Expense management startup Ramp has acquired AI procurement startup Venue, the companies announced today.
Founded in 2022 by TK Kong, Young Kim, and Kevin Chan, Venue’s goal was to “simplify how businesses review, approve, and manage vendor costs used across their company.”
The startup raised $1.2 million in funding from investors including Sequoia Capital, Exponent Founders Capital and Basecase Capital.
The acquisition makes sense considering last summer Ramp announced it was entry into the supply chain as it focused more on “complex” businesses. Moreover, he believes it Back-end business processes like procurement are “ripe for practical automation and AI implementations.”
Today, Ramp claims that power over $10 billion in accounts payable annually, a 10x increase just over two years), executives say. Its self-proclaimed goal is to become “a one-stop shop for all financial functions.”
“Eliminating inefficiencies across the financial technology stack is a prime use case for AI to handle busy work,” the company said. “The product updates announced today show how artificial intelligence and automation will disrupt back-end business processes and make running and working in a modern business easier and more frictionless. “
Last year, Ramp acquired Cohere.io, a startup that built an AI-powered customer support tool.
And in August 2021, Ramp also bought Buyera “deal-as-a-service” platform that claimed to save its customers money on big-ticket purchases like annual software contracts.
In August 2022, Ramp confirmed it had raised $300 million in a funding round co-led by existing backer Thrive Capital and new investor Sands Capital at a post-money valuation of $5.8 billion. At the time, it said it had surpassed $300 million in annual revenue.
