Looking back on 2022 at Spendesk

2022 was a year of tremendous growth for us here at Spendesk. We outgrew old offices, grew into new markets, saw our platform spend grow exponentially, and more! 

Thanks to Spendeskers’ hard work, we were able to achieve an impressive amount in 2022. It’s truly a joy to work with so many people who live out our values every day, coming together to change the future of spending at work.

It’s also thanks to our customers’ faith in us that we’re able to do what we love and continue to grow. So, thank you! Without you, none of this would be possible.

Now, join us on a trip down memory lane to (re)discover all that we accomplished in 2022.

Spendesk joined the unicorn club!

2022 started off with a bang when we achieved unicorn status in January! 

After raising an additional €100M from leading US investor Tiger Global, with participation from our existing investors Index Ventures, Eight Roads, General Atlantic, and eFounders, we reached a valuation of over $1 billion.

We are incredibly proud to be among an elite group of companies in France with this special status. 

This meant that we could make solid investments in our product, and especially our people. We can boast competitive salaries, wellness packages, and other benefits that attract the best talent from all over the world.

And our new status helped supercharge our growth: we were able to hire more Spendeskers, onboard new customers, expand into new markets, and launch new product features… all while staying true to our core values. 

Becoming a unicorn wasn’t the end of our story, or even the end of a chapter; it was the catalyst to launch us into even more exciting spaces. After the unicorn announcement at the start of the year, we continued to grow. By the end of the year, we more than doubled the amount spent through our platform.

€10 billion spent on Spendesk

This year we reached an exciting milestone – €10 billion spent on Spendesk!

Spend on our platform increased from €4.6B to €10B over the last year thanks to our +150,000 users!

We are so proud that our customers are increasingly turning to Spendesk for all their spend management needs. And they’re using it in a big way! Our solution is as crucial to finance teams as ever. 

This goes to show that it pays to have a smart spend management tool. With real-time visibility over budgets, invoices, expenses, and approvals, companies can make smarter decisions. 

It’s also a great indicator of how valuable smart spend management can be in times of economic uncertainty. It’s a wise investment that pays off again and again.

We made our users’ lives easier

Of all the Spendeskers taking a break over the holiday period, Marvin (the robot who reads your receipts) might just deserve some time off the most. He’s processed 7.9 million receipts, which would take us humans 15 years to manually submit!

Spendesk also handled over 1.2 million subscription payments automatically this year. And employees are getting their reimbursements faster than ever too, with the average time for an expense to be reimbursed being drastically reduced.

All in all, Spendesk saved our users thousands of hours in 2022. We hope to see that number increase in 2023!

Welcome, new Spendeskers (all 200+ of you)!

It’s hard to believe, but Spendesk almost doubled in size over the past 12 months. We now number over 500! 

We are so thrilled and thankful for our amazing new colleagues and teammates, who come from all over the world to join in our mission to liberate businesses and people to do their best work.

Most notably, we celebrated our success with an epic three-day offsite in Biscarrosse, France.

After three years of keeping our distance due to Covid restrictions, all teams from all offices were finally able to meet in person. We had a blast getting to know each other, building strong connections, and making memories.

Hello new offices…and new markets!

Not only did we welcome new Spendeskers in 2022, but we also have new and improved offices to support these expanding teams! 

In addition to our existing Berlin offices, we opened an office in Hamburg to get closer to finance teams in Germany. And our London team moved into beautiful new offices in the bustling Aldgate neighborhood. Light and airy, the team even has an outdoor patio to enjoy the rare sunny day in London!

And some more big news: we officially launched our entry into Spain and Italy! We’re already recruiting for roles and actively looking for Italian and Spanish speakers to support these new markets and bring the power of Spendesk to Southern Europe.

New feature launched: automated end-to-end Accounts Payable 

Our users asked for it, and we heard you! One of our most-requested features came to fruition this year: a fully automated end-to-end accounts payable process.

Among all our projects, this one was especially exciting. This new feature means that Spendesk closes the loop on the invoicing workflow. 

Finance teams and budget managers shouldn’t have to worry about low-value tasks such as uploading invoices manually. And now, they don’t have to! An automated AP process saves countless hours and headaches. 

From procure to pay, you can do it all on Spendesk.

Other notable moments from 2022

It’s hard to fit everything we’ve accomplished into one blog post, but here are other highlights from the year:

Events

You may have seen us at some of Europe’s biggest tech conferences this year. We loved connecting with like-minded people, potential customers, and our clients at events such as VivaTech, Web Summit, and SaaStock. We can’t wait to be back in 2023!

Awards

Spendesk ranked 7th in the Accounting & Finance Products category at this year’s G2 Best Software Awards. Our users’ feedback is our most precious asset, and we are so thrilled that Spendesk continues to save time and solve problems for finance teams.

CFO Connect

Our CFO Connect community had amazing growth this year, too! 

• CFO Connect welcomed 1,696 new members into our community for finance leaders. 

• We held 16 events throughout the year in Paris, London, and Berlin, as well as private dinners, pub hangouts, virtual and hybrid events, and of course CFO Connect Summit.

• We facilitated 558 meaningful 1:1 connections via our Member Matching program. 

• We released the CFO Salary Benchmark, helping shed light on a taboo topic for finance professionals.

It’s never too late to join the community! We hope to welcome even more finance leaders to CFO Connect in 2023.

Looking ahead to 2023

Spendesk is on the road to becoming the new standard of B2B payments, and we’ve set ambitious goals for ourselves in the upcoming year. 

But most importantly, we want to make sure that we’re growing at a steady pace, when and where we need to, and continue to make good decisions that benefit both Spendeskers and our customers. Looking forward to 2023, “sustainable growth” will be our guiding principle.

We will open offices in Spain and Italy in 2023, following our launch into the Southern European market this year. We look forward to growing in these countries!

I hope you have a safe and happy end to your 2022. We can’t wait to share all that we have planned for 2023!