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About Sage

How we started

About Sage

How we started
From local start up to global success story

Like many of our customers, we began as a start-up business. Our founder David Goldman wanted to automate the print estimating and basic accounting process in his own business. He worked with a team of Newcastle University students to develop software to manage this more efficiently.

David realised that other companies could also benefit from this and formed Sage in 1981 to begin selling the software. In doing so he defined a category and today we remain a global market leader in that space.

As desktop PCs became widespread, so the Sage range grew and our business went from strength to strength.

We floated on the London Stock Exchange in 1989 and in 1999 we entered the FTSE 100 where we remain.

We understand our customers’ needs and the challenges they face. Like them, Sage has innovation and entrepreneurial spirit at heart. Today we have millions of customers across UK and Ireland, mainland Europe, North America, South Africa, Australia and Asia. 

Timeline

   
1981 Sage founded in Newcastle-upon-Tyne
1989 Listed on the London Stock Exchange
1991 Sage enters the US market
1992 Sage enters the French market
1999 Sage enters the Portuguese and Swiss markets
Becomes part of the FTSE 100
2000 Reached 2 million customers worldwide
2003 Enters 7 new markets
2005 Enters the Polish market
2007 Surpassed 5 million customers worldwide
2009 Surpassed 6 million customers worldwide
2012 Enters the Brazilian market

Donald Brydon becomes chairman
2015 Sage transforms the future of business payments with Salary and Supplier Payments
2017  Sage announces strategic partnership with Fairsail
  Sage announces the acquisition of Intacct
  Sage introduces Sage Business Cloud
2018 Appointment of Steve Hare as group chief executive officer
2019 Sage awarded Business Superbrand status for 2019
  Acquisition of AutoEntry
  Acquisition of CakeHR, now SageHR
  Launch of Sage Intacct in UK & Australia
2020
 Launch of Sage Intacct in South Africa
  Sage announces minority investment in Brightpearl
2021  Sage announces minority investment in Countingup
  Sage acquires Task Sheriff
  Sage announces partnership with Tide 
  Sage acquires Brightpearl  
 2022 Sage acquires Futrli
  Sage expands partnership with Microsoft
  Sage acquires Lockstep
  Sage acquires Spherics
 2023 Sage acquires Corecon
  Sage acquires BidMatrix 
  Launch of Sage Intacct in France 
  Sage Intacct Payroll expands into Canada 
  Integration between Sage Intacct, Sage Payroll and Sage HR in South Africa
  Sage introduces Sage Active in continental Europe  
 2024 Launch of Sage Copilot, Sage's first generative AI-powered assistant
  Sage acquires Infineo 
  Sage acquires Anyvl
  Sage acquires ForceManager