jeeves emerges from stealth with $131m in debt and equity and a16z as a lead investor

Jeeves Secures $131 Million to Revolutionize Global Startup Expense Management

Jeeves, a company developing a comprehensive “all-in-one expense management platform” specifically tailored for global startups, has officially exited stealth mode. The company has successfully raised a total of $131 million in funding, comprised of $31 million in equity and $100 million in debt financing.

Funding Details and Investor Participation

The $31 million equity portion includes a new $26 million Series A round, alongside a previously undisclosed $5 million seed investment.

Andreessen Horowitz (a16z) spearheaded the Series A funding, with significant contributions from YC Continuity Fund, Jaguar Ventures, Urban Innovation Fund, Uncorrelated Ventures, Clocktower Ventures, Stanford University, 9 Yards Capital, and BlockFi Ventures.

A distinguished group of angel investors also participated, including NFL wide receiver Larry Fitzgerald and the founding teams of prominent Latin American unicorns: Nubank’s David Velez, Kavak’s Carlos Garcia, Rappi’s Sebastian Mejia, Bitso’s Daniel Vogel, and Loft’s Florian Hagenbuch. Ricardo Weder of Justo also invested in this round, while Plaid co-founder William Hockey contributed to the $5 million seed round completed after the company’s participation in the YC Summer 2020 program.

Expanding Global Reach and Core Functionality

Jeeves positions itself as the first “cross country, cross currency” expense management solution. Currently, the platform is operational in Mexico – its primary market – as well as Colombia, Canada, and the United States. Beta testing is underway in Brazil and Chile.

Founded by Dileep Thazhmon and Sherwin Gandhi, Jeeves addresses a critical need for startups often burdened by fragmented financial infrastructure. Traditionally, companies with international employees have been forced to utilize country-specific vendors for each location – separate corporate cards and cross-border payment solutions.

Platform Capabilities and Benefits

Jeeves asserts that its platform enables companies to establish their finance functions “in minutes.” It provides access to 30 days of credit via a true corporate card and non-card payment methods, alongside streamlined cross-border payment processing.

Customers benefit from the ability to settle payments in multiple currencies, thereby minimizing FX (foreign transaction) fees. Thazhmon stated, “We’re building an all-in-one expense management platform for startups in LatAm and global markets — cash, corporate cards, cross-border — all run on our own infrastructure.”

Underlying Infrastructure and Competitive Advantage

The company is constructing both an infrastructure layer connecting to banking institutions across various countries and a user-facing application. According to Thazhmon, owning a portion of this technology stack allows for faster deployment in new countries compared to fintech companies reliant on third-party providers.

Rapid Growth and Customer Traction

Since launching its private beta last October, Jeeves has experienced substantial growth, with transaction volume (GTV) increasing by 200x and revenue climbing by 900% (from a relatively small starting point). In May alone, transaction volume surpassed the total for the entire year to date, and the customer base more than doubled.

Currently, “hundreds of companies,” including Bitso, Belvo, Justo, Runa, Worky, Zinboe, RobinFood, and Muncher, are actively utilizing Jeeves for managing both local and international expenditures. Furthermore, a waitlist exceeding 5,000 companies exists, driving the company’s recent fundraising efforts.

Impact of Remote Work and Future Plans

The global shift towards remote work, accelerated by the COVID-19 pandemic, has significantly contributed to the demand for Jeeves’ services, as noted by Thazhmon.

He explained, “Every company is now becoming a global company, and the service to employees in two different countries requires two different systems. And then someone’s got to reconcile that system at the end of the month.”

A key achievement for Jeeves has been obtaining approval to issue cards from its own credit BIN (bank identification number) in Mexico, and the ability to directly process SPEI payments through its infrastructure. (SPEI is a payment system operated by Banco de México for electronic fund transfers.)

Thazhmon, previously co-founder of Battery Ventures-backed PowerInbox, which reached $40 million in annual revenue within three years, stated, “This gives us a lot of flexibility and allows us to offer a truly unique product to our customers.”

The newly acquired capital will be allocated to onboarding companies from the waitlist, expanding infrastructure to support additional countries and currencies, hiring, and enhancing the product offering.

Investor Confidence and Market Opportunity

Angela Strange, a General Partner at a16z and now a member of Jeeves’ board, expressed strong confidence in the startup’s potential.

Strange highlighted her initial interest upon meeting Thazhmon a year ago, noting the company’s ambition to provide a financial operating system within a country, starting with Mexico, while simultaneously designing a scalable platform for multiple countries.

“Finally — a multicountry/currency expense management & payouts platform, where increasingly companies have employees and operations in multiple countries from the start and can use a single company to manage their financials,” she stated.

Strange, with experience investing in Latin America, pointed out the difficulty many companies in the region face in obtaining corporate credit cards. She emphasized that this is just one aspect of a larger problem.

“It’s cumbersome for companies to make bank to bank payouts, handle wires, and they usually also have expenses in the U.S. (and often other countries) so there is also FX. And they manage multiple bank accounts. Not only is paying hard, reconciliation on the backend takes weeks.”

Jeeves, according to Strange, “gets as close to the networks/payment rails as possible” by possessing its own issuing credit BIN, avoiding reliance on legacy providers.

This orchestration layer allows Jeeves to “handle all the payment and reconciliation complexity” so “their customers don’t have to think about it.”