Travel and expense technology companies Certify, Nexonia, ExpenseWatch and Tallie have merged to create what they are calling the largest independent company in the space.

K1 Investment Management is backing the merger to the tune of $125 million and, in a statement says “additional capital is available for further acquisitions.”

In the short-term the plan for the merged companies is to invest in technology and expand geographically.

According to the statement, the merged entity now sits behind Concur in terms of size.

Concur was acquired by SAP for $8.3 billion in September 2014 and was recently rebranded as SAP Concur.

Technology research company IDC estimates the market for travel and expense management software will reach $2.46 billion by 2020.

Robert Neveu, founder and CEO of Certify says:

“This deal is all about bringing the best expense management products to the most users everywhere in the world.

“We’re now in a much stronger position to develop products and serve customers in the US, Canada and internationally.”

According to the statement, the combined company will keep its offices across Canada and the US.

If the research is to be believed then there’s plenty of room for growth in the adoption of expense management systems. Studies show many companies still use manual processes with systems viewed as expensive and not user-friendly.

However, the development of apps to help record expenses as well as the push from a younger workforce will lead to more integrated systems providing a better user-experience.