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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 realized 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 did the Sage range grow and our business grew stronger and stronger.

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

We understand our customers’ needs and the challenges they face. Like them, Sage has innovation and an entrepreneurial spirit at heart. Today we have millions of customers across the 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 Entered the US market
1992 Entered the French market
1999 Entered the Portuguese and Swiss markets
Became part of the FTSE 100
2000 Reached two million customers worldwide
2003 Entered seven new markets
2005 Entered the Polish market
2007 Surpassed five million customers worldwide
2009 Surpassed six million customers worldwide
2012 Entered 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