This first round of investment will enable Libeo to accelerate its growth, target the European market, recruit new talent and enhance its financial forecasting capabilities, which rely on artificial intelligence.
Libeo was created in January 2019 and facilitates payments between companies. The French platform allows financial officers and accountants to instantly dematerialize, centralize and pay their supplier invoices directly from the interface. With Libeo, SMEs can settle invoices to their suppliers as simple as an individual can reimburse a friend with their phone. The French private equity firm Breega has a special focus on FinTech and it’s supporting this digital solution along with several business angels and BPIFrance.
“There are many solutions on the market today, such as Quickbooks and Xero, but they require real accounting expertise and the small structures do not necessarily have this. A solution like Libeo gives a better overview of the company’s expenses and can improve their financial profitability”, commented Ben Marrel, one of the founding partners from the Breega fund, during an interview to the French journal La Tribune.
Reduce the company’s paperwork and pay suppliers in just a few clicks
Libeo allows to dematerialize and centralize supplier invoices (such as an electricity or service provider invoice) in a single interface and initialize later the payments without having to enter an IBAN. The platform reduces the company’s paperwork by just sending a simple email to the suppliers concerned.
“Financial management is very time-consuming for the SMEs. And they can also have poor financial money management because the key numbers are sometimes not clear”, explained Pierre Dutaret, co-founder and managing director of Libeo.
By making e-invoicing accessible, the company allows businesses to save time and reduce human errors, as well as facilitating the detection of invoice fraud, a practice that leads to over €150bn loss per year. The French company is trying to acquire a payment license backed by the Banque de France. This will target SMEs, more particularly those operating in sectors where the volume of invoices is high, such as mass distribution, hotels, restaurants and trade.
The project received a Phase 1 Grant from the European Innovation Council in June 2019. The funding will allow a feasibility study to validate their technological ability to tackle the European e-invoicing challenge, as well as consolidating their business model.
DISCLAIMER: This information is provided in the interest of knowledge sharing and should not be interpreted as the official view of the European Commission, or any other organisation.