Chinese SaaS firm Ekuaibao books $50 million in fresh funding

Ekuaibao, China’s enterprise expense and reimbursement management software-as-a-service (SaaS) platform, announced on Tuesday that it has secured $50 million in a Series C and an extended C plus round, raising the company’s total fundraising so far this year to $65 million.

Why it matters: Companies in China’s accounting technology sector are on the rise as bookkeeping processes are increasingly being shifted online for transparency and efficiency.

• The world’s biggest market for business travel, China spent $347 billion on work-related travel in 2017, according to data from the Global Business Travel Association. It is expected to pick up an additional $129 billion in annual business travel spend by 2022.

Details: The combined $50 million Series C consists of two parts: a $30 million Series C round received in September, led by Tiger Global Management and including venture capital firms DCM Ventures and Future Capital, and an extended $20 million C Plus planned for October led by Sequoia Capital China.

• The proceeds will be used to upgrade the company’s online reimbursement system, business expansion, recruitment, and improve the organizational structure and user experience, according to the company.
• The Beijing-based firm said it has more than 175,000 corporate clients, including detergent brand Blue Moon, real estate developer Greenland Holdings, securities brokerage company Zheshang Securities, and coffee chain Costa Coffee, among others.
• The company received $15 million in its Series B led by Mandra Capital in January.

“With the maturity of enterprise management systems and the popularity of electronic invoices, we are very optimistic about the market prospect of SaaS services focused on enterprise expense reimbursement and control sector in China. Ekuaibao has built a good reputation among clients and we also have faith in the company’s team” (our translation).

—Wang Pengfei, China managing director of Tiger Global Management

Context: Ekuaibao, founded in 2015, provides solutions for enterprises to manage procurement and employee reimbursement online.

• Its services cover travel applications, cash advances for travel and expenses, reimbursement, direct travel payment, bookkeeping, and analytics.
• Ekuaibao links directly to more than 110 mainstream banks for electronic funds transfer, as well as enterprise resource planning software like Yonyou, Kingdee, and SAP.
• Through partnerships, Ekuaibao’s system also supports the third-party expense reimbursement and management functions for companies including Alibaba’s DingTalk and Tencent’s WeChat Work.