Sep 2, 2021
Power to the Global Entrepreneur — CRV’s Series B Investment in Jeeves
By James Green
For anyone who has seen the rise of Brex, Ramp, etc. in the United States — the concept of building a new layer of global financial infrastructure for multi-geo companies is certainly intriguing. Jeeves’ first product is a multi-geo, multi-currency credit card along with a best in class expense management layer on the back end — but really that’s just the beginning.
I joined CRV on March 1st 2021 and sent the first email to Jeeves a week later. However, as you can see below I couldn’t find an intro, nor could I find an email for the founder so I went through the hello@tryjeeves.com address. Not my finest moment (or cold email)… but one that comes with much context.
2020 and 2021 has been the rise of the remote worker, the globalization of technology, the rise of the rest….call it whatever you want, but COVID shrank the world into a Zoom sized video screen and opened up the possibilities for companies to hire where and however they want. It’s a trend we firmly believe in here at CRV and one where we believe financial products will drive outsized outcomes.
If you look at the rapid rise of Deel, Oyster, Papaya Global and Remote it doesn’t take a genius to see the rise of multi-geo employment. However, in my view, this doesn’t go far enough.
Imagine you’re starting a company today — why would you ever use a single currency financial product? If you’re selling globally, hiring globally and paying taxes globally why do you only think in your home denominated currency?
Here at CRV we believe that multiple currencies across multiple countries will become the norm instead of just rarities. While the Bay Area is still number one for starting companies — hiring will become more and more global as products become ubiquitous. Thus, as hiring becomes global, spending and financial products will follow suit.
Today companies are increasingly global, but their banking solutions are local and country specific, Jeeves changes that. Simply put, it’s hard for global startups to get access to credit cards and access to payment rails to use that credit (corporate cards, local payments, cross border, etc.) — more so in Latin America than anywhere in the world — but also even harder to do this in a multi-geo fashion.
For instance, a company with employees in Colombia and Mexico would require multiple vendors to cover its finance function in each country — a corporate card in Colombia and one in Mexico, another vendor for cross border payments and one to transact SPEI (which is a large-value funds transfer system developed and operated by Banco de México). At the end of the month, it would then take a few weeks to reconcile corporate spend and get a consolidated view on the company cash position
Cards are a must have in particular for young companies because large vendors often won’t accept automated clearing house (ACH) service and other forms of alternative payment from early startups. Airtable, Amazon Web Services (AWS), Datadog, Google, Salesforce, etc. — all have issues with electronic bank transfers from brand new companies — especially if they’re not in the United States.
As shown in an early email to the founders, CRV believes Jeeves could become the global financial operating system for multi-geo companies — starting with expense software and a credit card.
With every geo having its own back-to-bank transfer rails, rules, payment service providers (PSPs), currencies, banking types etc. — this has the opportunity to create a unifying layer across those. We believe by unlocking a bastion of global spend, there will be an almost limitless ability to offer financial services that is only limited by their ability to execute.
As they move to build a foundational company, CRV is delighted to partner with Jeeves on what is a truly ambitious project to create a category defining company by leading its Series B round.
What Jeeves has done in the past seven months has been nothing short of remarkable. It has grown more than 900 percent since its Series A on both revenue and volume and will be live in 15 countries by year end with astounding execution and true customer delight. One customer said,
“I love Jeeves. It works 100% for us. It’s above and beyond”.
Today, Jeeves is live in multiple countries, including full local currency coverage in Canada, Chile, Colombia,, the EU, Mexico and the UK; while rapidly expanding more broadly into Europe with some great hires and also iterating on the product at a phenomenal rate.
The focus of Dileep and Sherwin has been astonishing and has always been to build a global behemoth from day one which can challenge American Express. The team’s focus on ease of use and being a “product first” company speaks to the character of the team. From the start, the product comes with easy credit expansion, fantastic backend expense solution and delightful issuance of cards — virtual and physical alike. The message is clear — “focus on building your company, not how large your personal credit line is.”
If you’re a company operating internationally, particularly in Canada, Europe or Latin America, do yourself a favor; save yourself some time, money and accounting headaches and check out Jeeves — you can thank me later.
Welcome to the family Dileep and Sherwin, we’re excited to have Jeeves on board!
Lastly, here at CRV we are always looking for ambitious projects providing a delightful customer experience for clients. If you’re looking for a partner to help build a foundational company, swing by and meet our team, we’d love to hear from you!
