Our dedicated Tech M&A and Digital Economy group has guided Kolleno, a global, cloud based, B2B accounts receivable management and cash collection platform with their fundraising, regulatory and investment activities. Read the case study here.
Can you give a brief description of your company and journey so far including securing investment?
Kolleno is a global, cloud-based, B2B accounts receivable management and cash collection platform for mid-sized and enterprise-level businesses. As a company, we are on a mission to help our clients thrive by empowering them to seamlessly track, monitor and recover outstanding receivables faster so that they can focus on what matters most to their business.
Specifically, our platform is designed to help Chief Financial Officers (CFOs) and their teams optimise their financial health by:
- Providing accurate, real-time data and acting as a “single source of truth” for CFOs and their teams to inform executive decision-making
- Automating manual tasks and eliminating errors to ensure that all invoices and payments are accounted for, and enabling finance teams to focus on higher value-add activities
- Using AI and machine learning to ensure the right time, tone of voice, content and channel to increase client engagement, maintain positive client relationships and ensure that all payments are received in a timely manner.
Kolleno was founded in 2020 by Dimitri Raziev, CEO (ex-Goldman Sachs and Credit Suisse) and Ron Danenberg, CTO (ex-Expedia, VAT Global). In the first 18 months of operation, the company has expanded its global presence across the UK, Europe, Africa and North America, and has attracted over £4M in seed funding led by Eurazeo and Stride.VC, with participation from Euler Hermes, HubSpot and several prominent angel investors.
As part of this journey, we wanted sound legal counsel to help guide us through and sought out the services of Ashurst given its reputation as a trusted legal partner and advisor.
How did you notice the credit control and collections industry needed disrupting?
The idea of forming Kolleno came from our CEO, Dimitri Raziev’s, personal experience. After spending several years at Goldman Sachs and Credit Suisse, Dimitri joined Fasanara Capital, an alternative credit fund, as an Investment Director, where he began to work with companies of all sizes that struggled due to late payments. It was here that he realised that the collections industry was outdated and in need of disruption, and decided to join forces with our talented CTO, Ron Danenberg, to establish Kolleno.
To put the scale of the issue in more real terms, according to Accountancy Daily, approximately 78% of SMEs in the UK are owed money outside of their payment terms. As a result, 81% of business leaders say that the future of the business is uncertain, and 35% of them can’t really plan for long term growth
What are the next steps for Kolleno?
After securing funding, the team is focused on continuing to expand its client base and partnerships across key markets, including the UK, Europe, the US, Canada and South Africa. To enable it to do so, the team has recently onboarded team members located across each of these markets to support sales, marketing, product and customer success efforts.
Additionally, the team will be focused on continuing to enhance our offerings through new features designed to further simplify and ensure a seamless onboarding, collections and payment experience for our clients.
Why did you choose to partner with Ashurst?
The influencing factor was the expertise that Ashurst could provide us with. They have a successful track record with other FinTechs and technology firms, so they were able to answer all of our questions straight away and have developed quite a strong and trusted reputation within the VC and startup space.
Ultimately, we went with Ashurst because they were professional from the very start, and showed genuine interest in trying to understand our business and all of our legal needs.
Why would you recommend working with Ashurst to other fast-growth technology companies?
Despite Ashurst being a well-known firm, we received outstanding service and attention from our legal team. They made our firm feel important and understood, and provided us with a high level of service to ensure that all of our legal needs were met at the highest standards.
Jonathan Cohen, the partner who handled our case, showed great attention to detail, was very professional and responsive, and was there to walk us through and provide sound counsel across all parts of our transaction, from beginning to end.
The team at Ashurst was in constant communication with us, and was very accommodating to our requests and needs to ensure that all of our interests were protected. Moreover, following our initial engagement, Ashurst was able to provide additional expertise across a wide variety of other legal matters.
What piece of advice would you give to those looking to set up their own business?
There are many great ideas born every minute, however, in order for the idea to live long and be successful, you need the right legal team by your side - and for Kolleno, Ashurst was that legal team.
There are many great ideas born every minute, however, in order for the idea to live long and be successful, you need the right legal team by your side - and for Kolleno, Ashurst was that legal team.
