Companies are getting more serious about using tools to manage how their teams operate now that the world seems to have settled into working in a significantly more distributed way. A startup that is addressing that challenge and how it relates to expenses is announcing some funding.
Mesh Payments, which provides a platform for companies to oversee and manage employees' expenses, and for employees themselves to better track and manage how and where they spend money, has raised $50 million. The funding will be used to expand the platform and further business development. In the last nine months, it has grown tenfold.
The round is being led by Tiger Global, with participation from other investors as well as past backers. The company raised $13 million and is not revealing its valuation.
Currently the company's tools cover areas like travel expenses, spend cards and other forms of spend management, but potentially the more interesting aspect of how Mesh works lies in its name.
Mesh Payments' platform integrates with various other pieces of software and apps that a company might use to run its business, and continually scans that network to determine whether a particular purchase is a useful one, or one that might be overlap with something that already exists, not to mention not in line with
Oded Zehavi, co-founder and CEO of Mesh Payments, said in an interview that they start with the idea that there is different context to different kinds of spend. The process for a trip versus software is different.
The platform integrates with a lot of different software. He said that they are adding more data connections to the cloud to expose more company behavior. The data and intelligence that we designed in a more superior way is what sets us apart.
If an employee suddenly decides to set up an iCloud storage subscription, Mesh would check the network to see if it meshes with corporate policy, and also check if the organization already has an account with another cloud storage company. The purchase is flagged if either of the questions raises a flag.
Managers on the finance team get notifications of these as well. It is up to the finance team to decide how strict the policy is: whether purchases are blocked, or rejected in the aftermath, or issued with a warning/alert.
The system requires a lot of onramping from customers in order for it to work. The current customer list is heavy with technology companies, which are already working in the cloud and thus representing an easy port to work with.
There is a huge appetite in the market for better and more updated tools for managing expenses, both at a time when employees may be needing them.
The focus on larger businesses gives it a wide funnel, which is why they are all focused on improving user experience and tapping into modern technology more.
It is a massive opportunity that is likely to stay, just like some of our newly-distributed working practices.
The partner at Tiger Global who led the investment said that the company is an example of a true disruptor. We are proud to support a business that continues to deliver on its ambitions, and we look forward to helping Mesh modernize the payments space even further.
