Europe’s leading all-in-one spend management platform Yokoy raises $80M in Series B funding from Sequoia Capital

Yokoy Group AG, Europe’s leading all-in-one enterprise spend management platform, has today announced it has raised $80 million in a Series B funding round led by Sequoia Capital with participation from Speedinvest, Visionaries Club and Zinal Growth, existing investors Balderton Capital, Six FinTech Ventures, Left Lane, Swisscom Ventures and well-known business angels.

Founded in Switzerland in 2019 Yokoy’s mission is to finally rid the corporate spending world of the legacy processes that have plagued it for decades. This has forced companies to spend an average of $60 for every single expense they have to process through their existing, outdated workflows.

Powered by machine learning developed in Yokoy’s own cutting-edge AI research lab, the platform automates spend management using artificial intelligence. It combines expense management, supplier invoice management and corporate credit cards into one single intuitive tool, underpinned by the most up-to-date security. The company’s sweet spot is midsize and enterprise companies, who can build unique process flows using Yokoy, automating as many or as few steps as they want. As the platform is self-learning, it also constantly monitors individual workflows and processes to make them more efficient and impactful over time.

Crucially, Yokoy is also able to bring the cost of spending management down by 90%. This enables companies to effectively save time and money while gaining more satisfied employees, better analytics and control over all spend activities, without compromising on features or security. Since launching in 2019, Yokoy’s team has grown to five global offices, including the newly opened Amsterdam hub to further support customers in Western Europe, and over 100 employees.

Developing Europe’s leading platform  

The new $80 million Series B round brings the total raised by Yokoy to over $107m. Yokoy will use the new funding to expand deeper into Europe and more regions across the globe and increase hiring to support new areas. As well, the company will enhance the technologies underpinning the platform developing its AI, automation and security systems, and advance its Yokoy Pay offering, all to ensure  spend management runs more smoothly.

Philippe Sahli, CEO at Yokoy, said, “We’ve proven with Yokoy that spend management needn’t be a cumbersome, expensive process for global companies. By combining all areas of the journey and automating it in one intuitive platform using artificial intelligence, Yokoy is becoming the ultimate spend management partner for businesses. It’s this dedication to solving the pain points for customers that has seen us grow 400% year on year and reach over 500 enterprise customers. We’re delighted to have the backing of Sequoia and all our brilliant investors as we embark on the next stage of our growth journey, which will revolutionize the way companies spend money.”

Smooth spend management for growing businesses

The spend management tool industry is worth more than $200bn globally and is growing 11% year on year. Costs for businesses are rising, with McKinsey reporting that external spending comprises between 40-80% of a company’s total cost. Companies need a platform they can trust which can automate spend management tasks to save them valuable time and money, all the while providing visibility into where business spending is going to monitor the status quo and analyse historical data to make predictions about future spending behaviour as the business grows.

Yokoy supports more than 500 midsize and enterprise companies. Customers such as ASK Chemicals, Bobst, On, Stadler and Bitpanda rely on Yokoy every day for insight into company spending. Whereas other companies in the space are focused only on corporate cards or certain areas of spending such as travel or processing supplier invoices, Yokoy has been dedicated from the start to automating all areas of spend management, resulting in a full-service platform that serves every business need.

Yokoy seamlessly integrates with existing software, such as Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central, SAP, Oracle NetSuite, or other third party providers, allowing for real end-to-end automation across the entire spend management journey. As well, Yokoy maintains a global network of partners, collaborating closely with KPMG and PwC, among others.

Matt Miller, Partner at Sequoia Capital, explains: “Businesses across Europe are looking for more efficiency and automation as they work to manage their spending. Many solutions have emerged that are card-centric and only answer one piece of this puzzle. We’re excited about Yokoy because it is distinctly the only software-first company we met, to bring a complete spend management solution to its customers, using automated processes and including cards. This unique approach evidenced itself in spectacular customer feedback and impressive growth. We are excited to partner with Yokoy as they emerge as the next-generation market leader in enterprise spend management.”

Robert Lacher, founding partner at Visionaries Club, said: “While we have looked into many different spend management solutions in the market, we got very excited about Yokoy’s modular and API-driven product approach integrating with a customer’s existing IT stacks creating a single source of truth layer to become the financial operating system for SMEs. By leveraging the in-house AI lab, this makes Yokoy the perfect holistic finance tool for any SMEs – and not just a standalone spend management solution.”

Tom Lesche, Partner at Speedinvest, said: “Too many fintech businesses promise AI and automation will improve their customers’ lives without delivering a product that actually suits their needs. Instead, Yokoy is providing true value to businesses, like to our portfolio companies Bitpanda and GoStudent, drawing on its in-house AI lab to automate the time-consuming and repetitive tasks of spend management in a way that truly understands the root of the problem for enterprise customers. We’re truly excited to be backing the amazing team as they embark on the next phase of their growth journey.”

Guillaume Pousaz, founder & CEO at Checkout.com, said: “Businesses don’t just want another expense or invoice management tool, they want an automated all-in-one solution that handles all areas of spend management that saves them time and money. Yokoy provides exactly that and has developed a platform that delivers value day after day. As a Swiss tech founder myself, I’m thrilled to support the next generation of FinTech founders with my Zinal Growth vehicle.”

Angel investor, Eric Demuth, founder & CEO at Bitpanda said: “I’m delighted to be supporting Yokoy on their growth journey as they continue to develop the platform and help businesses continue to run smoothly every day. I know first-hand the benefits of using the platform and immediately said yes when I was asked to join this round.”