New business credit card provider Archa has raised $24 million in a mix of debt and equity.
Archa’s goal in raising the funds was to scale up its operations and help businesses save time and money.
The Victoria-based company provides a business credit card and spend management platform for Australian businesses.
Archa founder and CEO Oliver Kidd (pictured) said brokers as small business owners could benefit from the high-profile offering.
“Archa is now able to scale more quickly and serve more businesses including mortgage brokers,” Kidd said.
“We already have a reasonably large cohort of brokers using our platform and we’re so pleased with the great feedback we’ve received from them.”
Kidd said brokers worked on different models to many other businesses, meaning covering expenses, managing cash flow and spending could be particularly challenging.
“Archa’s cards platform is designed for exactly this – we’ve built something to give owners better control and more flexibility on day-to-day spend so that they can focus on what they do best,” he said.
Tech companies such as Wisr, Betashares, The Iconic, and Macquarie Capital have also invested funds in Archa.
Kidd welcomed the high calibre of investors and believed it reflected the growing need for alternatives to traditional business banking products.
“This round of funding is growth capital. It will help us scale faster, serve more businesses, and grow our product functionality,” Kidd said.
“The debt facility fortifies the economics of our business and importantly it provides us with the capacity to fund a substantial corporate credit card book.”
Kidd said he was ambitious about leading the future of operational finance for businesses, and funding was crucial for the company to deliver on that.
Wisr CEO and founder Anthony Nantes said Archa was building a product to solve a real problem for businesses everywhere.
“We’ve watched several businesses successfully solve this problem and launch a disruptive cards model in other markets. Having seen Oliver and the team quietly executing on their strategy for some time now, I’ve been impressed with their approach and consistency,” Nantes said.
Archa’s growth was reflective of a global trend in the corporate card space with US start-up company Brex recently closing US$300 million (AU$407 million) in capital at a US$12.3 billion (AU$16.2 billion) valuation.
Kidd was confident Archa could replicate this success in the Australian market where corporate spending solutions were few and far between.
