Jeeves’ corporate cards
(Picture: Jeeves)Chinese tech giant Tencent has backed corporate card startupJeeves in a $180 million (£136 million) funding round.
The Series C funding round was led by the Chinese multinational technology and entertainment conglomerate and included participation from organisations including Stanford University and Silicon Valley Bank.
Jeeves pitches itself as a corporate card and expenses management company for “global” startups with staff around the world. It has process more than $1 billion (£760 million) in transactions since its March 2021 launch.
During the last 12 months, the fintech company has raised over $380 million (£288 million) in funding. It says it has doubled its client base to more than 3000 companies since its last round of Series B funding in September and increased revenue by 900%.
The fresh capital will be use to fuel global expansion across Latin America, Canada, and Europe, scale its offering to cover more currencies and attract new companies to the platform.
Dileep Thazhmon, Jeeves chief executive and founder, said his company’s offering differs from other corporate card players in that it is based around credit, not simply a debit service.
“A lot of players in Europe are corporate cards, but they’re debit cards, meaning you have to bring the funds then they give you a card and you’re accessing your own funds,” he said.
“Once you sign up with us, in ten minutes you can start spending and you don’t have to transfer a single pound or a single euro, and you pay us at the end of the month. In that sense we do our own underwriting completely for your company.”
The 150 employees at Jeeves currently serve companies across 24 countries and 3 continents. Its client base consists of start-ups, e-commerce platforms, and small to medium enterprises (SMEs) Jeeves. The service is available in North America, Latin America, the UK, and Europe.
Thazhmon said: “We sit on the top of two very large trends. One is this concept of increased globalisation. Today businesses more than ever have an employee, a consultant, a vendor that is in a different country and Covid accelerated that.
“And secondly is the amount amount of capital, of spend, that is going international. It’s just so much larger than it was even two or three years ago.
“We are, in essence, going to be an outlet for companies that might not be able to get the same type of funding as quickly as they need from a local bank.”
