Cledara, a London-based all-in-one SaaS purchase and management platform has secured $3.4M (nearly €2.8M) seed funding. The investment round was led by Nauta Capital along with participation from existing investor Anthemis. The company will use this investment to accelerate product development and expand into the global markets.
Reduces software expenditure
Founded in 21018 by Cristina Vila in London and operates in Barcelona as well. Later, ex-Railsbank executive Brad van Leeuwen joined as co-founder and COO.
A member of Techstars London, Cledara claims to work with the mission to bring real-time visibility and control the chaos caused by SaaS subscriptions. The company lets companies empower their teams to get the SaaS, as and when they need it, in a fast, secure and scalable way.
According to the company, it allows its customers to reduce their software spends by up to 30%. It also claims to save them from hours of manual admin work every month on tasks such as SaaS invoices, compliance with GDPR, bookkeeping, and outsourcing regulations.
“This round comes at a point in time when a successful transition to the cloud is critical for businesses and economies everywhere”, explains Cristina Vila, Cledara’s CEO and co-founder.
Brad van Leeuwen, COO and cofounder, says, “Having scaled companies before, I’ve seen first hand the friction that SaaS can cause across all parts of businesses, including finance and HR. As a result of the Covid-19 pandemic, businesses of all types have had to rapidly adjust to working in the cloud and are facing this challenge for the first time. We’re on a mission to support that transition.”
Ability to earn rewards
Cledara is powered by Cledara Mastercard. Currently, it is available in more than 20 countries across Europe, including France, Germany, the UK, Spain, and Ireland. It also lets customers earn points on most things they pay for with Cledara and redeem those points for cash. There’s no limit on what they can earn with Cledara Rewards, claims the company.
20x growth!
Jordi Vinas, general partner at Nauta Capital comments: “Cledara’s ability to ease companies’ SaaS management at a time where software-as-a-service is becoming an integral part for companies of all sizes is relevant now more than ever. Furthermore, Cledara’s management team has ample entrepreneurial and operational experience and we are thrilled to help them reach the next step.”
As per the company, Cledara grew by over 20 times in 2020 despite the pandemic crisis. It has over 100 customers, including tech startups and fintech companies such as Unmind, Butternut Box and Railsbank.
Among hottest fintech startups
Cledara has been recognised in the fintech industry and was named among the FinTech50 hottest European fintech startup. It has also been featured in the Amazon Web Services (AWS) Activate Console Exclusive Offers programme. This programme recognises the needs of high-growth startups to manage SaaS that fuels their operations.