Osome, a Singapore-based startup that helps in digitalising accounting and compliance services for SMEs, has raised $16 million in a Series A funding round to fuel its international expansion.
Investors who joined the funding round include European investment manager Target Global, Tel Aviv-based AltaIR Capital, US-based Phystech Ventures, US- and Europe-focused early-stage fund S16VC, and Peng T. Ong, co-founder and managing partner of Monk’s Hill Ventures, as an angel investor.
AltaIR Capital and the early-staged focused XA Network were backers in Osome’s $3 million financing round in November last year. Its Series A brings Osome’s total funding since it was founded in 2017 to $24.5 million.
Founded in 2017 by Victor Lysenko and Konstantin Lange, Osome leverages artificial intelligence software to automate administrative, accounting, payroll, and tax-related work for businesses.
Currently, the startup has five offices including in Singapore, the UK, Hong Kong, and other countries with over 200 employees.
“Back-office operations are annoying and tedious yet mission-critical for businesses, especially for SMEs. An average entrepreneur spends 68% of his time dealing with routine tasks versus 32% to strategise and deliver on long-term goals,” said Lysenko, co-founder and CEO of Osome.
Osome said the COVID-19 pandemic has accelerated demand for business automation, resulting in more than 100% year-on-year revenue growth and a $9.5 million annual recurring revenue with over 6,000 customers in Singapore, Hong Kong, and the UK for the company.
It added that it has identified a product-market fit in the e-commerce segment and will double down on it in the next 18 months.
“I’ve done business with small and medium e-commerce in 10 countries and see the same inefficiencies in manual accounting across all of them. It is a real problem that will definitely be solved,” said Aleks Shamis, co-founder of S16VC.
In addition to Osome’s core offering of online accounting services for SMEs, the company also provides business set-up support and corporate secretary services.
“Our expectations are that within the next five years, digitalisation accelerated by COVID-19 will transform accounting from a standalone product into a full SaaS offering integrated with banks, e-commerce platforms and payment processing systems”, commented Olga Maslikhova, partner at Phystech Ventures.
Osome competes with Singapore-based startups such Sleek, Lanturn and BlueMeg that focus on reducing the burden of administrative work for SMEs.