London investor leads £2.2m seed funding round for County Durham tech startup

A North East-based tech startup has secured £2.2m in seed funding to launch its ‘next-generation’ procurement platform for SMEs.

Paid has closed a £2.2m seed funding round led by London early-stage tech investor Crane Venture Partners.

The round also saw participation from Seedcamp, Techstars and a range angel investors, including Angel Invest Ventures’ Jens Lapinski, GoCardless and Nested Founder Matthew Robinson, Outrun Ventures founder Chris Adelsbach (in a personal capacity), and former Microsoft head of corporate strategy Charles Songhurst.

Paid was founded in late 2018 and participated in the Barclays London Accelerator, powered by Techstars, in January 2019.

Based in Darlington and with an office in London, Paid has created software aiming to transform the procure-to-pay process, enabling onboarding, project scoping, sign off and invoicing all in one product.

Tom Howsam, co-founder and CEO of Paid, explained: “Every SME who has ever dealt with large enterprises knows the pain and the time it takes to do even a simple thing like onboarding as a supplier, signing a contract, or getting paid on time.

“What they may not know is that that frustration is usually shared by the enterprise buyer, whose internal, one-size fits all process means they can’t move quickly.”

With the new funding, Paid plans to double its team by the end of the year, hiring product, engineering and customer success team members as it grows its customer base.

Krishna Visvanathan, founding partner at Crane Venture Partners, added: “Paid offers an intuitive software-as-a-service platform that reinvents the procurement process.

“For enterprises and small suppliers alike, using Paid is a no-brainer, making it easier to manage a diverse supply chain through uncomplicated software.

“We are proud to back Paid as it builds a new category for supplier management in procure-to-pay transformation for enterprises.”