Seed4Soft, lead investor in LeanPay's funding round, which raises 1.1 million euros.
The startup LeanPay, founded in 2020 by Socrate Tellier and Edouard Lejosne, completes a first funding round of 1.1 million euros in order to accelerate the development of its platform for managing customer invoices.
Cash, a key issue for SMEs
The observation is simple and unanimous: cash is the number one priority for SMEs. In a climate of economic uncertainty, invoicing is no longer enough; finance teams need to manage their receivables in real time so as to optimise collection times and avoid unpaid bills.
Yet many companies still work manually and slowly, most often relying on multiple Excel files fed by accounting exports.
That obsolete way of working is inefficient on several counts: CFOs have no visibility over the key receivables indicators and therefore cannot steer their cash properly, accounting and finance teams lose a great deal of time on manual and repetitive tasks, and sales teams have no way of tracking how quickly their customers pay.
This archaic management generates late payments that can put a company's cash at risk. The figures prove it: 25% of company failures are due to late payment, and 56 billion euros are written off every year in France.
LeanPay, the platform that transforms receivables management
It was to answer that problem that Socrate Tellier (CEO, ESCP Europe, formerly LVMH) and Edouard Lejosne (CTO, Centrale-Supélec, formerly co-founder of Illuin Technology) created LeanPay in 2020.
The platform integrates with accounting software so that finance teams can centralise the whole management of their receivables, from tracking through to payment, by way of customer reminders.
The platform allows real-time steering of key indicators, centralised tracking of invoices and customers, alerts based on the analysis of payment times, automated customer reminders, and an online payment portal for customers.
The product's ergonomics and effectiveness have already convinced around a hundred SMEs to use LeanPay to digitalise how they work, among them Germinal (digital agency), InitiaFood (food industry), Maison Bonifassi (wholesale) and SBA Compta (accountancy practice).
Nearly 10,000 customer reminders are sent with LeanPay every month.
A first funding round led by Seed4Soft
The round is intended to fund the growth of the sales team so that every SME working in B2B can automate the management of its receivables and be done with late payment.
The aim is also to continue developing the product, adding new features so as to cover every dimension of receivables management.
Backed from the start by the Euratechnologies and ESCP Europe (Blue Factory) incubators, LeanPay has recruited a team of 15 people and intends to bring in 10 new talents over the next 12 months, in the product team as well as in sales and customer success.
The recent round was led by Seed4Soft, a major player in supporting SaaS solutions, along with several business angels including Jérôme Proust (CEO of Wedoogift) and Charles Christory (CEO of Adictiz and Le Fourgon).
About:
Seed4Soft
Seed4Soft is a club of software experts with an unmatched depth of experience in the field. Operating like a fund, Seed4Soft brings together 22 entrepreneurs and company directors who invest together between 200k and 500k€ in promising startups at the seed stage, in B2B software.
Website: www.seed4soft.com
Blue Factory
Founded in the early 2000s, Blue Factory is the organisation that supports entrepreneurs graduating from ESCP. Each year dozens of entrepreneurs come through, developing projects in varied sectors: education, employment, culture, food, property, fashion. What gives Blue Factory its particular colour is its European architecture, its direct presence within the school's various campuses, its warm and supportive culture, and the generous commitment of its community and its partners.
Website: www.blue-factory.eu
Euratechnologies
EuraTechnologies, France's leading incubator and accelerator, is a centre of excellence and innovation set over 115,000 m2 in Lille. EuraTechnologies supports the growth of every digital entrepreneur through a methodology and know-how unique in business support, from seed stage through to international roll-out. Born in 2009, EuraTechnologies ranks in the top 3 accelerators in Europe.
Website: www.euratechnologies.com