<div>
  <ul>
    <li>
      <p>
        Plooto, a business payout and receipt management platform, raised USD 20 million (CAD 27 million) in Series B funding, led by Centana Growth Partners, with participation from FINTOP Capital and Luge Capital. This round brings the company&rsquo;s total funding up to around USD 26 million.&nbsp;
      </p>
    </li>
    <li>
      <p>
        The funds will be invested in customer expansion, launching new product lines, recruitment, and helping Plooto customize its offering for more businesses.
      </p>
    </li>
    <li>
      <p>
        <b>Analyst QuickTake: </b>
        The business payout management space has seen a steady influx of funding over the past three months. This includes funding rounds for 
        <a href="https://sp-edge.com/updates/15295">
          Vic.ai
        </a>
        , 
        <a href="https://sp-edge.com/updates/14990">
          TeamPay
        </a>
        , 
        <a href="https://sp-edge.com/updates/14029">
          Finexio
        </a>
        , 
        <a href="https://sp-edge.com/updates/13468">
          Regate
        </a>
        , 
        <a href="https://sp-edge.com/updates/13435">
          Candis
        </a>
        , and 
        <a href="https://sp-edge.com/updates/14360">
          Atlar
        </a>
        , who raised an aggregate of around USD 175 million during the period.
      </p>
    </li>
  </ul>
  <p>
  </p>
</div>


<div>
  <p>
    <a href="https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20221213005316/en/Payments-Automation-Platform-Plooto-Raises-20M-USD-27M-CAD-in-Series-B-Funding-Led-by-Centana-Growth-Partners">
      Press release
    </a>
  </p>
  <p>
    <a href="https://www.finsmes.com/2022/12/plooto-raises-20m-in-series-b-funding.html">
      FinSMEs
    </a>
  </p>
</div>


Business Expense Management

Plooto raises USD 20 million in Series B funding

ANALYST_QUICK_TAKE

PROMINENT_CATEGORY

<div>
 <p>Spendesk, a leading platform for managing business expenditures, has recently announced the launch of Spendesk Financial Services. This payment institution, which is overseen by ACPR, the French financial regulatory authority, is available to the 200,000 users across France and the European Union who represent the platform's 5,000 corporate clients.</p>
 <p>This newly unveiled institution provides a comprehensive range of services, including managing accounts, providing both physical and digital business cards, and facilitating transfers. To enable seamless end-to-end services, Spendesk Financial Services is integrated with the Spendesk spend management solution. This combination enables everything from procurement to payment management with continuous transaction monitoring and safeguards against fraud.</p>
 <p>In addition to these, Spendesk has become a primary member of the Visa network for issuing cards. There are also plans underway to augment its current offerings by incorporating more financial services by establishing key partnerships with providers specialized in these areas.</p>
</div> <p><b>Analyst QuickTake:<br>
 </b> This recent product development stems from a strategic partnership with Adyen in <a href="https:<br>
//sp-edge.com/updates/36423"> November 2024 </a> to enhance SMB spend management through a banking-as-a-service (BaaS) solution. By leveraging Adyen's BaaS infrastructure coupled with its banking licenses in the UK, US, and EU, Spendesk can now deliver a broader range of financial services.</p>

Spendesk launches payment institution Spendesk Financial Services

<div>
 <p>Modulr, a payment platform, has bought accounts payable automation specialist Nook, with financial details remaining undisclosed. Modulr plans to leverage this acquisition and launch Modulr AP, which will be powered by Nook, by the first quarter of 2025.</p>
 <p>With this launch, Modulr aims to enhance its payment solutions and expand further in the UK and European markets. This merger will also grant Nook's clients access to the advanced payment capabilities of Modulr.</p>
 <p>Nook, established in 2021, is a platform that automates accounts payable, managing complete invoice lifecycles. It boasts of Artificial Intelligence (AI) powered Optical Character Recognition (OCR) for invoice processing. Additionally, it supports customised approval workflows and seamless integration with existing accounting software.</p>
</div> <p><b>Analyst QuickTake:<br>
</b> This acquisition is part of Modulr's broader strategy to expand its services. In <a href="https:<br>
//thepaypers.com/payments-general/modulr-expands-xero-integration-to-include-payroll-services--1269925"> September 2024 </a> , Modulr integrated with Xero to include payroll services.</p>

Modulr acquires accounts payable automation firm Nook to expand capabilities and deliver enhanced payment solutions in UK

<div>
 <p>Spendesk, a spend management platform, has joined forces with Adyen, a fintech platform, to capitalize on Adyen's banking-as-a-service capabilities across several markets. The collaboration will utilize Adyen's banking licenses in the UK, US, and EU, giving Spendesk the opportunity to amplify its payment solution offerings. These include digital wallets, streamlined client onboarding, and boosted payment processing.</p>
 <p>The partnership is part of Spendesk's 2025 plan to speed up new product developments while ensuring regulatory compliance in its areas of operation. The ultimate goal is to revamp spend management workflows for small and medium-sized businesses (SMBs). This will be achieved by increasing visibility in the payment process, adding flexible payment options, and enhancing operational efficiency.</p>
</div> <p><b>Analyst QuickTake</b> :<br>
 This partnership builds on Spendesk's recent launch of its procurement and spend management tool for European SMBs in <a href="https:<br>
//sp-edge.com/updates/35131"> October 2024. </a> Adyen is based in the Netherlands and holds banking licenses across Europe, so the collaboration is expected to support Spendesk in expanding its operations and activities within the region.</p>

Spendesk partners with Adyen to enhance SMB spend management with banking-as-a-service solution

<div>
 <p>Expense management company Payhawk has entered into a partnership with J.P. Morgan Payments to improve banking and payment services through API integration. This collaboration allows Payhawk customers to store, exchange, and transfer money in more than 30 currencies within its platform, granting them direct access to bank accounts in multiple currencies and domestic payment channels, thus eliminating the previous dependency on intermediary banking-as-a-service providers.</p>
</div> <p><b>Analyst QuickTake</b> :<br>
 These services were previously offered through intermediary BaaS providers. The direct partnership with J.P. Morgan eliminates this intermediary layer, potentially improving efficiency and reducing Payhawk’s payout management solution costs.</p>

Payhawk partners with J.P. Morgan Payments to enhance multi-currency banking services

INCUMBENTS_PRESENT

<div>
 <p>Online travel aggregator, MakeMyTrip, has announced its plans to purchase the expense management segment of Cred-owned Happay. However, Happay will retain its payments business. The acquisition is expected to boost MakeMyTrip's corporate travel services, complementing existing platforms, MyBiz and Quest2Travel. These platforms serve over 59,000 small and medium businesses and 450 large corporations.</p>
 <p>Happay, established in 2012, offers business expense management solutions such as petty cash management, expense report automation, prepaid cards, and travel and employee expense management. Currently, it serves around 900 corporate clients.</p>
</div>

MakeMyTrip acquires Happay's expense management business from Cred

<div>
 <p>Payhawk has formed a partnership with Mastercard to offer real-time transaction visibility for corporate clients in the US and Canada. This integration enables businesses to utilize Payhawk's spend management features through their current Mastercard corporate and business cards, without needing to change their banking relationships.</p>
 <p>This development strengthens Payhawk's foothold in North America, which it started building in 2022. The new integration includes automatic receipt collection, immediate expense reporting, merchant-specific surveillance, and category-specific spending rules. Thanks to this system operating at the point of sale, finance departments can track and manage company expenditure in real time, offering more control compared to traditional corporate card management schemes.</p>
</div> <p><b>Analyst QuickTake:<br>
</b> Payhawk has been consistently expanding its geographical footprint. In <a href="https:<br>
//sp-edge.com/updates/20206"> July 2023 </a> , the company extended its operations to Lithuania. This followed earlier expansions into the US in <a href="https:<br>
//sp-edge.com/updates/13439"> September 2022 </a> and the UK in <a href="https:<br>
//sp-edge.com/updates/13512"> October 2022 </a> .</p>

Payhawk expands spend management platform to North America with Mastercard integration

<div>
  <p>The Swedish company, Findity, which specialises in business expense management, is extending its operations into the Dutch market through a strategic alliance with Nmbrs, a software provider for HR and payroll which forms a part of the Visma group. Through this action, Findity's automated expense management solution, equipped with OCR scanners and several other advanced technologies, will be available in the Netherlands market.</p>
  <p>Findity's presence in Europe is heightened with this extension, building upon its current functioning in Scandinavia, Germany, and the UK. In order to penetrate the market, Findity has allied with Nmbrs, a software provider for HR and payroll, which enables a direct integration of Findity's expense solution into the Nmbrs platform.</p>
</div> <p><b>Analyst QuickTake:<br>
</b> The partnership aligns with Findity's 100% partner-first approach to geographic expansion, where it leverages its partners' local expertise and its expense management technology to deliver solutions to customers across Europe.&nbsp;</p>

Findity expands expense management solution to Netherlands through Nmbrs partnership

<div>
 <p>Yooz, an AP automation platform, has introduced a new AI-powered tool known as "YoozVendorStatements." This tool is aimed at improving and simplifying the process of vendor statement reconciliation.</p>
 <p>The tool leverages artificial intelligence to automatically capture and match data from documents of different formats with the corresponding in-house records. It helps in identifying and correcting any discrepancies, facilitating more accurate reconciliation. YoozVendorStatements provides a consolidated cloud-based platform for data storage and consolidation. Along with this, the tool integrates throughout the Yooz’s automation platform, thereby streamlining the entire AP process.</p>
 <p>Yooz anticipates that the new tool will boost the accuracy and efficiency of its AP platform, leading to cost savings for its users.</p>
</div>

Yooz announces launch of AI-driven solution 'YoozVendorStatements' for vendor reconciliation

<div>
 <p>AppZen, an AI finance automation company, has collaborated with autonomous commerce platform, JAGGAER. The goal of the partnership is to streamline the procurement-to-payment process via the integration of AI agent technology into JAGGAER's platform.</p>
 <p>This integration will offer AI-powered invoice processing systems including automated data capture, multiline PO matching, as well as autonomous handling of non-PO invoices. The merging of the two platforms is facilitated by JAGGAER's restful API.</p>
</div> <p><b>Analyst QuickTake:<br>
 </b> This partnership aligns with Appzen’s strategy to integrate AI-powered solutions to further diversify and enhance its product offerings through strategic collaborations. In <a href="https:<br>
//sp-edge.com/updates/30410"> June 2024 </a> , AppZen partnered with Lyndon Group to enhance expense audit procedures with AI.</p>

AppZen partners with JAGGAER to enhance AI-driven invoice processing automation

<div>
 <p>Spend management solutions provider, Procurify, has secured a growth capital investment of USD 20 million from CIBC Innovation Banking. The funding will be utilised for AI-powered product development and business expansion.</p>
 <p>Furthermore, Procurify has launched a new AI-driven accounts payable (AP) automation solution. This offering amalgamates purchasing, AP, and payments into a unified system.</p>
 <p>Key features of this solution include optical character recognition (OCR) for line-item invoice details extraction, automated three-way matching for accuracy verification, capabilities to create bills and deposit payments prior to item receipt. It also offers modules for PunchOuts, Contract Management, and Vendor Management.</p>
 <p>Procurify’s recent upgrade follows its update to bill payment abilities which now cover Automated Clearing House (ACH), wire and check payments in the US, as well as electronic fund transfers (EFT) in Canada.</p>
</div>

All Updates

Plooto raises USD 20 million in Series B funding

Spendesk launches payment institution Spendesk Financial Services

Modulr acquires accounts payable automation firm Nook to expand capabilities and deliver enhanced payment solutions in UK

Spendesk partners with Adyen to enhance SMB spend management with banking-as-a-service solution

Payhawk partners with J.P. Morgan Payments to enhance multi-currency banking services

MakeMyTrip acquires Happay's expense management business from Cred

Payhawk expands spend management platform to North America with Mastercard integration

Findity expands expense management solution to Netherlands through Nmbrs partnership

Yooz announces launch of AI-driven solution 'YoozVendorStatements' for vendor reconciliation

AppZen partners with JAGGAER to enhance AI-driven invoice processing automation

Procurify receives USD 20 million from CIBC Innovation Banking; launches AI-powered accounts payable automation solution

Business Expense Management

Plooto raises USD 20 million in Series B funding

Contact us