Vena Solutions Inc. today said that it has raised $300 million Canadian dollars, or about $242 million, to expand the adoption of its namesake software platform, which is used by companies such Nike Inc. and Nutanix Inc. to manage their finances.

The Series C round was led by Vista Equity Partners.

Vena’s software platform enables finance teams to put together budgets in an Excel-based spreadsheet interface. What sets the platform apart from Excel is that it’s more centralized: Finance teams can store all their accounting information in one place instead of across dozens or hundreds of spreadsheets, as is the usual practice. The result, in theory, is that the information becomes much easier to process.

Replacing disparate Excel files with a centralized system of record to improve productivity is an approach being implemented by startups in other markets as well. Productboard Inc., a recently funded product management startup, is helping companies move beyond using spreadsheets to plan their feature development roadmaps. 

In the case of Vena, crafting budgets is far from the only task it promises to simplify with its platform. The software includes visualization tools that can turn raw financial figures into graphs. Built-in forecasting capabilities, meanwhile, enable finance teams to estimate how much revenue and profit their organizations will generate in upcoming quarters based on historical data.

The forecasting capabilities are part of a broader feature set Vena provides for financial planning, which is a key part of how the company differentiates its platform from the multiple competing finance platforms out there. Vena also offers a modeling tool that makes it possible to estimate the impact of potential business changes on the bottom line. Finance teams can share the assessments with executives to inform strategy decisions. 

“This significant investment is a clear endorsement of the value we are providing to our customers and Vena’s position in our market,” said Vena Chief Executive Officer Hunter Madeley. The Toronto-based company also pointed out that the $242 million investment marks one of the largest funding rounds ever for a Canadian tech firm.

The venture capital community sees strong growth potential in startups that can help enterprises manage their financial operations more efficiently. Tipalti Inc., which provides an accounting service for managing the process of paying external parties such as suppliers, landed a $150 million funding round at a more than $2 billion valuation last October. More recently, corporate finance management startup Trovata Inc. raised $20 million from investors that included Capital One Ventures and J.P. Morgan. 

Image: Vena Solutions