[Funding alert] Fintech startup Zeni raises $34M in Series B round led by Elevation Capital

The Palo Alto and Pune-based AI-powered fintech startup Zeni on Thursday announced that it has raised $34 million in a Series B funding round led by Elevation Capital with participation from new investors Think Investments and Neeraj Arora. 

Zeni claims to have seen 550 percent 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.

Today, Zeni manages more than $500 million in funds each month across more than 100 startup customers, ranging from pre-revenue startups to businesses generating more than $100 million in annual revenue. The startup said it will use the capital infusion to bring its 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. 

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“There is a huge demand from startups to digitise and automate their business finances, leading Zeni to experience 550 percent revenue growth and 375 percent 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,” Swapnil added.

Digital transformation is fueling the growth of businesses like Zeni as the startup and small business sector is feverishly digitising and automating every part 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.

Zeni is the 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.

“Our focus at Zeni is to make finance management as seamless as possible for our customers, which carries over to the minimalist, intuitive product experience within the Zeni Dashboard,” said 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.”

Zeni welcomes Ravi Adusumalli, Founder and Managing Partner at Elevation Capital to its board.

Commenting on the funding, Ravi Adusumalli stated, 

“Swapnil and Snehal's track record of serial entrepreneurship has given them a keen understanding of the daily frustrations founders face in managing their business' finances. This experience has also given them a clarity of vision which sets them apart from their peers. Digitizing and automating the bookkeeping and accounting functions and giving founders an up-to-the-minute understanding of their finances is critical for informed decision-making in a fast-paced start-up environment and Zeni is making these tasks infinitely easier for founders.”