Automated accounting software startup Candis GmbH today announced that it has raised $16 million to extend its product offering with payments, build further integrations and expand its core invoice management features.

Viola FinTech led the Series C round with Lightspeed Venture Partners and Viola Ventures also participating. Including the new funding, Candis has raised $30 million to date, including a round of $14 million in July 2020. Previous investors include Rabo Frontier Ventures, 42CAP, Speedinvest and Point Nine.

Founded in 2015, Volaris offers an intelligent software solution for automating accounts payable processes. The company’s artificial intelligence-driven platform for small and medium-sized enterprises automates financial processes such as invoice receipt, data entry, invoice approval and data export.

Candis pitches itself as offering a user-friendly and accessible cloud-based solution that can be used from anywhere and requires no onboarding. The company’s product dynamically serves hundreds of customers across industries by replacing what they call the “triangle of disaster” — Excel, email and signature folders — with streamlined, automated processes.

The use of automated processes is said to foster critical communication between teams, creating a “shared truth” and enabling easier collaboration. The platform ensures that missed discounts, missed payments or late fees are no longer costly and time-consuming issues as it learns to build intelligent approval workflows. The automation of financial processes such as invoice receipt, data entry, invoice approval and data export on the company’s platform is driven by its AI and a cloud-based solution.

Candis says it has seen strong growth, increasing processed invoice volume by over nine times in the last two years. The company has more than 4,000 clients and 23,000 users.

“Finance departments are critical for businesses, especially SMEs and startups, yet the technology at their disposal hasn’t kept up with other departments, forcing them to deal with time-consuming manual processes,” Christian Ritosek, chief executive officer of Candis, said in a statement. “This latest funding round is a critical step forward to help solve that fundamental issue and a recognition that our solution, both due to our technology and triple-digit growth over the past two years, is on the forefront.”

Image: Candis