The Leading Expense and Invoice Management Platform 

'Save money while spending' is Yokoy's value proposition. While this may sound paradox, it is actually precisely what Yokoy's spend management software does. It takes much less time and human resources to manage the creditor workflow by making processes very efficient and automating what can be automated.

"Everything we do, we do to generate value for our customers. The number of dollars saved thanks to using Yokoy's technology is our north star metric," says Philippe Sahli, Co-Founder and CEO of Yokoy. This number is destined to grow as Yokoy has an AI lab where AI experts develop enhanced algorithms to optimize spend management processes even further. "I am very proud of our team. Many of our first employees are still part of it. And we have people in our team who could work for Google, universities, or other prestigious players, but they choose to work for us and be part of our mission."

From 0 to 10 to unstoppable

As always, the mission started small, and Yokoy, founded in 2020 shortly before COVID-19, faced several challenges simultaneously. "The journey from zero to ten customers was our ultimate start-up phase. We had nothing but our technology to convince customers. No references, small team, not even a nice office to invite prospects to," says Philippe. But having the first ten customers was the turning point. Yokoy further developed its product based on its customers' feedback, built and educated a sales team, and strengthened the product development team. Yokoy currently employs 280 people and will have 300 as of the end of the year.

To make this growth possible, Yokoy left out the pre-seed financing round and went directly into a series A to raise 26 million USD in 2021 and a series B to raise another 80 million USD in 2022. The US Venture Capitalist Sequoia was the lead investor in their 80 million round. "We have an excellent relationship with Sequoia. They have a seat on the board and actively help us with their know-how and worldwide network. There are certain expectations from the investors, but as we have the same goals and work towards them together, it feels like a partnership," says Philippe.

Continuously striving to become better

Yokoy has come very far within its three years of existence in terms of growth, trust, and quality. Nevertheless, the scale-up company strives to be first with coming up with any spend management optimization and stays eager to learn from experts, partners, and customers. Going through the SEF.Growth label process was also part of this growth mindset. "Having a third-party opinion on what you do is always interesting. We had fascinating discussions with SEF.Growth experts. And for sure, we will benefit from the label by gaining trust from new potential customers." says Philippe.

When asked what others could learn from his founder's journey in return, Philippe mentions the selection of investors. "I can tell from experience that having high-caliber investors backing your venture is not primary. Much more important is to find an investor with whom you fully share your goal so that you can work together day by day. To ensure you find the right investor, I highly recommend taking enough time to get to know the person. Take half a day for a workshop, go for dinner together, or even play a game of tennis. The latter turns out to be a perfect way to test if you can be rivals in one moment and collaborate again in the next moment."