Coupa Software, a software startup that helps the likes of Salesforce, Sanofi and Swiss Re drive down procurement costs, has nearly doubled its backing with an oversubscribed $80 million round.
The financing was led by T. Rowe Price Associates along with Iconiq Capital and Premji Invest. Existing backers Crosslink Capital, Battery Ventures, and El Dorado Ventures also participated. The new money bring Coupa’s total funding to $165 million.
Coupa CEO Rob Bernshteyn said his company “isn’t big on” discussing its valuation, but he confirmed it is in the billion-dollar range.
More important, in his mind: the investment gives Coupa the cash to invest in more sales and marketing resources, along with additional research and development. The company, which employs about 400 people total, has more than doubled its engineering team in the past 18 months, Bernshteyn said.
Coupa touts its flagship offering as a “savings as a service” system that helps businesses reduce the cost of buying everything from information technology to buying raw materials to orchestrating corporate travel. The company figures it has helped its more than 500 corporate customers save around $5 billion; its system handles more than 1 million transactions daily.
“Coupa has established a leadership position in cloud solutions for spend management with a platform that’s agile enough to support everything from procurement, invoicing and sourcing to expense management, inventory, storefront and beyond,” said T. Rowe Price Associates research analyst Tom Watson, in a statement.
Forrester Research recently rated the company as a “leader” in the e-procurement category. “Coupa is the most customer-centric organization with the most flexible product,” the firm wrote in a May report. “[Its software] has one of the best user interfaces combined with broad functionality and flexible configuration.”
Although Coupa got its start with midmarket companies, its largest account today has more than 90,000 users. Aside from the customers already mentioned, the company works with American Express, Land O’Lakes, and UBS. It has found a particular following in manufacturing, financial services, retail, healthcare and high tech, Bernshteyn said.
Coupa figures that it takes four to six months for its customers to realize a return on their investment. Many save up to 11% on total spending, according to the company’s marketing materials.
The startup’s most vocal competitor is SAP, through its Concur and Fieldglass divisions, both focused on some aspect of corporate expense management.
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