Virtual card payment startup Teampay has raised $4 million,
which it will use primarily for sales and marketing and also for building
features and working on partnerships with other companies, founder and CEO
Andrew Hoag told BTN. That includes expansion of its relationship with Silicon
Valley Bank. The funding round was led by Crosscut Ventures and included KEC
Ventures, Precursor Ventures, CoVenture and other angel investors and funds.
While Teampay is designed to handle all operational expenses—including
office supplies, software subscriptions and advertising media budgets—business travel
is a frequent use case for clients even if it's "a smaller piece of the
pie," Hoag said.
How It Works
Teampay works best with Slack, but travelers also can
request and receive virtual cards for specific purchases through the Teampay
portal and email. Hoag said Slack not only is safer than email, as it offers
end-to-end encryption, but it also is a preferred tool for many of Teampay's target
clients, which employ between 200 and 1,000.
Through Slack, a natural language chatbot helps the traveler
field a request for a virtual card to the appropriate manager for approval. The
manager then generates and sends a digital copy of the virtual card to the
traveler through Slack for the traveler to use for online purchases. When
checking into a hotel, the traveler can display the virtual card image at the
front desk from his or her phone.
The Teampay virtual cards are multi-use, so a company can
decide whether they want to issue a virtual card for a single purchase or a
lump sum for all travel expenses, Hoag explained. Managers can limit the cards
to specific vendors and set expiration dates. For example, they can issue a
card for a $277 flight or can issue a card with enough funds to cover air,
hotel and car rental. Alternatively, a manager also can load and reload a
virtual card with $100 every month to be used; once the limit is reached, the
card becomes inactive until it's reloaded the following month, Hoag explained. A
use case "We have some customers who do it to the penny," Hoag said. "We
give customers that control, and they decide what is their internal organization
on that."
Reporting & Eliminating Expense Reports
Managers will receive notifications every time a card is
used, but on the Teampay platform, they also can view spend data by
transactions, vendor, department or employee.
Travelers also are prompted to send receipts to Teampay after
every purchase, thereby eliminating the need to file expense reports, Hoag
said. They can email receipts or photos of receipts or upload them through Slack
or the Teampay website. Teampay doesn't manage reimbursements, nor does it
integrate with any expense management system. Hoag said Teampay, which uses
Abacus expense manager internally, has cut out-of-pocket reimbursements to
about one every three months.
The spend data also automatically feeds into the Intacct,
QuickBooks and Xero accounting systems. Teampay is working on an Oracle
integration. "It's easy for [managers] to have control and full visibility
on how the card is being used, which cuts down on a lot of misuse and
fraud," Hoag said.
Since launching in 2016, the growth of spend processed through
Teampay's system has been exponential, according to Hoag. He declined to say
how many customers the company has, but clients listed on its website include
innovation studio Axiom Zen, company feedback tool Butterfly, online dispute
resolution tool Modria, online flower delivery service The Bouqs and online
apartment finder Zumper.
Teampay is working on a native mobile app and potential
partnerships with travel management companies. Hoag said TMCs with smaller
clients have shown interest in Teampay since it announced its capital raise at
the end of February.