Paid, Darlington-based procurement automation platform bags £2.2M funding to accelerate growth and expansion

Procurement can average 5% of revenues, costing enterprises billions each year. Based out of Darlington in the UK, Paid takes the hassle out of running a business with free client management, contracting, and invoicing. How does it work? Paid’s procurement automation software platform provides up to 10x time savings and up to 75% reduced costs for enterprise procurement teams. At the same time, one of the UK’s largest telcos is already using the tech startup’s platform to support its annual multi-billion procurement costs and work better with small suppliers.

Raises £2.2M seed funding

Now the news is just in that Paid has raised £2.2M seed funding led by top early-stage tech investors Crane Venture Partners, along with participation from Seedcamp, Techstars. 

Notable angel investors, including Angel Invest Ventures’ Jens Lapinski, GoCardless and Nested Founder Matthew Robinson, Outrun Ventures founder Chris Adelsbach, and former Microsoft head of corporate strategy Charles Songhurst also participated in the round. 

Tom Howsam, Co-Founder and CEO of Paid said, “Every SME who has ever dealt with large enterprises knows the pain and the time it takes to do even a simple thing like onboarding as a supplier, signing a contract, or getting paid on time. What they may not know is that that frustration is usually shared by the enterprise buyer, whose internal, one-size-fits-all process means they can’t move quickly.”

How will the funding be used?

With the new funding, Paid aims to double its team by the end of the year, hiring product, engineering, and customer success team members as it grows its customer base.

Simplifies time-consuming administrative tasks 

Paid’s software transforms the procure-to-pay process, enabling efficient onboarding, project scoping, sign off and invoicing – all in one easy-to-use product. 

Right from onboarding and contracting to invoice and payments, Paid automatically takes care of time-consuming administrative tasks enabling users to focus on their work and their relationships, delivering cost savings for buyers and faster payments for suppliers.

Cyril Pourrat, Chief Procurement Officer at BT, commented, “Companies, including BT, can incur huge costs when onboarding and managing suppliers. We needed a better, more agile way to manage our suppliers, and Paid solves that problem, offering us a way to save man-hours and money in one easy-to-use solution. Paid, who is part of BT’s Procurement Digital Garage, has managed to reduce these costs, providing an easy and efficient way to work with smaller suppliers.”

As per the company claims, the software allows enterprises to get up and running in days and onboard suppliers in just ten minutes.

Participated in Barclays London Accelerator

Founded in 2018, Paid participated in the Barclays London Accelerator, powered by Techstars, in January 2019. Right now, the company has six employees and is based in Darlington in North East England, with some of the team in London.

Jeremy Roche, the founder of FinancialForce and Paid’s new Chairman added: “What really excites me about Paid is the way the team has built a comprehensive platform to solve a complex, real-world problem that every enterprise faces – how to handle their long tail procure-to-pay process in a cost-effective way, allowing them to access the most innovative suppliers quickly and easily. This is the most intuitively designed solution I have seen to minimise effort for both enterprise buyers and their SME suppliers, removing friction from the procurement process and maximising benefits for both sides of the transaction.”

Krishna Visvanathan, Founding Partner at Crane Venture Partners said: “Paid offers an intuitive software-as-a-service platform that reinvents the procurement process. For enterprises and small suppliers alike, using Paid is a no-brainer, making it easier to manage a diverse supply chain through uncomplicated software. We are proud to back Paid as it builds a new category for supplier management in procure-to-pay transformation for enterprises.”