TECHNOLOGY
Arun Mani , CRO of
Pleo , believes presenting a solid and confident plan showing accurate financial predictions are key in scaling toward unicorn status . Pleo reached unicorn status in July last year , the fintech raised $ 150mn in its series C , taking them to a $ 1.7bn valuation . A few months later , in December , they announced their series C extension , which tripled the company valuation to $ 4.7bn .
“ We ’ ve come a long way since we launched in Copenhagen in 2015 – we ’ ve now expanded our presence to fifteen European markets , grown our team to well over 500 , and launched innovative new features to our platform that aim to simplify expense management and make seamless processes accessible to employees everywhere .
“ We ’ ve got to where we are today by never losing sight of what we stand for and what we set out to do . Throughout our growth , we ’ ve always brought our people with us on Pleo ’ s journey , really living our values of transparency and autonomy . I think investors could see we ’ d built a company full of people who love where they work – which translates perfectly into what our product is designed to be and do – and that ’ s something they really bought into .”
Funding and strong core values go hand in hand According to Mani , if fintechs are going to attract meaningful investor attention , they have to start with a strong , ambitious vision of their core values and the milestones they intend to meet .
“ For Pleo , it was all about giving ‘ Power to your People ’, our company motto , and making the world of work work for everyone . From there , we set out a clear roadmap for growth to make sure we ’ re staying agile and adapting
“ ALL OF THE SUCCESS STORIES IN THE FINTECH SPACE HAVE A RECOGNISABLE BRAND , A CLEAR IDENTITY AND A POWERFUL MESSAGE THAT THEY ARE TRYING TO GET ACROSS ”
EWAN WHITE GRAYLING