Finance Automation & Payments platform CashFlo raises 70 Crores from General Catalyst and Elevation Capital

The funds will be used to expand market leadership in India’s enterprise segment and invest in core product and technology.

6 September 2022: Finance Automation &Payments platform CashFlo announced its second round of capital raise, led by General Catalyst with participation from existing investor, Elevation Capital. Prominent angels in this round include Jitendra Gupta (Jupiter), Amrish Rau(Pine Labs), Nitin Gupta (Uni), Rangarajan K (Five Star), Gokul Rajaram, Whiteboard Capital, Atrium Angels and Saikiran Krishnamurthy among others. Elevation had previously invested in CashFlo’s initial fundraise in 2019. 

Founded in 2018 by ex-Boston Consulting Group execs, Ankur Bhageria and Dushyant Agarwal, CashFlo helps businesses automate their core finance processes and manage their cash flows better. Despite B2B payments in India totalling USD 11 Tn, managing cash flows for most businesses is a complex and draining process; Cash rich businesses want better treasury returns whereas cash strapped businesses want to pay vendors later. The pandemic also created a significant stress in supply chains and the need for working capital among SMEs has only grown owing to the elongated credit terms that were negotiated by their buyers during the last 2years. 

CashFlo’s platform solves these problems for buyers by offering treasury and working capital optimisation. The platform helps buyers pay for goods and services early and earn >12% returns risk-free returns or pay later and unlock up to 180 days of working capital, while ensuring robust GST compliance among suppliers and automatic payment reconciliations. Suppliers in-turn, get an on-demand receivables discounting platform which allows them to collect-at-will from customers with the click of a button, giving them visibility into the buyer’s invoicing process.

This makes CashFlo India’s most flexible vendor financing automation platform with the broadest suite of funding options and state-of-the-art vendor experience. Ankur Bhageria, CEO says “Over the past3 years we have heavily invested in our product and technology capabilities to constantly stay ahead of the market and bring a differentiated value proposition to our clients. Today we are head and shoulders above competition in terms of product and execution capabilities. This is evident from our 800%+growth in the last 12 months. Moreover, our 100% client retention rate since inception is a testament to our ability to deliver significant value on ground for our customers”. 

The company has been a pioneer of dynamic discounting & dynamic vendor financing in the India market, covering the full gamut of product structures offered by banks and extending beyond digital invoice discounting, into full-suite of Finance Automation products making it the preferred partner for India’s leading corporates.

CashFlo’s flagship offering on dynamic discounting and vendor financing automation has grown 800% over the past year, expanding its network to over 50 of India’s largest supply chains that include likes of Tata Group, L&T Group, Murugappa Group, ITC, Lupin, Delhivery, Thermax and Arvind among others; and a network of over 2,00,000 Tier 1 and Tier2 suppliers and dealers.

This most recent round of funding will allow it to grow its product lines for the CFO function, invest in core technology and expand its category leadership in the Vendor Financing automation market in India. 

“We are excited to back Ankur and the team at CashFlo as they help businesses across India optimize their cash management and vendor relationships. The pandemic and current macro environment are constant reminders that cash and liquidity are key indicators of business health. We have seen an acceleration in adoption of B2B payments solutions globally as businesses try to cope with volatility and believe innovative players like CashFlo face a large opportunity ahead,” said Alex Tran, Managing Director, General Catalyst.

Mridul Arora, Partner, Elevation Capital said “We're privileged to strengthen our partnership with CashFlo as they disrupt B2B payments and vendor financing in India. We are big believers in supply chain-led financial platforms, given the strong trust, scale and compounding network they are able to tap. CashFlo's growth in the past 12 months and quality of partners is testimony to the team's deep insights and ability to create win-win across stakeholders."