Apron, a London startup, has raised a $15 million Series A funding round, led by Index Ventures, with Bessemer Venture Partners and Visionaries Club participating. The firm wants to help small businesses with the processing of invoices.
Apron is specifically targeting small companies with no finance department and who simply don't use any specific tool to track and pay invoices. Email chains and their online banking portal are crucial to them, which has a significant impact on their economy.
It starts with the classic software-as-a-service play: Apron acts as the central repository for all your invoices. You can set up rules and workflows so that large invoices are reviewed by the CEO before they are paid. The startup takes advantage of open banking in the UK, allowing you to approve payments in Apron and payments are sent directly from your bank account.
Apron, which rely on foreign suppliers for its services, offers payments in 30 currencies at a good exchange rate with a 0.5% conversion fee. It can be used to pay employees in one go.
Apron also works with QuickBooks and Xero. The platform lets you reconcile payments with invoices so that you can easily determine whether or not you have paid anything.
Uzbekov, who formerly worked at Revolut, has been working on his new product for the past six months and millions of pounds are already processed through Apron every month.
Apron, a small-scale product, is not that expensive, making it an excellent option for small businesses. It starts with a pay-as-you-go plan with free subscription and a fee of £1.20 per supplier payment. Larger companies may pay a monthly subscription fee to lower supplier payments to £0.50 per payment.