Translucent, an accounting platform solving the financial management problems of multi-entity and multi-national businesses, has raised a €5.9 million seed round co-led by Chalfen Ventures and LocalGlobe. This follows a €3.2 million pre-seed round less than six months ago, bringing its total investment to €9.1 million.
The Translucent platform allows multi-entity businesses to unify their financial data and workflows for the first time, by providing a suite of apps on top of existing accounting software such as Xero, QuickBooks and Sage. The first app, ‘Search’, is available today, the second app ‘Group Reporting’ is now in Beta, and the third app ‘Live Sheets’ will soon be available to testers. The funding will be used to develop further apps including ‘Intercompany Transactions’, ‘BI & Analytics’ and ‘Financial Close’.
Translucent was founded in 2022 in London by CEO Michael Wood, who co-founded Dext (formerly Receipt Bank), which was acquired by leading software investor Hg in 2021 for several hundred million GBP, one of the UK’s largest SaaS exits. Dext is used by over 10,000 accounting firms worldwide, with over 1 million users.
Michael Wood, Founder and CEO of Translucent, commented: “Since announcing Translucent in March we have been delighted by the volume of interest we have received. This fundraising allows us to further build out our platform and solve the accounting and finance problems faced by multi-entity businesses.”
Translucent is backed by prominent angel investors, including Co-founder and former CTO of Xero Craig Walker, and Co-founder and former Managing Director of Xero UK, Gary Turner, as well as founders from fintech and accounting-tech leaders, such as GoCardless, Jeeves, Karbon, Libeo, ComplyAdvantage, Ignition, Hubdoc and KashFlow.
Mike Chalfen, from Chalfen Ventures, said: “Translucent’s insight is that unified accounting data can be the basis of financial and operational insight for every multi-entity business. Michael is the best entrepreneur in the world to build a business based on this insight. And the opportunity to create a compound startup that drives insight for multi-entity businesses is huge; so joining the Translucent family fits perfectly into my mission of backing software startups whose technology will fundamentally alter the way companies operate.”
Translucent enables businesses to continue to use the SMB solutions they currently use but unifies their financial data into a single location where it can be seen, used and edited. Translucent is being used by businesses around the world, from software companies to restaurant groups to property developers.
Remus Brett, from LocalGlobe VC, added: “The demand from multinationals for Translucent is as significant as it is unsurprising. Michael and his team have built a platform that is solving a very real problem for an ever-growing number of businesses around the world, and we’re delighted to be backing him again.”
