ApprovalMax raises £10m growth funding to scale their automated CFO suite

TL;DR

• ApprovalMax has closed their £10m growth round and undisclosed secondary sale with Yttrium, a specialist B2B technology investor based in Germany
• They are the first all-in-one solution addressing the fundamental need for end-to-end financial controls across payables and receivables
• Internationally recognised as the #1 financial controls platform globally, having won the Xero App Partner of the Year Award 3x times and rated 5/5 stars by their users
• Bootstrapped their way to 16,000 customers (whilst profitable and exceeding the Rule of 40) before looking to the funding market to take them to the next level of their growth journey
• The growth funding will allow the team to build out their product suite further, expand to new markets and scale new verticals
• We had a great time advising the team on their first institutional round — read on to find out more 👇

The approval of bills and invoices can take weeks or even months due to inefficiencies and high risk

Companies spend up to 45 working days reviewing, processing, and approving financial documents, which costs them over £10k/year in salary costs and exposes them to the risk of exposing sensitive information.

The current market is incredibly fragmented with players acting across all sub-sections of the accounts payable and receivable space.

Enterprise-level tools for SMEs

Enter, ApprovalMax:

ApprovalMax automates accounts payable and receivable processes, providing businesses with robust controls to combat fraud and workflow inefficiencies. They integrate with major accounting systems such as Xero, QuickBooks Online, and Oracle NetSuite, adding an essential layer of protection and automation to financial operations.

Earlier this year, the company also introduced two new add-ons — ApprovalMax Capture and ApprovalMax Pay — transforming it into a comprehensive all-in-one solution for automated accounts payable and accounts receivable.

What we loved about ApprovalMax:

• Clear market need — As someone who was an auditor in a long-ago prior life, the problem that the company was solving was immediately obvious to me in our early conversations. It brought me back to the completely unneeded long hours I’d spent in my early 20s trawling through unapproved company invoices during the early hours of the morning.
• Efficient growth—I can count on less than one hand the number of businesses I’ve encountered over the years that have achieved what ApprovalMax has with so little capital. Scaling to 16,000 customers across the globe off the back of small-ticket angel funding is no small feat and deserves an award in itself.
• Best-in-class technology combined with a best-in-class team—Konstantin (CEO) and Peter (CTO) have spent 35 combined years creating and scaling innovative technologies. When combined with Helmut’s (CFO) experience scaling Acronis to a unicorn valuation, the founder's market fit was clear.
• Increasing demand—The solution is successfully scaling across 4 continents with virtually no marketing spend. There are millions of companies out there that are losing time and money by not currently having access to ApprovalMax.

The Deal

When we partnered with the team at the beginning of their raising journey, we had high conviction that they would be a fit with multiple investors in our network.

ApprovalMax received five term sheets from a wide array of funds, including B2B SaaS specialists, Fintech specialists and Generalist Technology funds, and ultimately decided on Yttrium as their preferred partner due to the alignment of strategic objectives.

Konstantin Bredyuk, Founder & CEO:

We are thrilled to welcome Yttrium as our investor. Their deep expertise in scaling businesses beyond the venture phase is exactly what we were seeking to take us to the next level. With Yttrium’s support, we are confident in our ability to expand into new ecosystems and geographies.

We also want to express our gratitude to Mountside, whose invaluable guidance helped us make the leap from a bootstrapped business straight to a successful growth round.

This partnership marks an exciting new chapter in our growth journey

Jonathan Hollis, Mountside Ventures:

We’re delighted for the whole ApprovalMax team on closing their first institutional round of funding. It’s been a pleasure advising them throughout the process and I’m looking forward to seeing where they go next.

ApprovalMax is hiring for key roles across the UK, Europe and Asia here.

If you’re a founder as ambitious as this team, we’d love to hear from you — submit details of your company here. We aim to respond to everyone within 48 hours!