Fyle Raises $4 Million for Expense Management: Travel Startup Funding This Week

This week travel startups announced more than $306 million in funding.

Earlier this week, Affirm, a startup founded by CEO Max Levchin that helps Americans pay for consumer goods over time, raised $300 million in a Series F funding round. Thrive Capital led the investment.

>>Fyle, an expense management startup, has closed a $4.2 million Series A round of funding.

Tiger Global Management led the round. The startup has previously raised $1.5 million. Past investors who pitched in again include Pravega Ventures, Beenext, and Freshworks.

The Bengaluru-based company has doubled to 40 employees in the past year.

Begun in 2016, Fyle aims to offer single-click expense submission for workers via standard applications like Google’s GSuite and Microsoft Office 365. The software verifies data with company policies, reducing the manual effort for accounting teams and speeding up the turnaround time.

More than 200 business in more than 20 countries use Fyle, including Edelweiss Tokio Insurance company, NinjaVan, and Sei-Innovation said Yashwanth Madhusudhan, CEO and co-founder.

>>Miles, which calls itself “a frequent flyer program for ground transportation,” has raised an additional $2.25 million in seed funding — bringing its total capital raised to date to $5.75 million.

JetBlue Technology Ventures, Porsche Digital, Sony Innovation Fund, and Chinese automotive manufacturer SAIC participated.

Miles debuted its mobile app in July 2018. More than 75 brands offer rewards through its platform. Miles users have earned 270 million miles, redeeming approximately 40,000 rewards — with an average value of $20 per reward.
 Rewards include discounts on ground transportation services and retailers like sunglass makers.

Sacramento and the Contra Costa Transportation Authorities are exploring trials with the technology to encourage environmentally sound commutes by rewarding people whose phones track them as walking or taking the bus instead of driving or flying.

Miles has 17 full-time employees and is hiring, said co-founders Jigar Shah (CEO), Paresh Jain, and Parin Shah.

Skift Cheat Sheet:
We define a startup as a company formed to test and build a repeatable and scalable business model. Few companies meet that definition. The rare ones that do often attract venture capital. Their funding rounds come in waves.

Seed capital is money used to start a business, often led by angel investors and friends or family.

Series A financing is typically drawn from venture capitalists. The round aims to help a startup’s founders make sure that their product is something that customers truly want to buy.

Series B financing is mainly about venture capitalist firms helping a company grow faster, or scale up. These fundraising rounds can assist with recruiting skilled workers and developing cost-effective marketing.

Series C financing is ordinarily about helping a company expand, such as through acquisitions. In addition to VCs, hedge funds, investment banks, and private equity firms often participate.

Series D, E, F, and beyond These mainly mature businesses and the funding round may help a company prepare to go public or be acquired. A variety of types of private investors might participate.

Check out our previous startup funding roundups, here.