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        Pliant, a business expense card management platform, raised EUR 26 million (USD 28 million) in Series A funding led by SBI Investment, with participation from Alstin Capital, MS&amp;AD Ventures, and Neosfer. This round brings Pliant&rsquo;s total funding to around USD 48 million.&nbsp;
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        Although the company did not disclose its valuation, the figure is reportedly higher than it was in December 2020. Moreover, this funding round is reportedly the largest FinTech funding round in Germany for 2023, thus far.
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        The funds will be invested in its products.
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  <p>
    <a href="https://www.finextra.com/newsarticle/41832/sbi-investment-leads-28-million-series-a-in-german-fintech-pliant?utm_medium=rssfinextra&utm_source=finextrafeed">
      FinSMEs
    </a>
  </p>
  <p>
    <a href="https://thepaypers.com/online-mobile-banking/credit-card-fintech-pliant-receives-eur-26-million--1260403">
      The Paypers
    </a>
  </p>
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Business Expense Management

Pliant raises EUR 26 million in Series A funding

ANALYST_QUICK_TAKE

PROMINENT_CATEGORY

<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>
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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>

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

<div>
 <p>Basware, an accounts payable automation and invoice processing company, has announced its new product, Basware Insights. This analytics platform, powered by GenAI, is equipped with a unique feature called the "CFO Cockpit" designed for finance teams to effectively analyze and manage accounts payable (AP) processes.</p>
 <p>Beyond the CFO Cockpit, Basware Insights also boasts of natural language processing capabilities which enables users to ask queries and obtain customised insights. The platform also features AI-driven insights shown on customizable dashboards, data-driven benchmarking catered to industry-specific insights, along with specialised reporting capabilities. Among the key metrics monitored by the CFO Cockpit are touchless invoice rates and retrospective purchase orders (POs).</p>
 <p>The company assures their new platform can aid customers to achieve a full cycle of touchless invoicing and can also address the reporting challenges typically encountered by finance leaders.</p> 
</div> <p><b>Analyst QuickTake:<br>
 </b> This product development aligns with recent trends in the business expense management industry, particularly in introducing GenAI-integrated products. In <a href="https:<br>
//sp-edge.com/updates/34077"> September 2024 </a> , Airbase launched its AI-powered Touchless AP for accounts payable automation, while Stampli <a href="https:<br>
//sp-edge.com/updates/33866"> enhanced </a> its AP automation platform with advanced AI features.</p>

Basware launches Insights platform with GenAI capabilities to enhance touchless invoicing

<div>
 <p>Ramp, a corporate spend management platform, has rolled out Ramp App Center, a new app store meant for third-party developers to create apps that can be integrated with Ramp's platform. The AppCenter is accessible to Ramp customers, though some apps are exclusive to Ramp Plus subscribers.</p>
 <p>The App Center started off featuring over 200 integrations from more than 75 associates that includes NetSuite, QuickBooks, Puzzle, Digits, Campfire, Ironclad, and Carta. The platform renders one-click access to diverse business tools and enhances Ramp's present API capabilities with the addition of new integration features.</p>
 <p>Ramp does not impose any extra costs or commissions from app developers. However, it furnishes developers with potential opportunities to earn through Ramp's ecosystem by permitting them to reach out to its extensive customer base of over 25,000. </p>
 
</div> <p><b>Analyst QuickTake:<br>
</b> The new service launch follows its initiatives to drive AI integration and support its growth strategy following its latest funding round in <a href="https:<br>
//sp-edge.com/updates/28593"> April 2024 </a> . The new app center builds on the partnerships and product enhancements it has actively pursued, including its collaboration with Priceline in <a href="https:<br>
//sp-edge.com/updates/30197"> June 2024 </a> to launch Ramp Travel, streamlining business travel, and automating expense management.&nbsp;</p>

All Updates

Pliant raises EUR 26 million in Series A funding

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

Basware launches Insights platform with GenAI capabilities to enhance touchless invoicing

Ramp launches App Center for business tools integration to streamline back-office tasks

Business Expense Management

Pliant raises EUR 26 million in Series A funding

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