing for technologies that can be implemented immediately and at scale.

At the same time, through collaboration with its affiliated company CS Tech — the CCU technology provider and licensor — Laputa has further strengthened its technical stability and production scalability, reinforcing its foundation for overseas growth.

Dixon Chan, a founder of Laputa said: “Climate change is not a future issue; it is happening now. Our goal is not only to develop technology, but to make sure it can actually be adopted and scaled. Starting from Hong Kong, we want to bring practical low-carbon solutions to different parts of the world.”

From Hong Kong to Europe and beyond, Laputa’s growth journey reflects more than the progress of one company. It signals an important shift in local innovation — from research-led development to application-driven impact. As climate challenges become more urgent, the companies that can bring real solutions to real industrial settings will play a defining role in the global low-carbon construction.

About Laputa Eco-Construction Materials Co. Ltd.

Laputa Eco-Construction Materials Co. Ltd. is a Hong Kong-based climate-tech company focused on applying carbon capture and utilization (CCU) technology in construction materials. The company is committed to advancing low-carbon construction and sustainable development through integrated CCU solutions spanning system design, equipment integration, and on-site deployment.

DUBAI, UAE, Sept. 9, 2026 /PRNewswire/ — TerraPay, a global money movement company, and Alipay+, Ant International’s unified wallet gateway, today announced a strategic partnership to enable seamless cross-border QR payments for digital wallets, significantly enhancing global payments interoperability for users across Latin America, the Middle East and Africa.

In the initial phase, 15 of the digital wallets across Africa that are connected to Xend, TerraPay’s wallet interoperability network, will be able to pay at more than 150 million merchants across Alipay+’s global merchant ecosystem. The partnership also expands TerraPay’s cross-border payment capabilities from account-to-account to global in-store acceptance.

Pay Like a Local, anywhere in the World

Many continue to face friction when transacting across borders. While their digital wallet works seamlessly locally, often when travelling, they revert to cash, foreign exchange counters, and payment methods that feel unfamiliar and costly.

Through the Xend, TerraPay’s wallet interoperability network, wallet partners across the world piloting with Africa, can enable their users to pay directly at Alipay+’s global merchant ecosystem. Wallet users can simply scan a QR code to pay, using the same wallet they already trust.

“The home wallet on your phone, that is from Kenya or Colombia or any country, should work the same way in Singapore or China or anywhere in the world, as easily as it does at home,” said Ambar Sur, Founder and CEO, TerraPay. “That’s the promise of Xend. This partnership with Alipay+ is a major step toward making cross-border wallet payments as natural as paying locally.”

Supporting a growing mobile economy

As digital wallets become the preferred payment option, users increasingly expect their trusted financial interfaces to work seamlessly across borders, merchants, and payment ecosystems. Wallet providers have built powerful domestic ecosystems – loyal users, trusted rails, meaningful scale, yet cross-border utility remains limited.

Xend, TerraPay’s wallet interoperability network solves this by connecting to a global ecosystem, via Alipay+, through a single integration, enabling wallet providers to offer their customers something genuinely new: the ability to spend internationally, without switching apps or carrying cards. Alipay+ connects over 50 international payment partners to more than 150 million merchants across 220 destination markets, including through over 10 national payment systems.

“By bringing TerraPay’s network of wallets to Alipay+, we’re helping more people and businesses connect across borders, creating new pathways for growth, and unlocking new opportunities,” said Edward Yue, General Manager of Alipay+ Global Power Center, Ant International. “This reflects our joint commitment towards a more connected and inclusive global commerce ecosystem.”

Ant International is a leading global digital payment, digitisation and financial technology provider, offering a unified techfin platform supporting financial institutions and merchants of all sizes to achieve inclusive growth. It’s unified wallet gateway, Alipay+, provides cross-border payment and digital services that help connect global merchants to consumers. 

About TerraPay

TerraPay simplifies global money movement, providing a single connection to one of the most expansive cross-border payment networks, regulated across multiple markets. Our network enables payments to receiving and sending countries worldwide, reaching a vast network of mobile wallets, bank accounts, and cards. We make money transfers instant, reliable, transparent, and fully compliant for its partners, connecting them to 7.5Bn+ bank accounts, in 156+ countries. We work behind the scenes as the trusted partners for some of the world’s most innovative financial players, from banks and digital wallets to MTOs, corporates and fintech platforms. On a mission to create a borderless financial world, TerraPay launched Xend – the first-of-its-kind wallet interoperability network, enabling secure, real-time cross-border payments, to and from 3.7B wallets through a single, unified connection. TerraPay is headquartered in London, with offices in cities including, Dubai, Miami, Milan, Singapore, Bogota, Johannesburg, Kampala, Bangalore.

Learn more at www.terrapay.com

About Alipay+

Ant International’s Alipay+ is a unified wallet gateway with cross-border payment and digitisation services that help connect global merchants to consumers. Consumers enjoy seamless payments a broad choice of deals and the convenience of digital services using their preferred payment app/e-wallet while travelling abroad. Many small and medium-sized businesses already use Alipay+ digital tools to enhance efficiency and achieve omni-channel growth.

Media Contacts

TerraPay: juveria.n@terrapay.com
Ant International / Alipay+: pr@ant-intl.com 

Forward-looking statements in this release are subject to risks and uncertainties. Transaction volumes and network reach figures are approximate and subject to change.

New study finds a composite Avalara customer realized $1.2 million in benefits and $881,000 in net present value over three years, with payback in under six months

SYDNEY, Sept. 9, 2026 /PRNewswire/ — Avalara, Inc., the agentic AI leader in global tax and compliance, today announced the results of a new commissioned study conducted by Forrester Consulting: The Total Economic Impact™ (TEI) Of Avalara. The study found that a composite organization representative of Avalara customers achieved a 322% return on investment over three years, with an investment payback period of less than six months.

“We believe a 322% ROI and payback in under six months demonstrate that compliance automation is a substantial financial advantage,” said Jayme Fishman, Chief Strategy and Product Officer at Avalara. “By combining trusted tax content with automation and AI directly in the systems businesses already use, we help customers improve accuracy, operate with greater confidence, and make tax and compliance more reliable as their businesses grow.”

To examine the potential return on investment that organizations may realize by deploying Avalara products and services, Forrester Consulting interviewed seven decision-makers across industries with direct experience using Avalara. Forrester aggregated their experiences into a single composite business with 2,000 employees and $300 million in annual revenue.

Why the Study Matters for Tax and Finance Teams

Regulatory requirements continue to expand and grow more complex, making manual, spreadsheet-based tax compliance increasingly difficult to sustain. Before adopting Avalara, interviewees described relying on manual processes and legacy systems to calculate and manage sales and use tax, file returns and 1099 and W-9 forms, maintain rates, and apply exemptions. These approaches were time-consuming and led to inaccurate calculations, inconsistent exemption handling, and material compliance risk, including audit findings, penalties, and back taxes.

After investing in Avalara, interviewees’ organizations automated tax calculation, filing, and exemption management through a centralized system integrated with their ERP platforms. As a result, they improved accuracy and compliance while reducing manual effort and spending on third-party services.

Key Financial Findings

A three-year financial analysis of the composite organization demonstrated:

• 322% return on investment (ROI) over three years.
• $881,000 in net present value (NPV) over three years.
• $1.2 million in total benefits versus $274,000 in total costs over three years.
• Payback in less than six months.

Quantified Product-Level Value and Savings

Forrester quantified the following three-year, risk-adjusted present-value benefits for the composite organization:

• $317,000 saved by avoiding third-party services and additional full-time employees, allowing the organization to absorb growth in jurisdictions and compliance requirements without proportionally increasing headcount or consulting costs.
• $267,000 saved on use tax by automating taxable-purchase identification and use tax calculation and accrual, reducing up to 45 hours of manual review per month.
• $203,000 in labor savings from Avalara Exemption Certificate Management (ECM), which reduced certificates filed with errors by 95% through centralized, AI-assisted capture and validation.
• $96,000 saved by managing 1099 and W-9 preparation, validation, and submission within Avalara, reducing reliance on third-party filing providers.
• $93,000 in labor savings from Avalara Managed Returns, which eliminated 570 hours of work and reduced time spent on return filing by approximately 95%.
• $53,000 saved from Avalara VAT Reporting, which drove a 90% improvement in VAT compliance efficiency across multiple jurisdictions.
• $52,000 saved through improved audit preparation and avoided penalties, including a 90% efficiency gain in audit prep and roughly 36 hours saved per audit.
• $38,000 saved through participation in the Streamlined Sales Tax (SST) program using Avalara.
• $35,000 in labor savings from Avalara Tax Research, a 90% efficiency improvement that saved about 18 hours per month.

In addition to quantified savings, interviewed decision-makers highlighted significant unquantified benefits, including increased executive peace of mind, operational resilience, and seamless scalability without organizational strain.

Register to join Avalara and Forrester on October 7 to learn how organizations are realizing a 322% ROI with Avalara. This webinar will explore the findings from the Total Economic Impact™ study and the measurable business benefits of modernizing tax compliance.

About Avalara
Avalara is the agentic AI platform for global tax and compliance. For more than two decades, Avalara has built one of the most expansive libraries of tax content and integrations in the industry, processing more than 54 billion transactions annually and supporting millions of businesses worldwide. The company’s purpose-built AI agents automate end-to-end compliance with greater precision, from tax calculations and return filings to exemption certificate management and beyond. For more information, visit Avalara.com.

This study was commissioned by Avalara and conducted by Forrester Consulting. Results are based on the aggregated experiences of interviewed customers and a composite organization. Forrester makes no assumptions as to the potential ROI that other organizations will receive.

Investment to accelerate Tanda’s product innovation and global growth

BRISBANE, Australia and SAN FRANCISCO, Sept. 9, 2026 /PRNewswire/ — Thoma Bravo, the world’s largest software-focused investment firm, today announced a strategic growth investment in Tanda, a leading workforce management, payroll and HR platform for shift-based workers. Thoma Bravo’s investment will support Tanda’s continued product innovation, including the company’s AI roadmap and its expansion into new markets. Tanda’s co-founders will remain significant shareholders and will continue to lead the company, with Jake Phillpot remaining Chief Executive Officer. Terms of the transaction were not disclosed.

Tanda is the market leader in workforce management for shift-based employers, serving approximately 8,000 businesses globally across hospitality, retail, quick-service restaurants, healthcare and other frontline industries. Tanda’s integrated workforce management platform combines employee recruiting, onboarding, rostering, time and attendance, gross wage calculations and payroll on a single codebase. This natively built product suite enables employers in complex, highly regulated markets to manage compliance and ensure employees are paid accurately. Trusted by thousands of organizations, Tanda’s platform powers the daily operations of some of the most demanding frontline businesses in the world.

“Taking on an investor was a very big decision for Tanda,” said Jake Phillpot, Co-Founder & Chief Executive Officer of Tanda. “We’ve been a bootstrapped company with no outside capital since we were founded 14 years ago. What started as an idea when we were still housemates at university has become a global business that we have built without taking shortcuts. Through a lot of hard work, we have market-leading products, growing market share and so much more room to grow. We thought the time was right to take on our first investor.”

“Thoma Bravo was the obvious choice as our financial partner,” Phillpot continued. “They understand software at an extraordinary level, have spent decades helping companies like ours scale and share our ambition for what Tanda can become. By partnering with the world’s number one software investor, we intend to become the global category leader in our space. Most importantly, the things that make Tanda precious won’t change. The founders will still come to work every day, and we’ll still obsess over how we can make our products better for our customers.”

“Managing and compensating employees accurately is a fundamental obligation of all employers, yet it remains a universal challenge, particularly for businesses with shift-based employees,” said Carl Press, a Partner at Thoma Bravo. “Employers are frustrated by a patchwork of legacy systems that cannot address their complex needs and expose them to operational and legal risks. Jake and his co-founders identified this problem and built Tanda from the ground up with customers and their employees at the center of every product decision. In doing so, they’ve laid the groundwork to become the definitive AI-native workforce management solution in the shift-based economy. We couldn’t be more thrilled to help them drive the next chapter of accelerated growth and innovation.”

“Tanda has everything we look for in an investment: market leadership, a fiercely loyal customer base and a product-first founding team with deep domain expertise,” said Adam Kinalski, a Principal at Thoma Bravo. “Jake and his co-founders have built a rare business that matches strong product-market fit with exceptional operational execution. We’re excited to partner with them on their mission to make Tanda the global standard in workforce management and payroll software for shift-based employers.”

Barrenjoey Advisory Pty Ltd is serving as financial advisor to Tanda, and SBA Law is serving as legal counsel. Piper Sandler & Co. is serving as exclusive financial advisor to Thoma Bravo, and Kirkland & Ellis LLP and Allens are serving as legal counsel.

About Thoma Bravo
Thoma Bravo is the world’s largest software-focused investment firm, with approximately $170 billion in assets under management as of June 30, 2026. Partnering with some of the world’s most sophisticated investors, Thoma Bravo’s private equity and private credit platforms reflect a focused investment strategy, supported by disciplined execution, deep sector expertise and leadership continuity. Over the past 20-plus years, Thoma Bravo has acquired or invested in approximately 600 software and technology companies, representing more than $325 billion of aggregate enterprise value (including control and non-control investments, as well as add-on acquisitions). Learn more at thomabravo.com and on LinkedIn.

About Tanda
Founded in 2012 and headquartered in Brisbane, Australia, Tanda (operating internationally as Workforce.com) is an all-in-one payroll, HR and workforce management system for businesses with shift-based and hourly workforces. Tanda’s platform brings rostering, time and attendance, award interpretation, compliance, payroll and HR onboarding together in a single system, helping employers in hospitality, retail, healthcare and other frontline industries schedule efficiently and pay employees accurately. The company serves thousands of customers across Australia, North America, the United Kingdom and Southeast Asia. For more information, visit tanda.co.

For Thoma Bravo

Abby Farr
Vice President, Communications & Marketing
+1 646-957-2067
afarr@thomabravo.com    

For Tanda

Georgie Pollok
Head of Marketing
media@tanda.com.au