Apron, an intuitive fintech platform that slashes the time small businesses spend processing invoices, has raised €14.2 million in Series A funding led by Index Ventures, who were joined by Bessemer Venture Partners and Visionaries Club.
Founded in 2021 by Revolut product leader Bogdan Uzbekov and soft-launched just six months ago, Apron is already processing millions of pounds of transactions every month, working with hundreds of client companies and thousands of payment recipients. The funding is a sign of the growing appetite for consumer-grade experiences in B2B software, and of the commercial potential in addressing the under-served small and medium business (SMB) community.
“What providers forget is that the people behind businesses are, well, people – and they want the same quality they’re familiar with in their consumer apps,” said Bogdan Uzbekov, founder and CEO of Apron. “Apron puts itself in the position of all these users – accountants, business owners and suppliers – and instead of trying to solve business payments from just one perspective, we create a town square where they can all come together to move money as smoothly as possible. We want to flip payments from being a blocker to being a booster: something that can be done quickly, securely and even give you a sense of joy and satisfaction.”
In their day-to-day lives, users have come to expect delightful, seamless payment experiences. Yet when they start their own business, they’re often shocked to discover the manual, messy and unattractive financial tools they’re forced to rely on.
The pain is particularly marked when it comes to paying suppliers. Companies need to sort invoices, get approvals, reconcile and maintain their books, and keep accountants in the loop. This typically involves a flurry of emails and logins across multiple apps and services, wasting hours of everyone’s time each week. The average UK small business owner spends 5 hours a week paying invoices, and £1.5 trillion flows through this process every year in the UK alone.
With the Series A funding, Apron will expand its 20-strong team, which includes talent from Meta, Revolut, Square and Yandex. Apron’s unique approach is to holistically redesign how payments flow through a network of users, and putting those needs at the center of the product. Apron have built a powerful, industry-leading platform for SMBs and accountants that supports virtually any payment scenario, and layered on a user-centric, delightful experience on top. Rather than replacing accounting software, Apron weaves into existing workflows and connects seamlessly to software that businesses and accountants are already using – compressing hours-long tasks into a matter of minutes.
