Chrome River's Julie Roy on the Company's Appeal to Clients

• Signing larger customers
• Concur & market share
• Opportunity in Europe

Last year, 125 companies—including Amadeus North America, Cargill, Hard Rock International and Wayfair—made Chrome River their expense management firm. That's a 40 percent jump, to 430 clients representing more than a million users, according to Chrome River. Developed to serve growing companies that require agility, including those expanding to new countries, Chrome River is ready to solidify its U.K. business and get going in Asia/Pacific.

BTN: You've expanded from professional services and legal clients to communications, media, education, higher education, energy, healthcare, insurance manufacturing, nonprofits and retail, including Fortune 500 companies. Is there much competition for larger companies?

Roy: There are not a lot of players in the upper-mid to large enterprise global market sector. Concur [is] across the market, but they have a lot of traction in the enterprise market. There wasn’t really an alternative to service this space. That’s why we were able to raise $100 million from Great Hill Partners last year, as they saw the potential for us to really start taking market share away from Concur.

BTN: And are you taking market share away from Concur?

Roy: We do have clients switching from Concur and others like [recently defunct IBM Global Expense Reporting System]. One of the reasons customers are replacing Concur is the drawn-out implementation[s]. Or, customers are realizing we’re able to offer a better customer experience. We have a decent win-rate over Concur. We don’t win every deal, but it’s a fair fight.

BTN: You noted that you have direct sales in the United States and Canada and that reimbursements through Chrome River go into banks in 90 countries. Do you plan to go after potential clients based elsewhere?

Roy: In 2015, about 15 percent of [clients] were headquartered outside the U.S., and that number is growing. We’ve been in the U.K. the last couple of years. It’s the satellite for all of Europe, but we’re focusing primarily on the U.K. We’re going into Asia/Pacific and just hired someone who will be based in San Francisco and will be working with potential West Coast and Asia/Pac customers. We don’t want to be in every single country in the world at the same time. We have to have foundational growth, build and be strategic about where we’re investing. In software, you have to dominate the U.S. first. Now that we have a great foothold in the U.S. and Canada, Europe is our next target, as well as Asia. [We already have] the ability to handle complex [value-added tax], different tax jurisdictions [and] configure the product to languages and currencies and have sophisticated workflows that can be updated easily. We’re very well positioned to be competitive in that market.

BTN: And Chrome River sees definitive opportunity in Europe?

Roy: I lived in Europe for 17 years. I know that market very well, and if the U.K. interests we’re seeing in the pipeline are any indication, there is a huge runway of opportunity there because there is a need for expense and invoice management. France is equally an opportunity. There’s also a strong opportunity for partnership in Europe. We’ll definitely be taking that route, as well as going direct [to customers].

BTN: Expensify recently opened a European office and plans aggressive expansion there. Is it a growing competitor?

Roy: We haven’t seen them in [our] deals in the U.S. at all. We anticipate it will be similar in Europe. They will be a great down-market solution for companies with 100 employees or less.