Saturday 1st June 2024 | No. 81
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Relay Raises US$32.2 Million Series B to Solve The #1 Challenge Facing Small Businesses Half of U.S. small businesses operate with just 27 days of cash buffer—Relay’s banking platform gives them tools to extend their runway.
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ELAY, THE BUSINESS BANKING PLATFORM THAT GIVES CASH FLOW CLARITY TO SMALL BUSINESSES (SMBS), ANNOUNCED TODAY THE CLOSE OF A US$32.2 MILLION SERIES B FINANCING ROUND, LED BY BAIN CAPITAL VENTURES. This brings Relay's total funding to US$51.6 million. The new financing accelerates Relay’s product development in spend management, smart credit products and a financial API marketplace.It’s the next step toward Relay’s overarching
goal of delivering AI-powered predictive cash flow analytics to SMBs. The funding comes after consecutive years of outsized growth—Relay’s revenues rose 3xin 2022 and close to 6x in 2023—and a single-minded focus on the small business market. “68% of U.S.small business owners have cash flow problems. They worry about making payroll and mission-critical bills but lack the tools to truly address these existential threats,” said Yoseph West, Relay’s
Co-Founder and CEO.“Relay gives them cash flow clarity and control—what SMBs need to sustainably fuel everyday operations— by pairing financial services with software and making banking work harder for them.” The funding round includes previous Relay investors BTV, Garage, and Tapestry, with new participation from Industry Ventures. “Relay’s been on an incredible trajectory, even as others in the industry have had to pivot and find new footing,” said Kevin Zhang, Partner at
Bain Capital Ventures. ”We were eager to get behind Relay again as the company enters its next stage of growth and doubles down on the unique needs of the SMB market.” Relay taps into the ingrained money management behaviors of business owners. SMBs want to see what they’ve earmarked for different expenses and understand their cash position at a glance—which is what Relay delivers. As a result of this approach, last summer, Relay became the official banking platform
for Profit First. Created and authored by serial entrepreneur Mike Michalowicz, Profit First is a behavior-based cash management methodology and book—with over 1 million copies sold—that teachesSMBs better financial habits. “What makesRelay so powerful for small business owners is how it works with our natural tendencies rather than against them,” says Mike Michalowicz. “Everything from saving for taxes to tracking expenses becomes second nature in Relay, and it removes so
much friction from the dayto-daywork of running a business.” On average, business owners log into Relay 13 times per month, and40% of customers who use Relay for their primary banking log in daily. The company most recently launched a credit card in limited release, complementing their smart checking and savings accounts, and a line of credit is slated to come.
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Dext announces the general Xenon Connect proudly availability of Dextension at announces its latest Accountex London, 2024 integration with FreeAgent!
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EXT, THE LEADING BOOKKEEPING AUTOMATION PLATFORM PROVIDER, TODAY ANNOUNCED THE RELEASE OF DEXTENSION, A BROWSER EXTENSION THAT UNLOCKS PRODUCTIVITY FOR BOOKKEEPERS AND ACCOUNTANTS. Available for free to all Dext users via the Chrome extension store, Dextension represents a significant advancement in accounting automation. The launch of Dextension highlights Dext’s continued commitment to innovation,
making it effortless to work with Dext and leading cloud accounting solutions. Dextension is a free downloadable browser extension, available on the Google Chrome Web Store. Users can switch it on with one click to unify their software experience, enabling customers smooth transitioning between Dext and their accounting software. The browser extension provides many features that streamline accounting workflows and provides critical context to dashboards and bank reconciliation by allowing users to see attachments and request missing paperwork directly where they do
that work.Back in 2011, Dext became the world’s first service to automate the collection and data extraction of receipts and invoice for accountants, bookkeepers and their small business clients. Since then, and for over a decade, Dext has broadened its deep expertise working with bookkeepers, accountants and business owners across industries from construction through to retail to reduce the friction in bookkeeping with automation and applied AI processing over 1M documents a day.
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ENON CONNECT PARTNERS WITH FREEAGENT TO ENHANCE BOOKKEEPING ANALYSIS FOR THEIR ACCLAIMED ACCOUNTING SOFTWARE, TAILORED FOR SMALL BUSINESSES AND FREELANCERS. This innovative collaboration aims to empower FreeAgent bookkeepers & accountants to thoroughly analyse their bookkeeping ledgers for errors, anomalies, and opportunities, and seamlessly rectify these issues within FreeAgent. This partnership ensures that financial data flows effortless-
ly between systems, minimising errors, and providing real-time insights into financial performance. Key features of the integration: • Automated data synchronisation: Financial transactions, invoices, and expenses are automatically synced between Xenon Connect and FreeAgent, ensuring that both platforms are always up-todate with the latest information. • Real-time financial insights: FreeAgent accountants & bookkeepers can access comprehen-
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sive financial reports and dashboards, providing a clear picture of their clients business’s financial health at any time.
Boosting efficiency for FreeAgent bookkeepers & accountants Gareth Salomon, Founder of Xenon Connect said “Xenon Connect is extremely excited to partner with FreeAgent to bring bookkeeping data quality checks to bookkeepers and accountants throughout the FreeAgent community.”
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