Sydney-based fintech Paytron has won the Xccelerate 2022 run by Commonwealth Bank’s x15ventures and has been awarded a $250,000 SAFE note.
paytrona full workflow and expense management platform, was chosen from four payment-focused finalists, including Cape, Persollo and YouPay, who pitched to the investment committee last night.
The deal with x15ventures gives the fintech access to the CBA ecosystem to ramp up its growth.
It originally launched last year in the SME market as a multi-currency payments startup after raising $4.35 million in a Seed round backed by Carthona Capital and Germany.‘s Picus Capital.
Co-founders and former bank executives Jaco Veldsman and Francois Henrion wanted to tackle the pain point of small business owners doing too much paperwork to manage their international payments.
Integrated with Xero, the fintech started out as an all-in-one cloud financial solution that allows businesses to approve, manage and pay bills in multiple currencies and is designed to close the gap between smaller businesses and large organizations that have access to high-quality financial services.
It uses workflows to simplify the way accountants, medium-sized companies and enterprises manage transactions such as accounts payable, international transfers and payroll
Veldsman said the platform now includes automated invoice tracking, batch payments and company cards with built-in expense management.
“Collaboration of fintechs, payment companies and banks is key to solving workflow problems for companies of all sizes. If we don’t work together, we can’t completely solve the problem. It’s that simple,” he said.
“A road to partnering with CBA is incredibly exciting – and means we can explore ways to bring the best workflows together with Australia’s leading bank. The opportunity x15 provides for accelerated engagement between a company like Paytron and a company of CBA’s scale and brand is unique, even without the investment.”
x15 portfolio director Laura Faulconer said the program attracted exceptional quality companies from the first 50 startups they reviewed before narrowing it down to a final four
“The hands-on process of working with each team allowed us to gain a deeper understanding of the alignment points to build on towards strategic partnership,” she said.
“The Paytron team understands their customers’ pain points, which is evidenced by the short sales cycles they see from notoriously slow to sourcing companies.”
It’s the third year that x15ventures has held the Xccelerate program, with support for givvable and OwnHome in 2020 and Splashup last year.
Managing Director Toby Norton-Smith said there are huge opportunities for both the corporate and venture worlds if the partnership goes well.
“Paytron has the vision, ambition and maturity to reap the benefits of a future strategic partnership with the bank,” he said.