BlackLine Closes NetNow Acquisition, CFO Prioritizes Integration

BlackLine has closed its acquisition of NetNow, a Canadian credit risk software maker, and chief financial officer Patrick Villanova said integration should ideally take no more than a year. The BlackLine NetNow acquisition was announced on September 21, 2026, without a price.

Villanova, who has been CFO since March 2025, told CFO Dive in an interview published on October 7 that his focus is merging the two companies’ back-office systems and teams. He said he is not responsible for the technical product integration, but is closely involved in the cultural and efficiency side. He wants finance and accounting fully joined up so the company speaks with one voice.

For finance teams, the deal moves BlackLine into the decision that comes before an invoice exists. Credit approval and customer onboarding sit upstream of collections, cash application and the payment terms a customer is granted, and BlackLine now owns software for that step.

BlackLine NetNow acquisition: what was announced

BlackLine, listed on Nasdaq as BL, announced the purchase of NetNow on September 21. The company did not disclose the price, the financing or a closing date. The announcement described the deal as completed, and CFO Dive described it as closed when it reported Villanova’s remarks.

The legal advisers are on record. Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati and Blake, Cassels & Graydon advised BlackLine, while Lightning Partners was NetNow’s exclusive financial adviser and Fasken Martineau DuMoulin its legal adviser.

NetNow’s services remain live for customers. BlackLine has not named any of them, and it has not said how many companies use the product or what it earns.

The deal follows BlackLine’s purchase of WiseLayer, a New York company that builds AI agents for accruals and payroll accounting. BlackLine announced that acquisition on December 15, 2025, again without terms, and said it would place the agents inside its Verity suite. Details are on the company’s investor relations site.

What NetNow does for credit teams

NetNow was founded in 2022 by Nauman Hafeez, who is chief executive, Eli Costea, chief operating officer, and Soroush Arghavan, chief technology officer. Its platform automates the steps before a sale on credit: credit applications, trade references, risk assessment, fraud detection and ongoing monitoring.

Customers fill in digital applications in place of paper and PDF forms. The software combines trade references, third-party credit bureau data and banking data into a credit view of the applicant. It flags high-risk or fraudulent applications before a contract is signed, then monitors the portfolio for changes in customer risk.

Andy Lilley, managing director of Invoice-to-Cash at BlackLine, said: “Credit is one of the earliest and most consequential financial decisions a company makes in the customer relationship.”

Hafeez said credit teams “should have better information, smarter technology, and more efficient ways to manage customer risk.”

Why the deal matters for finance teams

BlackLine’s Invoice-to-Cash product covers the period from invoice to cash receipt. NetNow extends it earlier, so a credit decision made at onboarding can be connected to what later happens in receivables and cash flow.

That link is the commercial argument. A credit limit set from a bank reference in week one can be tested against how the customer actually pays in month six, inside the same platform rather than across two vendors.

BlackLine said the deal supports its Agentic Financial Operations strategy, with an emphasis on transparency, human oversight and auditability. Those are the conditions auditors and controllers set before they accept automated decisions in the ledger.

The company is best known for financial close software, and it reported 4,260 customers at June 30, 2026. Adding credit risk gives those existing customers a reason to widen their use of the platform, rather than a new vendor to assess.

Integration plan and what Villanova said

Villanova said BlackLine plans to fold NetNow’s offerings into a single invoice-to-cash platform. The faster the products are integrated, he said, “the more value it’ll bring to our customers.”

He declined to give a precise timeline. A good integration, he said, should ideally take no more than a year.

The back-office work he described is the unglamorous part. Two finance teams, two sets of ledgers and two billing and reporting processes have to become one, and the products have to connect to the customer’s own systems through ERP integration. Villanova joined BlackLine in 2015 and was chief accounting officer for six years before becoming CFO. He spent 16 years at PricewaterhouseCoopers before that.

He also explained why BlackLine bought rather than built. The question, he said, was how long it would take to build the solution in-house, and “time is everything.”

BlackLine’s own collections team tested NetNow as a proof of concept before the deal. Villanova said he asked whether the product was easy to use and whether a customer would buy it. He said success will be measured by whether the acquisitions are working and selling.

Guidance and the cost of the BlackLine NetNow acquisition

BlackLine has not said how the deal affects its financial guidance. The last guidance came on August 4, with second-quarter results, and does not mention NetNow.

Second-quarter revenue was $187.8 million, up 9.2% from a year earlier. The company expects full-year 2026 revenue of $765 million to $769 million, and third-quarter revenue of $193 million to $195 million. Full-year non-GAAP operating margin is guided at 24.1% to 24.6%, with non-GAAP net income of $177 million to $182 million.

Acquisition costs sit outside the non-GAAP figures. BlackLine’s non-GAAP definitions exclude transaction-related costs, which were zero in the second quarter and $2.9 million for the first six months of 2026, according to the results filed with the SEC. NetNow’s own revenue and cost base have not been disclosed, so the effect on margins cannot be calculated from public data.

BlackLine has not yet announced a date for its third-quarter results. Last year it reported on November 6.

The competition in invoice-to-cash

BlackLine is not alone in selling receivables software with credit features. HighRadius, valued at $3.1 billion at its last disclosed round in March 2021, and France’s Sidetrade both sell AI-driven receivables products, and venture-backed start-ups are targeting the same ground.

Buying a credit specialist is a faster route than building one. It is also the second AI-related purchase in ten months, after WiseLayer, which suggests BlackLine intends to keep acquiring rather than develop everything itself.

Finance teams comparing options in the close and receivables market can review BlackLine alternatives. Those already on the platform will want to know whether NetNow becomes a separately licensed module or part of the existing Invoice-to-Cash subscription. BlackLine has not published pricing for it.

The next dated milestone is the third-quarter results, where BlackLine will give its first formal update on guidance since the deal was announced. Villanova’s own deadline is about a year away.