Around 35 billion invoices are created across Europe every year. However, from SMEs generating these, 77% are apparently not using any digital tools for managing or paying them. Enter, Libeo, a France-based fintech platform built specially for SMEs. The company offers its services to business owners, who need to process invoices and it claims to do so six times faster, while reducing fraud and processing errors.
Libeo has announced a notable €20 million (£17.5 million approx.) Series A funding raise from DST Global, Serena, Breega and LocalGlobe, the London-based seed fund. Founded in 2019, the startup’s services are now being utilised by over 35,000 companies, which collectively processed €100M (£87.6 million approx.) last year. Co-founded by Pierre Dutaret, Jeremy Attuil and Pierre-Antoine Glandier, the company has a lot going on. UKTN finds out more about what makes the startup lucrative in an exclusive interview with George Henry, which is the General Partner at LocalGlobe.
Why Libeo?
Libeo seems like a standard fintech trying to make it big in the startup world. Excluding the latest funding round, the fintech has raised a total funding of €6.1 million (£5.3 million approx.). So, what did LocalGlobe find interesting in Libeo?
Henry answers,”Recently, we identified B2B payment platforms, especially those targeting SMBs, as one of the most exciting areas. This is a huge space that needs efficient digital tools to improve and simplify the process. Since we invested 10 months ago, the Libeo team has shown an incredible capacity to execute, resulting in amazing traction amongst SMEs and demonstrating the critical mission of their software.”
Further development
With the latest funding round, Libeo were joined by renowned business angels including founders and C-level executives of Transferwise, iZettle, Klarna, Farfetch, and Criteo. This is the third funding round Libeo has raised in just over a year.
The company will be utilising the latest funds to further develop its payments platform to better serve its 35,000+ customers. It also aims to further develop its new API to serve more customers, and triple the team’s headcount, which currently stands at 35, by the end of this year.
Simplifying B2B SME payments
Libeo handles the entire B2B payments process in a digital and secure manner. It offers a platform that’s capable of automating invoice collection, team approval and one-click payments, without requiring any manual input or need for IBAN numbers. Libeo tries to solve the possible data entry errors, fraud and late payments that could result due to an inefficient system.
“My co-founders Jeremy Attuil and Pierre-Antoine Glandier and I started Libeo to free business owners from time-consuming and cumbersome admin tasks. They can get started with Libeo in a matter of seconds, and save a huge amount of time by paying their suppliers in one click, whatever the bank or payment terms they wish to use. We are dedicated to supporting business owners and we feel our mission has never been more important than in the current context,” says Pierre Dutaret, CEO and co-founder of Libeo.
As informed, Libeo also plans to soon expand its services in the UK so it can serve UK-based clients.
The post LocalGlobe invests in go-to payments platform for SMEs Libeo, raises £17.5M Series A appeared first on UKTN (UK Tech News).
