Fintech startup Zeni raises US$34m in Series B funding

AI-powered finance concierge Zeni has raised US$34 million in a Series B funding round led by Elevation Capital with participation from new investors Think Investments and Neeraj Arora. 

Zeni is a bookkeeping and accounting platform that provides real-time insights and flux analysis of a company’s key financial metrics via its AI-powered Zeni Dashboard, including Cash In and Cash Out analysis, Universal Search of transactions across a startup’s entire finance stack, Spend and Income Trends for every customer and vendor in their ecosystem, and more.

The startup will use the capital infusion to bring its intelligent bookkeeping and accounting platform and services to more customers by investing aggressively in its team in the US and India across product, technology, marketing, sales, and finance operations.

“Startups and small businesses are fundamentally changing how they operate based on digital-first tools and services that are displacing the traditional, slow and human-intensive services across every category,” said Swapnil Shinde, Co-Founder and CEO, Zeni. “There is a huge demand from startups to digitise and automate their business finances, leading Zeni to experience 550% revenue growth and 375% customer growth year-over-year. Zeni is tackling the root of startup risk—financial management—by applying artificial intelligence, machine learning, and robotic process automation to create a fast, streamlined, intuitive way for startups to manage their finances.”

Rapid digital transformation

Digital transformation is fueling the growth of the small business sector, as they are all digitising and automating parts, if not all, of their business operations.

According to a recent report from McKinsey & Company, based on surveys with more than 900 C-suite executives, workplace conditions over the past year forced businesses to accelerate adoption and deployment of digital solutions across the enterprise, accelerating businesses' transformation by up to three years.

“Our focus at Zeni is to make financial management as seamless as possible for our customers, which carries over to the minimalist, intuitive product experience within the Zeni Dashboard,” stated Snehal Shinde, co-founder, and chief product officer, Zeni. “Every feature we introduce has an explicit purpose based on our customers’ needs and is meticulously crafted to allow startup founders to find the answers to their questions in the most direct, actionable way possible.”

According to Zeni, it has seen 550% revenue growth year-over-year driven exclusively by referrals and organic growth. Existing investors Saama Capital, Amit Singhal, Sierra Ventures, Twin Ventures, Dragon Capital and Liquid 2 Ventures also participated in the round.