finance management - FinTecBuzz

Accounting is universal across a global scale – JustPaid seeks to address the worldwide issue of a growing lack of accountants.

Anelya Grant — Wed, 14 Aug 2024 12:30:02 +0000

Tell us about your background and what inspired you to become an accountant?

What inspired me to become an accountant initially, actually stemmed from the idea that numbers are universal across a global scale. When I immigrated to the US from Kazakhstan, I was just 20 years old. I hadn’t learned English at that point, and was working odd jobs before falling into the path of becoming an accountant. My parents told me accounting was “easy” because it was universal/the same in every country, and could be taken everywhere, so from there, I went on to earn a degree in finance management. After working in the field for a few years, I began to gain the confidence I needed to go off on my own and create my own company. I bootstrapped AG Accounting, for venture-backed start-ups in Silicon Valley, which oversaw 800+ start-ups – and that’s where the idea and seed for JustPaid was born.

When you say accounting is universal across a global scale, what does that mean?

Numbers are the same everywhere, so there’s no barriers in accounting like there are with other language-based fields. Unlike marketing, which varies between cultures, accounting has no variation – numbers are numbers, it’s black and white.

Why do you believe there is a global accounting issue?

There are so many small businesses and not enough accountants to help with their finances. Not to mention, there’s not enough accountants that would be able to plow through thousands of data points and financials quickly and efficiently to get founders what they need when they need it. JustPaid solves this issue by giving users a 24/7 accountant right in their back pocket – to be able to ask the most specific or general questions you may need quick answers to in order to keep your business running as efficiently as possible – all powered by a proprietary AI financial co-pilot.

How does JustPaid seek to address the problem?

I realized that billing is solved on the engineering side, but there wasn’t a solve-all for finance. That’s initially what inspired me to look into the idea of using AI to create JustPaid. I connected with Daniel Kivatinos (my co-founder and previously at DrChrono) and Vinay Pinnaka (our third co-founder who helps on the dev side), and since then, we have been solving a massive issue for thousands of businesses globally.

How else can small businesses benefit for JustPaid?

They don’t have to pay an accountant or accounting team to do comprehensive accounting work for them. They save money, time, AND can even be proactive in their work, given that JustPaid is available 24/7 to answer any finance-related questions they can think of.

What’s next for you and the brand?
We are excited to continue developing the product, and most recently, we integrated Avalara into the platform to automatically calculate sales tax, VAT, GST, and other transactional taxes in real-time across multiple jurisdictions. We are also integrating with Common Paper, to provide a seamless end-to-end contract workflow for customers.

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Anelya Grant, co-founder of JustPaid

Anelya co-launched her company JustPaid in 2023, which is a tech and AI company built from a need to help B2B receivables collection platforms for modern finance teams. The brand was founded in part based on Anelya’s own frustrations when running her own business. Before starting JustPaid, Grant was a founder and CEO of AG Accounting, Inc. - which focused on back office support for venture backed high growth tech startups. Initially, she was working only with California based companies and then grew to the global market. At AG Accounting, she worked with companies such as Segment, TaskRabbit, DrChrono, and over 800+ businesses. JustPaid has grown and launched into an AI-powered financial controller that automates invoicing and collections from the sales contracts, saving their users 100+ hours per month and reducing the number of days to collect.

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NAGA Rolls Out Exciting Platform and Mobile App Upgrades

PRNewswire — Tue, 06 Aug 2024 16:30:50 +0000

NAGA is thrilled to announce a series of powerful updates aimed at significantly improving user experience and creating a more user-friendly trading environment.

Discover Top Traders Effortlessly

The NAGA.com platform has seen a major update to the Top Traders and Leaderboard sections. The revamped interface offers a seamless and intuitive way to discover and access trader information. Users can explore and filter top traders more easily, ensuring that all relevant profiles are visible and detailed information is just a few clicks away.

Trade on the Go with Enhanced Insights

Recognizing the growing mobile trading trend, NAGA introduces the Trading Signals feature from Trading Central directly into our mobile applications. This feature delivers timely and relevant trading insights, empowering users to stay informed and make smarter trading decisions while on the move.

Performance-Based Copy Trading

In its ongoing commitment to a better user experience, NAGA has updated the fee structure and remuneration policy of its copy trading product. Now, fees paid by users and premiums awarded to traders are performance-based, reflecting actual trading outcomes. This ensures a system that rewards successful trading strategies, enhancing overall user satisfaction.

NAGA is a pioneering German fintech company offering a Super App that integrates social trading, stock and crypto investing, and neo-banking into one unified platform. Serving a global community across more than 100 countries, NAGA provides a wide range of services for both fiat and cryptocurrencies. Our platform features a physical VISA card with automatic crypto conversion and cashback, dynamic social feeds, and advanced auto copy functions, enabling users to replicate the strategies of top-performing traders. Designed for a global audience, NAGA creates an inclusive and efficient financial ecosystem for personal finance and trading.

Join the NAGA community today and experience a new standard in trading and personal finance management!

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Flex Raises $120 Mn in Equity and Debt, launched Finance Super App

PRNewswire — Thu, 21 Sep 2023 17:00:42 +0000

Flex, formerly known as Flexbase, announced the closing of a $120M Series A debt and equity funding round, which includes debt financing from CIM with an agreement to fund up to $100M, and $20M in equity capital led by Florida Funders with participation from Home Depot Ventures, MS&AD Ventures, Companyon Ventures and others. In addition to the funding news, the company has launched its Flex Credit Card, Flex Banking and finance super app for business owners to streamline the finance back office of businesses and accelerate their growth.

“While enterprises and modern tech companies have seen significant innovation in the last five years, very little has come to our main street small businesses that have been the backbone of this country, driving our economy forward,” said Zaid Rahman, founder and CEO of Flex. “Most B2B FinTech companies serve Silicon Valley tech startups or large enterprise companies, neglecting small businesses that are struggling to find the credit and tools they need to effectively manage their finances. Flex’s new offerings focus on supporting small businesses by giving them the credit they deserve and providing the essential finance back office tools they need to achieve success.”

“Until now, no one has been able to consolidate all the financial services and workflows required to effectively build, manage and protect business owners’ finances in one platform,” said Hadi Solh, co-founder of Flex. “Flex is introducing the future of FinTech by bundling services into one super app empowering founders, business owners and CFOs to grow their businesses. We look forward to rolling out even more transformational offerings in the coming months.”

This announcement comes as SMBs continue to power the U.S. economy, creating two-thirds of all new jobs and accounting for 99.9% of all U.S. businesses. Flex’s core product is a credit card that caters to traditional small businesses that have historically been underserved by financial institutions and up-and-coming FinTech platforms. The company offers 0% interest for 60 days on all purchases, providing Net-60 float and flexibility for businesses to grow. Flex is redefining credit and finance management by providing business owners with a credit card and financial ecosystem designed to reduce the hassle of expense reports, minimize administrative headaches, simplify employee card management and accelerate growth. The platform bundles every aspect of the back office, from banking to receipt capture, employee cards with specific limits, expense tracking and more, all in one place. With a significant demand from over 20,000 companies, Flex has moved beyond its initial construction focus to service industries such as logistics, trucking, farming, mom-and-pop service businesses, digital businesses, e-commerce companies, restaurants, real estate and more.

“Flex is reimagining how finance is done at businesses and has a proven track record when it comes to supporting businesses to provide more than just a credit card but a platform to manage their entire financial life,” said Saxon Baum, partner of Florida Funders. “We couldn’t be more pleased to invest in such a cutting-edge FinTech company and look forward to seeing their tremendous growth.”

Flex Key Features and Benefits

Flex Credit Card and Credit Flexibility: Flex Credit Cards come with 0% interest for 60 days on every single purchase. With Flex, businesses can get unlimited employee physical and virtual cards with category and spending limits to manage business spending in real time without slowing down growth. Unlike other cards, Flex cards have no monthly or annual maintenance fees and no late fee charges. Flex also offers credit limits that grow as a business grows – the more customers use Flex, the more credit limit they may be able to obtain. The Flex Credit Card is issued by Patriot Bank, N.A. Flex extends the credit for the Flex Credit Cards, and the cards are subject to Commercial Cardholder Agreements. Flex Credit Cards are available to businesses operating within the United States (except CA, NV, SD, ND, and VT at launch) and Puerto Rico.
Flex Banking: With Flex Banking, businesses can manage cash all from one place. Flex provides banking with up to 4% yield on idle cash. There are no annual, monthly or late fees, and wire transfers, ACH and insufficient fund fees are also a thing of the past. Flex’s debit cards offer 1% cashback on transactions. Flex enables businesses to have multiple free accounts under one entity for increased agility. The Flex Banking Debit Card is issued by Thread Bank, member FDIC.
Flex Treasury Management: Flex’s Treasury Management, through partner American Deposit Management (ADM), enables businesses to diversify cash across multiple financial institutions financial institutions and eliminate bank-run risk. Flex customers can access up to $75M in FDIC/NCUA insurance – a considerable increase over the FDIC/NCUA’s standard deposit insurance limit of $250K. With Flex Treasury, funds are spread across up to 400 FDIC-insured financial institutions to maximize FDIC/NCUA insurance.

“As investors focused on providing capital to small businesses in underserved communities, we are excited by Flex’s potential to provide small businesses with access to responsible credit and the flexibility they need to manage their cash flow and growth,” said Jeff Hilton, managing director of CIM. “We’re eager to continue to support Flex as they provide innovative cash flow management products and solutions.”

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Horizon Technology Finance Management Announces Appointment of Chief Credit Officer

Ashish Y. — Thu, 23 Jan 2020 16:30:05 +0000

Horizon Technology Finance Management, a registered investment advisor that underwrites and manages secured loans made to venture capital-backed companies in the technology and is the external advisor for Horizon Technology Finance Corporation, announced that it has appointed Diane Earle to Chief Credit Officer. As Chief Credit Officer, Ms. Earle will be a senior member of the investment team and will be primarily responsible for overseeing Horizon’s investment due diligence and underwriting, and portfolio management processes.

Ms. Earle joins Horizon with many years of financial services experience, with particular expertise in credit risk management across a variety of lending products. Before joining Horizon, Ms. Earle was most recently Executive Director, Life Sciences at J.P. Morgan, where she was responsible for underwriting and managing transactions for life science companies ranging from growth stage to mature companies. Prior to that, she spent several years at Square 1 Bank, a division of Pacific Western Bank, where she rose to Executive Vice President, Chief Credit Officer. She also held the positions of Senior Vice President, Senior Credit Officer at Hercules Technology Growth Capital and Risk Leader Life Science Finance for GE Capital. Ms. Earle received a Bachelor of Arts, magna cum laude in Economics from Fairfield University.

Daniel S. Devorsetz, Chief Investment Officer of Horizon said that “I am pleased to welcome Diane to Horizon as our Chief Credit Officer. We have enjoyed a relationship with Diane over many years, and her vast credit and life sciences experience in managing all aspects of the loan portfolio process will be extremely valuable for us as we continue to grow the loan portfolios we manage. The addition of Diane significantly strengthens our collaborative expertise and capabilities, and we remain well-positioned to grow Horizon’s assets under management and deliver consistent long-term value to Horizon’s stakeholders.”

Ms. Earle added that “I am excited to join the Horizon team and play a vital role in helping maintain and grow Horizon’s venture debt portfolios. I have been fortunate to work with many of the members of the Horizon team over the years and am looking forward to adding my credit and management expertise to help ensure Horizon remains disciplined in underwriting and proactively manages its venture debt portfolios.”

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