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Saturday 25th January 2025 | No. 97
XU Biweekly
Pg 5 The independent news source for accounting apps and their ecosystems
Float Raises $70 Million Wafeq Raises SAR 28 Million to double down on to Fix Canada’s Business Banking Problem Saudi Arabia operations 90% of Wafeq’s SAR 1.5 billion worth of invoices are issued in KSA every month
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AFEQ (WWW. WA F E Q . C O M ) , A MODERN AND EASY-TO-USE ACCOUNTING PLATFORM, TODAY ANNOUNCED THE COMPLETION OF ITS $7.5 MILLION SERIES A FUNDING ROUND (SAR 28 MILLION).
and spending management space. Individual investor Gary Turner, who established and led the Europe, Middle East & Africa operations of Xero, one of the largest accounting software companies in the world, also participated.
This investment brings together globally renowned accounting software investors and executives, including 9900 Capital’s Managing Partner Chris Corbishley, who led the round and previously invested in Pennylane, France’s unicorn accounting platform, and Payhawk, another European unicorn in the financial planning
Existing investors Raed Ventures and Wamda Capital reaffirmed their support for Wafeq by participating in this round. Built to help SME owners run their businesses better, Wafeq has been at the forefront of regional accounting transformation.
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Float launched its first product in 2021, a single corporate card and a simple mission: cut through the red tape and give businesses the financial tools they need to move faster.
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HE “BIG FIVE” BANKS WERE NOTORIOUS FOR UNDERSERVING NON-ENTERPRISE COMPANIES WITH HIGH COSTS, LOW EARNING RATES AND SOME OF THE WORST SUPPORT EXPERIENCES—ALL ON TOP OF ANTIQUED OR VIRTUALLY NON-EXISTENT SOFTWARE. CANADIAN BUSINESSES WERE—AND STILL ARE—FINDING SUCCESS DESPITE THEIR FINANCIAL INSTITUTIONS. Since then, we’ve kept that mission but expanded our financial platform with products to automate accounts payable, make
reimbursements frictionless and surface real-time insights into company spending. Float now also offers virtual and physical cards in both CAD and USD, highyield accounts and nextday fund transfers and payments, providing faster, more flexible alternatives to traditional banking services. Today, more than 4,000 businesses use Float to manage team spend, earn high-interest on cash reserves and save days of manual reconciliation.
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Introducing Greg Strickland as Ignition’s new CEO
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T GIVES US GREAT PLEASURE TO ANNOUNCE THAT IGNITION’S GLOBAL PRESIDENT, GREG STRICKLAND, IS NOW THEIR NEW CEO AS GUY PEARSON TRANSITIONS INTO AN EXECUTIVE CHAIRMAN ROLE TO FOCUS MORE ON STRATEGY. GUY PEARSON EXPLAINS:
talk about with my clients when I ran my accounting firm (Scendar) and what I’ve preached on webinars, talks, and keynotes around the world at conferences and online over the last 10+ years.
When you start a business, you aim to solve a problem for a market, build a business model that makes sense (and scales), then remove yourself as the last bottleneck of the processes in the business and become an owner and thought partner for the operators of the business.
Greg has been with Ignition since 2024 based out of San Francisco and brings all the things I don’t have to the table:
This is what I used to Saturday 25th January 2025
It’d be a shame not to follow my own advice.
• He’s worked at a software company before (actually been COO at a number of them);
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