Fintech Pleo launches European expansion with $200m Series C extension
Fintech scale-up Pleo, which offers a simplified expense management tool and smart company cards, has just extended its Series C round by $200m (USD), bringing the total raised to $350 million. Having reached unicorn status in July 2021, the new funding has nearly tripled their valuation to $4.7 billion and means Pleo consolidates its position as the largest spend management company in Europe.
The extension was led by the technology-focused investment manager, Coatue Management, followed by Alkeon Capital, joining Pleo’s Series C. There was further support from the existing investors, Bain Capital Ventures, Thrive Capital, Creandum, Kinnevik, Founders, Stripes and Seedcamp.
The new funds will enable Pleo to further accelerate their growth plans – including a massive roll-out across Europe from 2022. Having announced their imminent entrance into Austria, Pleo now has eyes on a further fourteen EU territories, starting with Finland, the Netherlands, France and Portugal.
Jeppe Rindom, Co-founder and CEO at Pleo, says:
“We’re thrilled to announce the extension of our Series C, welcoming Coatue and Alkeon to Pleo. Our growth in the last year has been exponential and the investment community has recognised our leading position. With such great investment partners on board, the future is extremely bright for Pleo and our mission to transform the way businesses look at spend management.”
“The fact is that we didn’t need to continue to raise this year – but our Series C saw such demand that this extension was made possible. We have big ambitions to grow further across Europe, helping more businesses to solve their spending challenges and empower their teams. We’re talking about 15 new territories in Europe, meaning we want to be operating in over twenty countries by 2023. The money helps, but we’re not complacent. We’ll continue being Pleo: pushing forward, doubling our 400-strong team, iterating our product, building more tools and features, taking us from invoice management and employee reimbursement into lending and beyond. It’s a hugely exciting time and we look forward to the next stage of Pleo’s growth.”
The funds raised will also further Pleo’s commitment to acquire one million engaged users by the end of 2025. They’re already seeing up to 1,000 new customers getting started with Pleo every month in the last six months, spurred by the launch of a freemium model this autumn, which brought the solution available to an even wider customer base. Likewise, investing in their 400+ team is a priority. This will allow Pleo to continue to iterate its product, offering an increasing number of tools and features that can help both growing and established businesses to simplify and better manage their company spending.
Michael B. Gilroy, General Partner of Coatue Management, says:
“We were impressed by how Pleo has already redefined the way that over 20,000 companies think about managing their expenses, saving them time and lowering costs while increasing transparency. We are proud to partner closely with Jeppe and the rest of the team to help drive their next phase of growth – as they continue to extend across Europe and work to transform how spend management works within businesses.”
Deepak Ravichandran, General Partner of Alkeon Capital, comments:
“Europe is emerging as an important technology hub in both the public and private markets, as evidenced by the increase in venture capital activity across the continent. Pleo is building the leading B2B spend management platform in Europe, driven by a best-in-class user experience and rapid product innovation. We look forward to working with Jeppe and the team as the business continues to accelerate and grow.”
Keri Gohman, Partner at Bain Capital Ventures, says:
"In July, we recognised that the future of work must empower employees with the tools they need to be effective, productive, and successful. Pleo understands this critical shift for modern companies toward employee centricity—providing workers with a fun-to-use spend management app that automatically tracks their corporate spending and generates expense reports, paired with the powerful tools businesses need to create full visibility and management of every penny spent. With this extension to the Series C, Pleo is in an even stronger position - they’re undeniably the dominant player in small business spend management, an $80B+ opportunity in Europe alone, and will only grow more essential to businesses as the company expands into bill payments in the near future."
The Series C investment originally was announced in July 2021, two years after Pleo’s Series B round, led by Stripes, which saw them raise $56m — previously the largest Series B round raised in Denmark to date. Prior to this, in 2018, Pleo raised its Series A round totalling $16m, which helped expand its solution across Europe. Today, Pleo operates in six markets across Denmark, UK, Ireland, Spain, Germany and Sweden.
The extension and market expansion plans are set to be announced today at Forward, Pleo’s free digital summit and thought leadership event around the future of work, with guest speakers from Airbnb. Spotify, Klarna and more on the speaker programme.
The round is the biggest ever Series C in Denmark as well as one of the largest in Europe.
