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AMSTERDAM, Netherlands — Company funds startup Payhawk informed CNBC it’s planning mergers and acquisitions to develop its footprint within the U.S. and tackle large gamers within the house like SAP and venture-backed companies Brex and Ramp.
The startup mentioned it’s seeking to purchase a U.S. firm or corporations on the sequence A stage of their improvement, referring to early-stage startups which have already raised a major spherical of funding.
In an interview with CNBC, Hristo Borisov, Payhawk’s CEO and co-founder, mentioned he thinks his agency has a greater “product-market match” than its rivals, which have gained multibillion-dollar valuations by handing out free company playing cards to different startups.
“We see a possibility to have a lot better unit economics on this enterprise,” Borisov informed CNBC on the Cash 20/20 convention in Amsterdam, Netherlands, this week. “We imagine corporations like Brex and Ramp nonetheless have not discovered robust product market match for what this potential market goes to be.”
Payhawk is a company spend administration platform that points good playing cards for shoppers’ staff to make funds and maintain observe of their bills. Decathlon and Vinted are amongst its prospects.
Within the U.S., Payhawk has partnered with American Specific below the bank card big’s Sync Industrial Accomplice Program. This enables it to subject digital playing cards which earn rewards based mostly on consumer spending.
Consolidation the secret
Payhawk recorded big development within the first quarter, the corporate informed CNBC. It revealed that income climbed 84% globally year-over-year, and gross sales jumped 127% within the U.Ok. — a market that now makes up 27% of total income.
Payhawk’s development got here off the again of a major improve in shoppers. The agency mentioned it noticed a 58% improve in prospects year-over-year within the three months ending March, with the U.Ok., once more, a significant driver.
Now, Payhawk desires to develop its U.S. footprint in a giant means — and M&A shall be a key to unlocking that development, in line with Borisov.
“Many companies that acquired funded in final two or three years at the moment are able the place they’re taking a look at strategic choices,” Borisov mentioned. “That is one thing we’re actively doing. We’re searching for corporations to purchase.”
“Our imaginative and prescient is to have the ability to present a single platform that gives a homogeneous setting your company expense wants with a single supplier,” Borisov mentioned. “There may be going to be some market consolidation.”
Purpose to develop into a public firm
Requested whether or not his agency was seeking to increase new enterprise funding to attain its aims, Borisov mentioned that Payhawk is at all times in fundraising conversations.
He added that its renewed development over the previous 12 months had garnered curiosity from exterior traders, after a harder 2022 and early 2023.
“Fundraising is on a regular basis,” he mentioned. “It is not as a result of we’d like cash. The worst time to fundraise is once you want the cash.”
“We’re talking to traders each day, understanding the place the market is,” Borisov added. “Companions who do imagine in that imaginative and prescient see the identical means.”
Payhawk might look to boost a brand new enterprise spherical both this 12 months or subsequent 12 months, Borisov added. The agency, backed by enterprise companies Lightspeed, Greenoaks, and Earlybird, has raised $240 million so far.
He mentioned his final purpose is for Payhawk to develop into a publicly listed firm, although there isn’t any date but for the agency to launch a public market debut.
“Our final purpose is to IPO the corporate, that is one thing we’re targeted on,” Borisov mentioned. “This actually relies upon in the marketplace circumstances and market realities.”