Payem Launches with $27M to Reimagine Expense Reports

PayEm Secures $27 Million to Revolutionize Spend Management

Itamar Jobani, formerly a software developer within the medical sector, experienced significant dissatisfaction with the existing reimbursement tools utilized by his employer. He described the monthly process as particularly frustrating.

Driven by his role on the company’s wellness team, Jobani felt compelled to improve the employee experience and actively sought a superior solution. “I searched for an alternative, but nothing met our needs, prompting me to develop a system independently,” he explained to TechCrunch.

Foundation and Funding

This initiative led to the establishment of PayEm in 2019, an Israeli company co-founded with Omer Rimoch. The company focuses on providing a comprehensive spend and procurement platform designed for rapidly expanding and international organizations.

PayEm recently announced a successful funding round totaling $27 million. This includes $7 million in seed funding, spearheaded by Pitango First and NFX, with contributions from LocalGlobe and Fresh Fund, alongside a $20 million Series A investment led by Glilot+.

Automated Financial Workflows

The core of PayEm’s technology lies in its automation capabilities. It streamlines reimbursement, procurement, accounts payable, and credit card processes, effectively managing requests and invoices.

Furthermore, the platform facilitates bill creation and payment distribution to over 200 territories, supporting transactions in 130 different currencies. This provides a unified global payment solution.

Real-Time Visibility and Control

PayEm offers finance teams real-time insights into employee spending requests and actual expenditures. Requests can be submitted and routed through customizable approval workflows, incorporating purchasing codes linked to transaction details.

Crucially, all transactions are continuously reconciled, eliminating the need for extensive manual paperwork reconciliation at the end of each month. This significantly reduces administrative overhead.

A Shift in Organizational Spending

“Modern organizations are increasingly decentralized, with teams empowered to make purchases on the company’s behalf,” Jobani stated. “Our platform is designed to support this evolving model, functioning as a disbursement platform rather than requiring constant finance team oversight.”

The Expanding B2B Payments Landscape

The global B2B payments market currently stands at $120 trillion annually, with projections reaching $200 trillion by 2028, as reported by the Nilson Report. PayEm is part of a growing wave of B2B payments startups attracting substantial venture capital.

Recent examples include Nium’s $200 million Series D funding and Paystand’s $50 million Series C raise, both focused on innovating B2B payment solutions. Dwolla also secured $21 million to enhance its API for facilitating rapid payments.

Growth and Future Plans

PayEm experienced significant growth in the second quarter of 2021, with transaction volumes increasing fourfold compared to the previous quarter and revenue reaching millions of dollars.

The company currently serves a diverse clientele, including prominent names like Fiverr, JFrog, and Next Insurance. Recent product enhancements include the introduction of corporate card functionality.

With offices in both Israel and New York, PayEm currently employs 40 individuals. The newly acquired funding will be used to triple the company’s workforce, with a primary focus on expanding its presence in the United States and developing new features and payment options.

“Each team member can be allocated a specific budget and timeframe for purchases, while maintaining accounting’s overall control,” Jobani concluded. “This ensures everyone has the necessary context and operates within the appropriate budgetary guidelines.”