Pleo

Pleo is a Danish company offering a diverse set of expense management and payout tools. This includes a business expense card and non-card expense management platform - dubbed “Pocket” - to handle reimbursements. Pleo also offers a platform to manage business payouts. Both platforms can be integrated with third-party accounting software (including QuickBooks, Xero, and Sage).  In October 2023 , Pleo enhanced its product range with vendor cards and overdrafts, to centralize payments and offer faster liquidity access, respectively.

The platform is offered through a freemium model, and Pleo charges a monthly fee (starting at GBP 9.99) per user. The paid packages include several additional features such as analytics dashboards, subscription management, and approval automation. However, the company reportedly generated most of its revenue (around 70% as of July 2021) from interchange fees charged from bank accounts when customers used their cards. 

Key customers and partnerships

Pleo primarily targets SMBs, and it had over 20,000 customers across Europe as of April 2022. The company was present across six European countries in December 2021 and had plans to expand to the rest of Europe by 2023, with a target of around one million users by 2025.  

Pleo partnered with British open banking platform Yapily in September 2022, to enable UK users to top-up Pleo accounts directly from their bank accounts, using Yapily Payments. The companies planned to roll out open banking payments across Europe in the subsequent months, commencing with the Netherlands and France.  

Funding and financials

In May 2024 , Pleo secured a USD 42.9 million debt financing facility from HSBC Innovation Banking UK. The funding was used to expand its credit offering across Europe to unlock new customers in new markets and currencies. 

Pleo raised USD 350 million in Series C funding in 2021, including USD 200 million in December and USD 150 million in July (reportedly the largest ever Series C funding for a Danish startup). The company’s valuation nearly tripled between the rounds to reach USD 4.7 billion in December 2021. The funds were earmarked to support the company’s international expansion plans and product development.