CleverCards’ Kealan Lennon. Image: Fergal Phillips
As it closes a €10m funding round, CleverCards is set to buy an Italian expense management company for an undisclosed sum.
Irish payments start-up CleverCards has announced plans to acquire ExpendiaSmart, an Italian expense management company.
CleverCards provides mobile-first payment methods. It allows customers to send prepaid digital Mastercards to an email or phone number, enabling payments from Apple, Samsung and Google Pay wallets on a smartphone.
The Dublin-based start-up launched its platform in December 2019 and it is used today by more than 5,000 businesses. Last September, it announced 30 new jobs in sales, marketing, product development and engineering on the back of increased demand during the pandemic.
Founder and CEO Kealan Lennon is a chartered accountant who set up CleverCards after spending time in sales, financial consulting and investment, among other areas.
He said that the ExpendiaSmart team has “built a solid business by earning the trust of large enterprise customers across many industries”. It has developed spend management software and smart corporate cards.
“The CleverCards platform will empower ExpendiaSmart customers to accelerate their digital transformation,” Lennon added.
Subject to regulatory approval, the deal will also see CleverCards take over an Italian e-money institution licence, which will allow it to expand further into European markets. The financial details of the deal haven’t been disclosed.
CleverCards is also in the process of closing a capital funding round of €10m. Investors in the round include Gareth Lambe, the former PayPal executive who is now head of Facebook Ireland, as well as entrepreneurs Dónal Daly, who sold Avoca Capital to KKR, and Pat Gunne, CEO of Green Reit.
The start-up hoping to raise a further €50m in the next year. It also said that it has more acquisitions in the pipeline to help consolidate the “highly fragmented” B2B fintech market in Europe.
