“The contract is with procurement”
… the nightmare phrase for any supplier trying to close a large enterprise customer. Something that as enterprise software investors we experience vicariously through our portfolio companies. Dealing with a large corporation is painstakingly “slow, frustrating, manual and opaque” no matter who you are, whether you are selling a product or service, physical or software, large or small. Tom Howsam (Founder & CEO at Paid), lived through this when running his last company and felt like there had to be a better way – so he built Paid.
On the flipside, what is less obvious is how expensive a problem supplier management is for large enterprises. A company can easily onboard 5,000+ new suppliers a year – and at an average cost of $7,000 per supplier (Gartner), that’s a cool $35m just to get suppliers onto their ERP! Add to that the cost of processing a single purchase order at an average of $300, the cost of approvals, contracting, invoicing, accounts payables… 🤯
Paid’s mission is to create equal opportunity for businesses of all sizes, all over the world, by streamlining and automating the procurement and supplier management process, specifically focusing on the small and midsized supplier relationships of large enterprises. From supplier onboarding, POs and approvals, all the way to getting paid on time. With Paid, the time to onboard a new supplier is shortened from several months to hours. The cost and manual effort of processing 10,000’s of POs and invoices a year is reduced from $millions to the cost of software. The platform offers the added advantage of instant or faster settlement for suppliers, through financing partners, while enterprises keep their standard payment terms. The net result is enterprises experience massive cost savings and improved speed of doing business while suppliers grow revenues, speed up cash collection and increase happiness. Textbook win-win.
Paid’s value proposition immediately resonated when we met with Tom and Natasha Foster (Co-founder & COO). At the height of Covid-19 lockdown this spring, they certainly did not pick the easiest time to fundraise, but we were more than impressed by their unique insights into modernising procurement. As was Jeremy Roche (Founder & former CEO at Financial Force), who is joining Paid as Chairman, adding exceptional enterprise software and leadership experience to the team.
We are excited and proud to announce our partnership with Paid, leading their £2.2m Seed round alongside our good friends at Seedcamp, Jeremy and several incredible new angel investors and existing investors, including Techstars.