Apron Raises $14 Million to Expand Business Payments Platform

U.K. FinTech platform Apron is launching new small business products after raising $14 million.

The Series A round, announced Thursday (Sept. 28), will help the London-based company create two products for small- to medium-sized businesses (SMBs) and their accountants, Apron founder and CEO Bogdan Uzbekov wrote on the company blog. 

“We launched our beta in March 2023 to change the way businesses pay for things,” Uzbeokov said. “Apron lets business owners and their finance partners sort, pay and reconcile invoices: with no complex onboarding, no room for error, no need for bank access and absolutely no time wasted.”

Now, the company is introducing Apron Hub, which lets businesses see all their clients and tasks in one space, assign team members roles and clients, and set up workflows.

“Let’s say there’s a standard chain of approvals that has to happen every time you pay a bill,” Uzbekov wrote. “Set up that flow in Apron Hub, and apply it to all bill payments across any number of clients — three or three-thousand.”

The company also plans to launch a tool called Apron Snap early next year, allowing customers to capture invoices “instantly and automatically” and avoid “days-long conversations about who paid what from where.”

Apron’s funding round comes at a time when small businesses are managing their finances and operations through channels that leave a lot of room for innovation, as Zaid Rahman, CEO of Flex, told PYMNTS in a recent interview.

Most SMBs lack the time, resources, and/or staff for optimal back-office function management. They don’t have employees charged with overseeing day-to-day dollars in and out of the firm and projecting working capital needs. 

However, as Rahman said, there are a slew of providers out there providing solutions for each part of an SMB’s operations, such as payroll, banking, and expense management.

“There are some big players and some small players, but it’s all very piecemeal,” he said, “and since there isn’t a CFO at these companies, you don’t have the time to compile 15 different products into one back office.”

Meanwhile, recent PYMNTS intelligence found that automation of accounts receivable (AR) and accounts payable (AP) processes can help businesses by juggling multiple manual processes.

According to a PYMNTS study, around 63% of CFOs said that the improved speed from AR automation reduced invoicing errors, while AR automation is helping companies keep on top of liquidity, providing a hedge against economic concerns.

“Three-quarters of CFOs surveyed reported a direct impact on cash conversion cycles from automating AR customer service, improving their ability to resolve issues faster and reduce billing discrepancies,” PYMNTS wrote.

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