French startup Regate has raised a $20 million Series A funding round (€20 million) led by Valar Ventures. The company has built a modern software-as-a-service product that integrates directly with your existing accounting stack and connects with your corporate bank account.
This way, you can automate and simplify some of your financial and accounting tasks without having to switch to a brand new accounting tool. For instance, Regate has built integrations with Sage, Cegid and MyUnisoft.
In addition to Valar Ventures, 360 Capital is also participating in today’s funding round. 360 Capital previously invested in the startup’s seed round. The company previously raised a €7 million seed round ($7 million at today’s exchange rate).
Companies usually have to use several fintech and accounting tools for their day-to-day activities. They often have an accounting tool, an invoicing tool, a cashflow management tool, etc.
Essentially, Regate wants to act as the glue that makes this ecosystem stick together. There are two types of clients for Regate — companies that have their own accounting department, or accounting firms working with small and medium companies.
Given that building a new accounting platform is extremely complex if you want to comply with all accounting rules, Regate partners with software companies that have been working on accounting software for many years.
It also opens up some interesting opportunities on the distribution side. For instance, Sage recommends Regate to its own clients — accounting firms in particular.
Companies that use Regate benefits from a user experience upgrade when it comes to sorting through invoices and receipts, retrieving receipts, tracking incoming payments and paying suppliers.
For instance, when you receive an invoice from a supplier, you can get approval from the right people in your company and schedule a payment for later directly from Regate. The startup can issue virtual or physical cards thanks to a partnership with Treezor. It can also initiate bank transfers thanks to an integration with Fintecture.
Regate also helps you track unpaid invoices and follow up with your customers. Using EBICS or open banking APIs, Regate customers can see transactions from their bank account without having to log in to a bank portal.
For accounting firms, they can add Regate to their accounting stack and communicate with their clients directly from Regate. They don’t have to migrate to a new accounting platform and they can save time as customers can see missing receipts directly in Regate.
It’s a different go-to-market strategy and product philosophy compared to Pennylane, a startup that wants to replace legacy accounting software entirely. Regate is currently working with 10,000 clients — many accounting firms as well as many companies directly, such as Le Slip Français, Jimmy Fairly, Cityscoot and Skello.
With today’s funding round, Regate plans to become a certified platform for digitized receipts. This move will foster customer adoption as companies will be looking at solutions to help them comply with French regulation.