Expense management startup Ramp has acquired AI-powered procurement startup Venue.
Founded in 2022 by TK Kong, Young Kim, and Kevin Chan, Venue's goal was to "simplify the way companies review, approve, and manage the cost of the vendors they use across their enterprise."
The startup raised $1,2 million in funding from investors including Sequoia Capital, Exponent Founders Capital, and Basecase Capital.
The acquisition makes sense considering that last summer, Ramp announced it was entering the acquisition space as it focused more on “complex” companies. Additionally, he believes that back-end business processes, such as procurement, are “ripe for practical automation and AI implementations.”
Today, Ramp claims to be able to spend more than $10 billion on accounts payable each year, a 10-fold increase in just over two years), executives say. Its self-proclaimed goal is to become “a one-stop shop for all financial transactions.”
“Eliminating inefficiencies across fintech is a primary use case for AI to handle busy work,” the company said. “The product updates announced today show how AI and automation will change back-end business processes and make operating and working in a modern enterprise easier and more frictionless. «
Last year, Ramp acquired Cohere.io, a startup that created an AI-powered customer service tool.
And in August 2021, Ramp also bought Buyer.co a “trading as a service” platform that aimed to save its clients money on expensive purchases, such as annual software contracts.
In August 2022, Ramp confirmed that it had raised $300 million in a funding round co-led by existing backer Thrive Capital and new investor Sands Capital at a post-money valuation of $5.800 billion. At that time, he said that he had surpassed 300 million dollars in revenue annualized.
