Paid secures £2.2 million Seed investment led by Crane

Paid Gets £2.2M Seed Funding to Upgrade Enterprise Procurement Process 

Procurement costs for enterprises can range between 2-10% of revenue, costing billions each year

  • Paid’s procurement automation platform provides up to 10x time savings for enterprise procurement teams, up to 75% cost reductions, and trims supplier onboarding time from months to minutes 
  • To reach more UK enterprises, Paid raises £2.2m seed funding led by Crane, with participation from Seedcamp, Techstars, and notable angel investors Jens Lapinski, Chris Adelsbach and Charles Songhurst

DARLINGTON AND LONDON – Today, Paid is launching to help enterprises transform supplier management with its next-generation procurement platform. Paid announces its £2.2m seed funding round led by top early-stage tech investors Crane Venture Partners, along with participation from Seedcamp, Techstars and notable angel investors, including Angel Invest Ventures’ Jens Lapinski, GoCardless and Nested Founder Matthew Robinson, Outrun Ventures founder Chris Adelsbach (in a personal capacity), and former Microsoft head of corporate strategy Charles Songhurst. 


Since the start of COVID-19, 97% of businesses have experienced some form of supply chain disruption. Enterprises realise that they need to diversify both their suppliers and supply chain management to remain resilient, reduce costs and support their small and long-tail suppliers who are struggling to survive. 


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.”


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. Paid’s software platform is simple to implement and integrate, allowing enterprises to get up and running in days and onboard suppliers in just ten minutes. With an easier system to manage suppliers of all sizes, enterprises can reduce costs by up to 75%.better support the small suppliers that they rely on, and offer suppliers an instant payment option on the Paid platform. At launch, Paid is live with one of the UK’s top telco companies that spends billions annually to manage tens of thousands of 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 are part of BT’s Procurement Digital Garage, has managed to reduce these costs, providing an easy and efficient way to work with smaller suppliers.”


Paid was founded in late 2018 and participated in the Barclays London Accelerator, powered by Techstars, in January 2019. Paid is currently six employees and is based in Darlington in North East England, with some of the team in London. 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.


Jeremy Roche, 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, added: 

“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.”


About Paid

Paid is a new, next-generation procurement platform that cares, from the smallest suppliers to the biggest buyers. From onboarding and contracting to invoicing and payments, Paid transforms current frustratingly manual and lengthy processes into a seamless supplier management experience, enabling forward-thinking enterprises to gain agility and innovation capability whilst giving suppliers greater economic strength and access to wider business opportunities. Backed by leading UK technology investors Crane Venture Partners, Seedcamp, Barclays, Techstars, and angel investors including Angel Invest Ventures’ Jens Lapinski, GoCardless and Nested Founder Matthew Robinson, Outrun Ventures founder Chris Adelsbach (in a personal capacity), and former Microsoft head of corporate strategy Charles Songhurst. Paid’s clients include some of the largest, most reputable UK businesses. Learn more: www.paid.co.uk


About Crane

Crane is a London-based VC firm focused on early-stage investments in European start-ups that are solving real problems for the enterprise and enterprise workers. We back ambitious founders building category defining companies who are redefining the enterprise stack. Crane’s portfolio includes 7BridgesAxiomFoundriesHarbrOnfidoShipamaxTessian and Virtuoso.  www.crane.vc
-ENDS-


Notes to editors:
Media contact: [email protected]  / 0780 990 6215

Background info and stats

  • AQPC benchmarking data indicates that for every $1,000 in revenue, supply chain management costs range from $26.31 to $107.09, averaging $58 or over 5% of revenues (link)
  • Gartner estimates that the overall market for procure-to-pay software reached $3 billion in 2018 and is forecasted to grow 10% annually to $5 billion by 2023. (from Magic Quadrant whitepaper)

Safiya Marzook

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