Corporate card startup Jeeves has raised $180 million and more than quadrupled its valuation from August to $2.1 billion. The investment was led by Tencent with participation from GIC, Stanford University, Andreessen Horowitz and Silicon Valley Bank, among others.
The funding comes on the heels of a $750 million raise by rival Ramp this week. Brex, another leading corporate card provider, was valued at $12.3 billion early this year.
“[Corporate cards are] the easiest way to get access to 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 really going to get the full payment stack, the share of wallet, for that company,” he added.
To capture more of that spending, corporate card startups are quickly launching new services.
In addition to corporate cards and payments, Jeeves makes working capital loans and has a debt offering called Jeeves Growth, which Thazhmon compared to the revenue-based financing popularized by fellow fintech startup Pipe. Down the line, Jeeves plans to offer deposits and other treasury services.
Rather than compete head-to-head in the US market, Jeeves is catering to multinational companies. The remote startup has clients in 24 countries, with some of its largest customers hailing from Latin America, including car marketplace Kavak and cryptocurrency exchange Bitso. Startups represent about 40% of Jeeves’ customers.
Jeeves has created fintech infrastructure that simplifies payments and expenses across multiple currencies. Unlike US or European startups, high-growth companies in other global regions often have an international strategy from the get-go, said Thazhmon.
Jeeves launched in March 2021 and has raised over $380 million in equity and debt to date.
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