Corporate card unicorn Payhawk plans acquisitions to expand in US

AMSTERDAM, Netherlands – Enterprise funds startup Payhawk informed CNBC it’s planning mergers and acquisitions to increase its footprint on this planet of company spend administration and seize main gamers like JUICE.

The startup stated it’s searching for an organization or corporations within the Collection A section of their growth, referring to early-stage startups which have already raised a big spherical of funding.

In an interview with CNBC, Hristo Borisov, CEO and co-founder of Payhawk, stated he thinks his firm has a greater “product-market match” than its rivals, who’ve achieved multi-billion greenback valuations by handing out free company playing cards to different startups. .

“We see a possibility to have significantly better unit economics on this business,” Borisov informed CNBC this week on the Cash 20/20 convention in Amsterdam, Netherlands. “We consider corporations like Brex and Ramp nonetheless haven’t discovered a powerful product market match for what this potential market might be.”

Payhawk is a enterprise expense administration platform that points sensible playing cards to clients’ workers to make funds and observe their bills. Decathlon and Vinted are amongst his clients.

Payhawk posted super development within the first quarter, the corporate informed CNBC. It confirmed that gross sales have been up 86% year-on-year globally, and gross sales within the UK have been up 127% – a market that now accounts for 27% of complete gross sales.

Payhawk’s development was pushed by a big improve within the variety of clients. The corporate stated it noticed a 58% improve in clients year-on-year within the three months ending in March, with Britain as soon as once more a key driver.

Now Payhawk is trying to construct on that development – with mergers and acquisitions, in line with Borisov, key to unlocking future alternatives.

“Many corporations which have obtained financing prior to now two or three years at the moment are ready the place they’re strategic choices,” Borisov stated. “That is one thing we’re actively engaged on. 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 atmosphere that your enterprise spend wants, from a single supplier,” stated Borisov. “There might be some market consolidation.”

Borisov isn’t trying to purchase corporations within the US market, Borisov stated, including that Payhawk has partnered with American Categorical within the US underneath the bank card large’s Sync Business Accomplice Program.

When requested if his firm was searching for new enterprise capital funding to realize its objectives, Borisov stated Payhawk is all the time in discussions about fundraising.

He added that renewed development over the previous yr had attracted curiosity from outdoors traders, after a more durable 2022 and early 2023.

“Fundraising is day-after-day,” he stated. ‘It is not as a result of we’d like cash. The worst time to boost cash is whenever you want the cash.”

“We converse to traders day-after-day and perceive the place the market is,” Borisov added. “Companions who consider in that imaginative and prescient see the identical factor.”

Payhawk may launch a brand new enterprise spherical this yr or subsequent, Borisov added. The corporate, backed by enterprise capital companies Lightspeed, Greenoaks and Earlybird, has raised $240 million so far.

He stated his final aim is for Payhawk to grow to be a publicly traded firm, though there isn’t a date but for when the corporate will debut on the general public market.

“Our final aim is an IPO of the corporate, that is one thing we’re specializing in,” Borisov stated. “It actually is dependent upon market situations and market realities.”