Zurich
Fintech Yokoy gets 73 million – also from Sequoia
The founding team of Yokoy (from left): Devis Lussi, Thomas Inhelder, Philippe Sahli, Melanie Gabriel and Lars Mangelsdorf.
Yokoy
Yokoy is now positioning itself in Zurich – with a prominent financier: this is how the Swiss fintech has landed the top investor Sequoia. The American VC is leading the current Series B funding round, in which the Yokoy founders have raised the equivalent of 73 million euros (80 million US dollars). The Zurich-based company now has total financing of around 100 million euros. In addition to Sequoia, the early-stage investor Speedinvest, the Berlin venture fund Visionaries Club, the family office Zinal Growth from Switzerland as well as the existing investors and some business angels, including the top VCs Balderton Capital from London and Left Lane from New York, also participated.
With the fresh capital, the start-up wants to expand its team of currently 100 employees and expand its business in Europe. In addition, part of the money will be used to improve the product software and add new payment options.
Bitpanda and Scandit use Yokoy software
Yokoy was founded in 2019 by the five Swiss Devis Lussi, Lars Mangelsdorf, Melanie Gabriel, Philippe Sahli and Thomas Inhelder. The fintech offers medium-sized and large companies a complete solution for their expense management. Companies can use the platform to manage travel and delivery expenses and issue their employees with Visa cards that are integrated into the system. This allows companies to keep an eye on all transactions.
According to the startup, it has won more than 500 customers so far, including the parcel service provider DPD, the German group ASK Chemicals, the running shoe manufacturer On, the barcode unicorn Scandit and the neo-broker Bitpanda. Eric Demuth, CEO of Bitpanda, is also engaged as a business angel: "I know the advantages of the platform first-hand and was there immediately when I was asked if I would like to participate in this round," he is quoted as saying.
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