Payhawk Raises $20M from Klarna Backers QED Investors

Payhawk, the platform for payments and expense management, has raised $20 million. The Series A round is led by the US-based fund QED Investors, which has a strong track record of investing in 18 fintech unicorns, including Klarna and Nubank. Existing investor Earlybird Digital East, who led the $3.6 million seed round in March 2020, is also contributing fresh capital. Yusuf Ozdalga will join the Payhawk board alongside existing investors Mehmed Atici from Earlybird Digital East and Vassil Terziev from Eleven Ventures.

Currently, finance teams use multiple disconnected tools for payments, invoices and expense management. Payhawk acts as a one-stop-shop, combining these key elements, and closing the gap between banks and ERP (Enterprise Resource Planning) systems. As a result, Payhawk empowers finance teams to reduce manual work, keep tight control of budgets in real-time, and fully automate spend across every payment method. Instead of using 5-6 tools across multiple markets, Payhawk delivers a single solution for finance teams that can serve their businesses in 30 countries.

The company has posted 10x growth in 2020, and doubled its revenue in Q1 of 2021. Its customer base consists of a mix of fast-growing and multinational companies including LuxAir, Lotto24, Viking Life, ATU, Gtmhub, MacPaw and By Miles.

The fundraise will enable Payhawk to further expand its product offering and grow its team. The company will expand coverage for businesses outside the EU and UK; add new payment products including credit cards; and support additional currencies with industry leading FX rates. Payhawk will also work to streamline the cash flow from existing bank accounts to Payhawk to provide unlimited spending capabilities for finance teams. The company will also accelerate its use of AI and machine learning, in order to introduce smart workflows, and to reduce the need for manual review and approval. The company plans to triple its marketing and sales team in 2021, in order to increase presence in the UK, Germany and Spain.

Yusuf Ozdalga, QED Investors says, “We are delighted to invest in Payhawk. The company is growing at a phenomenal rate. The company’s product fundamentals are exceptionally strong, and industry trends are working in the company’s favour too. As budgets are more typically managed online by remote teams, there is unprecedented demand for cost-effective finance solutions. We look forward to working with Hristo and the team”

Payhawk CEO and founder Hristo Borisov says, “We have huge ambitions for the year ahead. Over the next year, we are keen to provide great support to finance teams across 30+ countries to manage company cards, invoices and payments in a unified and efficient way.  We plan to significantly expand our integrations to existing ERP systems, and also easily connect on top of every business bank account across Europe and beyond. To do this, we need to invest in building the right setup and team to scale further, and the new funding round will enable us to do this”