CleverCards’ Funding Round Succeeds in the Tough Fintech Environment
FinTech startup, CleverCards has raised $8.6 million. The startup raised the funds in a recent funding round. The Dublin-based company uses technology to prevent employees from abusing corporate expenses. CNBC says the CleverCards funding comes at a time when fintech investments have been slumping.
Tough Fundraising Environment
Investment in the fintech environment has been reducing since 2022. Fintech companies struggle to meet their financing goals. Investors are shifting to emerging technologies like AI. But, the latest CleverCards funding round stood out in the market.
CleverCards CEO, Kealan Lennon said, “It’s a tough environment. In the current market logjam, it has been pretty impressive now to raise money because nobody’s raising capital.”
CleverCards’ latest funding round was led by employee benefits and voucher platform, Pluxee. The new investment brings the total funding raised by this fintech firm past 28 million Euros. Pluzee is listed on the Euronext stock exchange. Its total market valuation stands at 4 billion Euros.
Corporate Expense Problem
A 2016 survey showed that employees made various improper expense requests. These included dance classes, welder, day spa, and taxidermy services. These expenses are odd. But, they reflect the reality for most companies.
CleverCards’ digital solution solves this problem by linking to configurable fintech expense cards. This enables corporations to control how employees use corporate payment cards.
Speaking to CNBC, Lennon said, “Businesses want to make sure the right employee is the one that gets the card, and that it’s only used for certain purposes. It’s finance control. The idea of a configurable payments platform hadn’t been done before. And by doing it digitally, customers come along and say, ‘I want to be able to do this with the press of a button’.”
CleverCards lets companies configure prepaid cards for use by specific staff members. The technology also allows corporations to block transactions they consider inappropriate.
Growing Fast
About 10,000 businesses have signed up for CleverCards’ fintech expense cards. These include big shots like Accenture, eBay, Microsoft, PaffyPower, Apple, and Betfair. CleverCards also serves organizations in the public sector.
The startup worked with the UK government. They transferred welfare payments to smart meter users. The users use direct debit to pay bills. But, they rely on additional financial assistance due to increasing fuel prices.
CleverCards’ fintech solution was used to restrict smart card payments. People could only use expense cards to pay bills on certain utility websites. The fintech startup used AI to check the identities of recipients. This helped in preventing fraud.
CleverCards is slowly positioning itself in the fintech industry. It’s taking on fintech giants.
With the latest CleverCards funding, the fintech startup will expand its business. The company plans to explore new opportunities and scale its fintech products. Recently, CleverCards appointed five more non-executive directors. The new directors have vast experience in payments technology.
