On average, Agicap clients manage 15 different bank accounts. As a result, CFOs working for these companies sometimes struggle to ensure that there is enough money in the right bank account to pay employees and suppliers across different subsidiaries, countries and currencies.
That's why they also resort to Agicap to centralize cash-related data and forecast future cash positions. The Lyon-based startup has just raised a round of funding Serie C of €45 million (around $48 million at current exchange rates) from a single investor, AVP, the venture capital firm formerly known as Axa Venture Partners.
The fintech startup had already raised $100 million in 2021, right in the middle of the digital funding frenzy during the pandemic. At the time, the company reached a valuation of €415 million (or around $450 million at the current exchange rate). Since then, the value of the business has inflated “substantially,” according to Agicap, although it does not reveal to what extent.
"We do not disclose the exact valuation, but we have managed to increase it substantially since 2021," said co-founder and CEO Sébastien Beyet. Asked about this point, he gave a hint of the new valuation: Les Échos previously reported that Agicap was raising at a valuation of between €700 million and €800 million (or $750 million and $860 million), and Beyet said: “We will stay within this range.”
Narrow focus: 'Huge' market
Agicap’s success comes down to a narrow focus on treasury management software – it doesn’t try to do everything at once like most fintech startups.
It is also a relatively untapped market, with many companies still relying on Excel and exporting files from bank accounts and ERP software. Evidence of this is found in a recent study Agicap conducted with 500 European CFOs from mid-sized companies. When asked about the tool of choice for managing and forecasting their cash positions, 80% said Excel.
Agicap's main customers are CFOs and finance departments. And when the teams in charge of money like a product, they don't drop out anytime soon.
Agicap customers can synchronize data from their bank accounts, credit institutions, and existing ERP solutions. It then acts as a central repository to view everything related to past and future cash flows. But Agicap is not just a visualization dashboard; users can also initiate and schedule transfers directly from its interface.
"We believe we will be able to use cash management as a foundation for what we call the CFO suite and provide other tools to CFOs and treasurers," Beyet said.
In that vein, most recently, the startup added accounts payable and accounts receivable. These features help you get paid faster, as you can see outstanding invoices and alert customers in case they are late. Similarly, Agicap imports purchase orders so you can pay suppliers on time and use that data for your upcoming budgets.
The startup currently has 8.000 clients, about half of them in France. Most of the remaining clients are spread across other European countries. “We focus on medium-sized companies, with an average annual revenue of between 5 and 10 million euros, and up to 500 million euros,” said Beyet.
“We have already reached a cash breakeven position for this quarter. Therefore, we did not need to raise additional funds to continue our development. But we believe that our market is huge,” he added.
In addition to hiring new people to find new clients, Agicap plans to use the funds to launch new features around credit management and foreign exchange risk management.
Regarding offering credit products directly, he said, “We don’t want to become a bank. In other words, we don’t want to take on the financial risk of lending money ourselves. We know how to build software and that’s what we intend to focus on.”
