Meet Libeo, a French startup that just raised a $4.4 million (€4 million) funding round led by LocalGlobe, with Breega and various business angels also participating. The company has built a service that helps you pay your providers much more easily. You no longer have to manually keep track of invoices, log into your banking interface, enter banking information and transfer money.
Libeo targets small and medium companies that don’t necessarily have a dedicated accounting team. It wants to simplify payment processes as much as possible.
It starts by collecting invoices from your suppliers. You can import invoices to your Libeo account directly on Libeo by forwarding emails to a special address, by connecting Libeo to popular services, such as Amazon, or by connecting Libeo with your existing accounting platform, such as QuickBooks or Receipt Bank.
Once your invoices are all on Libeo, the startup automatically fills out payment information based on information on the invoice. It also can identify duplicates and keep track of VAT payments.
After that, Libeo wants to simplify payments. When you sign up, you share your company’s IBAN with Libeo so that it can take money from your account using direct debits. Whenever there’s an outstanding invoice in your Libeo account, you can decide to pay it now or schedule payment for later. Libeo transfers money to your recipient and collects money from your bank account at the same time.
What if it’s a new supplier and you don’t have their banking information? Instead of going back and forth with your supplier to get their IBAN, your supplier receives an email from Libeo with a link. The supplier drags and drops their bank details on Libeo’s web page. Libeo then checks that everything matches with the invoice and automatically adds the IBAN information to the payment.
Over time, if you use Libeo, you get an address book of all your suppliers. You can see how much you’re spending with a specific supplier, track your cash flow and more.
Like modern software-as-a-service tools, Libeo lets you collaborate on your invoices. Multiple people can have a Libeo account with different rights. You can set up an approval workflow as well.
There’s a free plan, but it’s limited to five payments per month. You can then pay to access advanced features and get bigger limits. Five thousand companies are currently using Libeo four months after the initial release. The company has facilitated €2 million in payments.
Source: Tech Crunch Startups | Libeo lets you pay your suppliers without going through your bank account
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