Twenty years after the mass adoption of the Internet, many businesses are still using basic spreadsheets and manual processes to manage their expenses. London-based Soldo is a fintech platform incorporating various spending and expense management solutions to bring more efficiency to businesses of all sizes across Europe.
Founded in 2015, Soldo has just closed a €54 million Series B round led by Battery Ventures and Dawn Capital, a European VC dedicated to B2B software and fintech, which counts iZettle and Mimecast among its portfolio companies. The funding round also includes participation from the global VC firm Accel, Connect Ventures and Silicon Valley Bank, bringing Soldo’s funding total to €73 million.
Soldo’s integrated solutions enable companies to continue using their existing bank accounts, but provide a dedicated spending account which preemptively controls and streamlines the spend management cycle. Prepaid Mastercards and an intuitive user app enables transaction data to be recorded at the point of purchase, and all data integrates seamlessly with business accounting software such as Xero, Quickbooks, Concur, Expensify, NetSuite, Zucchetti, and SAP.
Its growth has been bolstered by the fact that it serves businesses of all sizes; from microbusinesses and SMEs through to companies with thousands of employees. Soldo is the only enterprise-ready solution currently on the market.
“I’m very proud of the team’s achievements over the past 12 months, but we have barely scratched the surface of the opportunity ahead of us,” said founder and CEO of Soldo, Carlo Gualandri. “There are over three million businesses in our target markets, the UK and Italy, and over 5.5 million businesses in the next three largest markets in Europe. Most of these businesses are still using reimbursable expenses, spreadsheets and manual processes to manage the expense management cycle. The time saving and additional control over company spending and expense management that Soldo offers businesses of all sizes is a true game-changer, and we will continue to accelerate growth and consolidate our position as market leaders in the UK, Italy and Ireland over the next 12 months.”
The Series B round will be used to further consolidate Soldo’s leadership position in the UK where it holds an e-money licence, as well as Italy and Ireland, where it was recently awarded a second prestigious e-money licence from Ireland’s central bank – the third such licence ever granted – making it Brexit-ready for all its European customers. The funding will also be used to scale into new European markets and double Soldo’s workforce over the next 12 months.
“With more employees now empowered to incur business expenses, and more expense-management processes moving to the cloud, today’s corporate-expense programs must adapt to keep up—in Europe as well as the US,” said Itzik Parnafes, a general partner at Battery Ventures. “Soldo has developed a cutting-edge, integrated product that includes
support for new corporate credit cards as well as easy-to-use, cloud-based reporting tools—all of which can be customized for individual corporate policies. We are excited to partner with Carlo and his team as Soldo continues to expand and push the envelope of what’s possible in next-generation expense management.”
“Soldo’s blend of world-class people and pioneering tech to solve an everyday business
problem points to huge growth potential,” said Josh Bell, general partner at Dawn Capital. “As a global player enabling commerce among SMEs, it’s on a journey we know well from our iZettle investment. At Dawn we seek out innovative companies with tech that takes care of the mundane to let businesses focus on the magic. Soldo does exactly that.”
