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A startup that uses technology to prevent employees from misusing company spending has just raised 8 million euros ($8.6 million) in funding from investors, defying a slowdown in investment in the financial technology industry.
CleverCards, a Dublin-based company, uses a digital platform linked to configurable expense cards to give companies control over how their employees use their corporate payment cards.
According to a 2016 global survey of CFOs by staffing firm Robert Half, employees made several improper expense claim requests, including a dog day spa, taxidermy services, dance classes, a side dish of beef and even a welder.
While these demands are strange, they reflect the harsh reality of many companies when it comes to corporate spending: sometimes they can’t trust the judgment of their employees.
Kealan Lennon, CEO of CleverCards, says his platform aims to do just that.
Instead of issuing employees corporate credit cards that they can use for purchases anywhere in the world, CleverCards allows companies to provide prepaid cards that can be configured to be used only by specific employees and block certain transactions if they are used as such be considered inappropriate.
“Companies want to make sure the right employee gets the card and that it is only used for specific purposes,” Lennon said in an interview with CNBC.
“It’s financial control,” he added. “The idea of a configurable payment platform has never existed before. And by making it digital, customers were able to say, “I want to be able to do this at the push of a button.”
CleverCards exclusively told CNBC on Friday that it had raised new funding in an investment round led by strategic investor Pluxee. The new investment brings the amount raised by CleverCards to date to over 28 million euros.
Pluxee is an employee voucher and benefits platform that emerged from French food catering company Sodexo earlier this year.
It is listed on the Euronext stock exchange in France and is valued at 4 billion euros.
Acquisition of Adyen’s business, Stripe
CleverCards was founded in 2019 and has gained over 10,000 companies as customers. Customers include eBay, PaddyPower, Betfair, Accenture, Microsoft and Apple.
In addition to these companies, CleverCard also works with public sector organizations.
In 2022, CleverCards partnered with the UK government to support the release of welfare payments for people with smart meters who normally pay their bills by direct debit but are forced to seek additional financial help due to rising fuel prices. The cards could only be used to pay bills on select utility company websites.
Lennon said CleverCards used artificial intelligence to perform identity checks on recipients to prevent fraud.
Lennon said CleverCards’ funding round stood out in a brutal market for deal-making and fundraising in the fintech space.
“It’s a difficult environment,” he said. “In the current market crisis, raising money has been pretty impressive because no one is raising capital.”
He said CleverCards was increasingly taking business away from companies like payments technology giants Adyen and Stripe.
“It was notable in that as a smaller company we looked at the Stripes and Adyens and moved forward,” he said, adding that we have now “won business against them.”
CleverCards will use the fresh funds to expand its business, scale its products and explore broader opportunities, it said.
In addition to the fundraising, CleverCards appointed five new non-executive directors with experience in payments technology to its board.
They include industry veterans Patrick Waldron, Donal Daly, Marc Frappier, Garry Lyons and Viktoria Otero del Val.
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2024-06-14 04:00:01
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