Spanish startup Snab has just picked up €1.1 million for its AI-based banking platform. With the software, Spain’s SMEs can, for the first time, completely automate the entire payment cycle.
While the world has gone digital, so have payments, transactions, and different financial processes. Businesses have had to adapt to this changing world, using innovative tech to digitize their payment processes.
For SMEs, though, this process hasn’t been easy, despite SMEs being the backbone of entrepreneurial communities. In Spain, for example, 98% of the business market is made up of small and medium-sized companies. Of these, a reported 9 out of 10 are looking for a new cash management system – still relying on antiquated manual processes.
Born between Madrid and Barcelona, two booming startup cities, Snab is aiming to change this outlook. The startup has developed a banking platform that will give Spanish companies, for the first time, the ability to automate and digitize the entire payment cycle. Now, the fintech team has secured €1.1 million with support from Y Combinator. VC firm 4Founders Capital, the U.S. private investor, Glenfarne Group LLC, and business angels such as Kantox’s founder and the Spanish startup Belvo’s founders have also participated.
Gorka Aguirre, CEO and co-founder of Snab: “Snab was created to help companies to digitize, eliminate manual processes and save time for the employees of these companies in the area of finance and treasury. The support of national and international investors of this huge size reinforces our vision and our conviction that Snab is the solution to these difficulties faced by thousands of companies in our country and globally”.
Founded in 2021, Snab’s cloud-based and AI-powered platform automates, digitizes and simplifies payments, cash collections and treasury management for SMEs. It provides teams with one space to easily manage their cash flow, in a way that is safe and secure.
The platform integrates an email inbox where invoices can be received automatically, and the reception process can be managed by scanning them. The application can extract the data from the invoices with OCR technology (Optical Character Recognition technology) in a matter of seconds and in different languages. From this process, the user can establish invoice approval workflows based on parameters such as departments, quantities, roles, and so forth. Once the process is completed, the user simply clicks to pay the invoice without leaving the platform.
Gorka Aguirre: “Digitization contributes to the improvement and professionalization of business management. Processes are optimized, errors are reduced, and, in addition, scalability is generated because employees themselves can devote more time to tasks that create greater value, while substantially increasing their well-being in the workplace. This leads to greater productivity and increases the retention and attraction of talent.”
The Spanish startup stands out as it brings the country’s SMEs a fresh solution for cash management – removing the reliance on inefficient manual processes.
Backed by Y Combinator, the startup will now use this investment to further develop its tech and add new features to give businesses more control over their finances.