Enable Raises $13M For Rebate Management Platform

A cloud-based rebate company called Enable has raised $13 million in a Series A funding round, according to a report.

The U.K. company calls itself a “rebate management solution” with the goal of helping manufacturers and retailers handle rebates.

Menlo Ventures led the round and Sierra Ventures participated. Steve Sloane from Menlo Ventures joined the company’s board as part of the deal.

Enable was started in 2015 by Denys Shortt and Andrew Butt, but didn’t officially launch until 2017. The company’s platform helps with tracking and managing rebates, as well as optimizing them.

Rebates have become an increasingly popular way for distributors to boost their profits. The logistical and technical side of issuing rebates, including the tracking and validating of terms, has historically required extra hours of back-office work. Enable aims to use digital technology to streamline the process and to help suppliers and distributors work together more efficiently.

“We take the pain away with our fully automated platform, which becomes the system of record for all B2B deals, and the calculator of granular deal earnings,” said Co-founder Butt.

The platform tracks data that includes the day, supplier, product, source, customer identity and sale details, all in one place.

“The complexity of these deals has also massively increased,” said Butt. “For distributors to survive, they must take full control of these deals and ensure that money is not being left on the table, yet until now there has been a lack of software that is designed around the distributor.”

Butt said the market for rebates is massive, with more than $1 trillion in rebates issued every year.

“Our competitors focus on manufacturers and rebates payable – we’ve flipped the model on its head and deal with distributors and rebates receivable, which is more tricky to manage because distributors deal with a higher number and diversity of products compared to manufacturers,” he pointed out. “Also, it’s more important as rebates are now more than 100 percent of the profit for distributors across many verticals.”