By Michael Carney
The vast majority of consumer payments are processed digitally, but this is hardly the case in the enterprise. The B2B (business-to-business) market still relies on all manner of paper solutions, including checks, invoices, and receipts, all of which drive inefficiency. That’s why Chrome River CEO Alan Rich believes “there’s much more room and need for financial innovation in the enterprise than there is, for example, around mobile wallets.”
Across the enterprise, SaaS software is replacing traditional on-premise software solutions while also rendering analog processes utterly obsolete. But the area of expense management and automated invoice processing has been remarkably disruption-free during the recent cloud software revolution – or at least so it’s appeared. While flying under the radar in Silicon Valley, Los Angeles-based Chrome River has has grown into a force to be reckoned with in the category, ranking No. 81 on the Deloitte’s Technology Fast 500 and No. 1,429 on the Inc 5000. It did so by focusing at the outset on the legal and professional services markets, a category its founders know inside and out, rather than selling chiefly to fellow technology companies.
Today, Chrome River announced a $17 million Series C round led by Bain Capital Ventures. It marks the company’s second outside financing round, following a $3 million, self-described Series B roundraised in May 2012 from First Analysis and Argentum, who also participated in this latest round. The company was previously founder-funded from its inception, representing its “Series A,” and will provide limited secondary liquidity to founders and employees as part of this latest financing. Read More [+]