Vertex took 42 years to go public, and it got there by doing one dull job well: sales tax. Every sale a large company makes can owe a different tax in each city, state and country. The rules change all the time. Vertex sold the software that kept track. By July 2020 the pandemic had pushed more shopping online, and tax rules for online sellers were growing more complex. Investors who wanted steady software revenue saw a rare old company coming to market.

A Consulting Shop in Pennsylvania

Ray Westphal founded Vertex in 1978. It started as a small tax systems consulting firm and grew into a software company based in King of Prussia, Pennsylvania. The bet was that tax compliance was too complex for big companies to handle by hand. Vertex built engines that plug into a company's accounting and ordering systems. They calculate sales and use taxes and value-added taxes, and they handle filing and reporting.

Priced Above the Range

Vertex priced 21.15 million shares at $19 on July 28, 2020, well above its $14 to $16 range. It raised $402 million and began trading on Nasdaq the next day as VERX. Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley led the deal. The company kept growing as a subscription business. In 2026 it guided to between $825 million and $830 million in revenue. Vertex still trades on Nasdaq.

Cover: Summit of the Sierras, Thomas Moran. Art Institute of Chicago, public domain. Chosen for a mountain summit (the vertex).