Business Expense Card Co Pleo Raises $56M

Danish FinTech company Pleo, which touts a “business spending platform” that simplifies the expense management process for employees, has raised $56 million in a series B funding round, according to a report by TechCrunch.

New York-based growth fund Stripes led the funding round, and Founders, Creandum and Kinnevik also participated. The new round brings the company’s valuation to slightly under $500 million, and the total amount raised so far to $79 million.

The company was founded in 2015 by former employees of Tradeshift, Jeppe Rindom and Niccolo Perra. It wants to transform the business expense process by altering the reimbursement process and making it easier for employees to buy things for the company. Pleo allows for “smart” company cards that are paired with software that tracks receipts and spending in real time.

The company also offers a Pleo Mastercard that can be refilled and handed out either physically or online. The software backing the service automatically categorizes spending and captures receipts for every transaction.

By directly integrating with software, Pleo gets rid of expense reports and bookkeeping, and because it’s prepaid, there’s no waiting for reimbursement and even less waiting for approval.

CEO Jeppe Rindom said Pleo is neither a business bank account nor an account management software. It’s a “business spending platform” that wants to influence a real change in company culture.

Rindom points to “Nordic company culture,” where employees have more autonomy and responsibility. Rindom said upwards of 3,500 companies have started using Pleo across Europe, and that hundreds join every month, according to the report.

The company plans to use the capital to expand from 120 employees to about 400 by the end of 2020.

“While we are competing with banks in this one area we are not aiming to become one,” Rindom said in a statement. “We remain committed to providing the best product in the market for business spending. We haven’t touched the funds from our Series A round less than a year ago, yet we see enormous potential and demand for Pleo.”