Pleo becomes a Unicorn - and expands big in Germany

The Danish fintech is valued at 1.7 billion US dollars. The start-up wants to double its office in Berlin and sees the Federal Republic in a key role.

The Danish fintech Pleo is banking on the fact that most people are annoyed when they have to do their expense reports again. The hope is that in many companies it still runs quite bureaucratically, many mails are exchanged and in the end employees sit on it longer than they should. Pleo wants to solve this with a "smart" credit card and accounting software and could now convince investors again.

In a Series C financing round, Pleo has raised 150 million US dollars and is now valued at 1.7 billion US dollars. This makes the start-up the first Danish company to become a unicorn in this financing phase, i.e. a company worth more than one billion euros. The financing round was led by US investors Thrive Capital and Bain Capital Ventures. In total, the company now has more than 200 million US dollars in outside capital.

As is usually the case with financing rounds, the money is of course to flow into the team and also into the product. Pleo also wants to use this money to expand strongly and double its number of employees in Berlin from the current 40 to 80. The Federal Republic is considered a key location for the company. 1,600 of its 17,000 corporate customers are based here and 200 more are added every month, which accounts for around 25 percent of Pleo's new business. Alongside the UK, Germany is currently the second largest of a total of six markets in which the fintech is represented.

Berlin as a location is also to become a so-called "hub", from which the company also wants to accompany the expansion into other countries such as Austria. Most recently, two high-ranking Pleo executives, Arun Mani as Chief Revenue Officer and Haresh Bajaj as Vice President Product Growth, have already come to Berlin, with a third soon to follow.

"The future of work is giving employees the tools they need to be effective, productive and successful. Pleo was early to understand this critical shift for modern businesses towards employee-centricity," praised Keri Gohman, Partner at Bain Capital Ventures.

Kareem Zaki, General Partner at Thrive Capital, says, "Pleo has already transformed the way more than 17,000 companies manage their expenses. It saves them time and reduces costs while increasing transparency. We're excited to work closely with Pleo's team and help drive the company's next phase of growth."