FinTech infrastructure platform Jeeves has raised $180 million in a Series C funding round that puts the startup’s valuation at an estimated $2.1 billion. The investment was led by Tencent with participation from GIC, Stanford University, Andreessen Horowitz and Silicon Valley Bank, among others.
Jeeves launched in March 2021 and snagged $31 million in equity financing and $100 million in debt in June. In September, the company raised $57 million in a Series B round at a $500 million valuation. The Series C round, which closed in March 2022, comes just seven months after the company’s Series B round.
In the last 12 months, the company has raised over $380 million – proof of the growing interest in this category-defining that corporate credit cards have emerged as the cornerstone of a land-and-expand strategy for fintech companies that want to bank for the world’s fastest-growing companies.
Jeeves will use the capital to fuel its global expansion across Latin America, Canada, and Europe, scale its proprietary infrastructure to cover more currencies, acquire top-tier talent, and accelerate the onboarding of new companies to the platform.
Jeeves registers exponential growth in six months
Fueled by unprecedented demand, Jeeves has doubled its client base to more than 3000 companies and has grown revenue by 900 percent since the Series B in September. The global startup generated more revenue in the first two months of 2022 than in 2021 combined.
In tandem with its explosive revenue growth, the company also announced that it crossed $1+ billion in annualized gross transaction volume (GTV) just 11 months after its public launch in March 2021, averaging a 76 percent month-over-month growth since opening its doors.
“While we are in one of the toughest environments for startup funding this year, we are excited in the trust investors have, not only in Jeeves but in growing businesses who will be able to use our financial products globally,” said Dileep Thazhmon, Jeeves CEO and Founder.
Post-Covid corporate card startups are innovating product base
Corporate card startups are quickly launching new services to capture more of that spending.
“Corporate cards are the easiest way to access the CFO suite,” said Jeeves CEO and founder Dileep Thazhmon. The challenge is to translate that easy access point into a full-stack offering.
“If you don’t have the full product suite, you’re not going to get the full payment stack, the share of wallet, for that company,” he added.
In the post-COVID era, most companies are global – either with employees in multiple countries or with businesses across regions. However, these companies are forced to rely on local and country-specific financial infrastructure.
For instance, a company with employees in Mexico and Colombia would require multiple vendors to cover its finance function: a corporate card in Mexico and another in Colombia, an additional vendor for cross-border payments, and another one to transact SPEI.
At the end of the month, it would then take a few weeks to reconcile corporate spending and get a consolidated view of the company’s cash position.
Jeeves changes this paradigm. Jeeves provides the underwriting, 30 days of credit in local currency, and the payment rails for any business spend across countries and currencies.
