Tipalti Raises $150 Million to Expand AP Automation, Counts JPM as Investor

Payables automation platform Tipalti has raised $150 million with the help of JPMorgan Chase.

The incremental growth funding round, announced in a Monday (May 15) press release, also included Hercules Capital, and will help Tipalti to further invest in product innovation and supporting its clients.

Tipalti, which has 3,000 mid-market customers in more than 196 countries, saw transactions jump by 50% last year with annualized payment volumes reaching $43 billion, per the release.

“With the support from these new partners, Tipalti will be able to help even more companies that need to manage complex payables operations at scale,” the release said.

Based in Foster City, Calif., Tipaliti was valued at $8.3 billion in late 2021 after raising $270 million in a Series F funding round.

Last year, the company unveiled Bill Talk and Bill Docs within its accounts payable (AP) automation solution to streamline invoice approvals.

The two tools allow buyers, AP staff and business approvers to “work with each other directly on the bill by exchanging questions and comments and attaching documents within Tipalti, all without needing to log in,” according to a company press release.

In addition to the funding round, Monday’s announcement also noted the appointment of three new executives at Tipalti: Perla Stoeckert, chief compliance officer; Alice Davidson, general counsel; and Des Cahill, chief marketing officer.

Research by PYMNTS has shown that the AP automation services like those Tipalti offers assists companies with growth, according to “High-Volume Accounts Payable: Achieving Long-Term Growth Through Automation,” a PYMNTS and Routable collaboration.

That report found that 98% of companies believe automated AP will enhance their speed of managing payables, 91% expect it will help them pay vendors in their local currencies, and 90% believe it will improve the visibility and transparency of payments.

And at a time when companies are feeling pinched, reducing operational costs with AP automation can go a long way toward stretching those dollars, OpenEnvoy CEO Matthew Tillman told PYMNTS’ Karen Webster last month.

The return on investment (ROI) for a tech solution should be 10 times in hard dollar savings compared to the cost of the solution, Tillman said, in an interview days before the announcement that OpenEnvoy had raised $15 million in a Series A round.

“Let’s say [OpenEnvoy] charges you $100,000 to get started for an annual contract, and that means we need to bring you $1 million in savings, otherwise you shouldn’t do the deal,” he said.