Saturday 11 December 2021 | No. 20
XU Biweekly The independent news source for Xero users, by Xero users
Accounting software with a purpose.
THE FINAL EDITION OF 2021
We’ve just raised $200m to take Pleo to new countries By Alicia Gant
Y
ES, YOU READ THAT RIGHT… WE’RE JUST AS BLOWN AWAY AS YOU ARE. $200 MILLION. THIS INVESTMENT NOT ONLY MAKES PLEO THE MOST-FUNDED B2B SPEND MANAGEMENT SERVICE IN EUROPE, BUT WE’RE ALSO THE HIGHEST-VALUED – WITH OUR VALUATION ALMOST TRIPLING, BRINGING US TO $4.7B. Yowza! While this Series C extension, or what you could call an early Christmas present, is super encouraging, it’s not why we do what we do. A couple more zeroes doesn’t change our vision: to make everyone feel valued at work. Wait, didn’t you just do that in July? Let’s take a very quick trip down memory lane. And I mean quick. Six months ago, we raised $150 million in our Series C funding round.
WISHING YOU A HAPPY FESTIVE SEASON FROM US ALL AT XU
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ITH THE END OF 2021 QUICKLY APPROACHING, WE WANTED TO TAKE A MOMENT TO THANK ALL OF OUR READERS, THE AWESOME APPS WE WORK WITH, AND OF COURSE, XERO! After launching our fortnightly news roundup back in March, we've covered the biggest news and updates from the Xero and Fintech community across 20 issues of the XU Biweekly newspaper. This fortnightly news publication joined our existing quarterly XU Magazine, daily news Hub and social media feeds to ensure we're the best place to go for all things Xero, business and Fintech.
Alongside the 20 editions of our newspaper, 2021 has also seen 648 articles uploaded to the XU Hub, 5 Biweekly competitions, 4 issues of XU magazine, 3 in-person events and 2 cash dashes! Whilst things have still been a struggle for many this year, we're glad we were able to work with and support so many amazing people and take part in some great events. Next year promises to be all the better and we can't wait to see what it has in store for us all.
We hope you all have a wonderful festive period, whatever you might be celebrating, and we'll see you in 2022!
That was also the same week that more than ¤566 million was raised across 16 deals for fintechs throughout Europe and it’s been estimated that just last week, EU fintechs crossed the 50th round above ¤100 million this year – 2021 really has been record-breaking. Fast forward to well, now. And we’ve just raised another $200 million, bringing our total round to $350 million! So, yes, we did, but the opportunity and demand was there. The additional funds let us think a few more years ahead than the original Series C. The funds put us in a good space to be more aggressive with growth, and really double-down on our efforts to revolutionise business spending for forward-thinking companies everywhere.
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Accounting software with a purpose. Saturday 11 December 2021 ISSN 2054-7234
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