Copenhagen-born, London-based Pleo, which provides SMBs with company expense management tools, namely via company cards, has picked up $200 million in a new funding round. The new capital will be used to further the company’s expansion efforts, with M&A activities planned, aiming to establish a presence in over a dozen countries in the coming year beginning with Finland, the Netherlands, France, and Portugal.
Having just raised a respectable $150 million in a Series C round just six months ago, the funding arrives as the company reports the addition of over 3,000 new customers in the same time period, and now averaging an additional 1,000 per month. At present, Pleo counts over 20,000 customers and is obviously growing fast.
To be fair, Pleo isn’t alone in the SMB expense management category, with competitors Spendesk announcing €100 million in funding, and Soldo closing a $180 million round (coincidentally announced on the same day, the 21st of July), indicating that there’s clearly a need for smart money management in the SMB sector.
With that said, if we had to call a front runner in this race, when Pleo announced the Series C round in July, the company had a $1.7 billion valuation. Six months later, and with $200 million more in the bank, the company has nearly tripled this number, up to a valuation of $4.7 billion.
Posting numbers like this, one might have to question if an IPO is on the horizon?
“Our vision is certainly big enough to create a massive standalone company,” commented CEO Jeppe Rindom in an interview with Bloomberg. “An IPO is certainly a way forward, but the way the financial markets have developed the past five years, it doesn’t have to be the only option.”
Coatue led this round, which saw participation from Alkeon Capital, with existing investors Bain Capital, Thrive Capital, Creandum, Kinnevik, Founders, Stripes, and Seedcamp all following on.
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