Paid

Paid is a UK software company that builds a procurement automation platform intended to simplify the procure-to-pay process for enterprise buyers and their suppliers, particularly smaller suppliers in the so-called long tail. The platform covers client management, supplier onboarding, contracting, project scoping, sign-off, invoicing and payments in a single product, automating administrative steps that otherwise consume procurement staff time.

The company positions the product as addressing friction felt on both sides of a procurement relationship: SMEs struggle with the time required to onboard as a supplier, sign contracts and be paid on time, while enterprise buyers are constrained by one-size-fits-all internal processes. Paid states its software delivers up to 10x time savings and up to 75% cost reduction for enterprise procurement teams, with enterprises able to get running in days and suppliers onboarded in about ten minutes.

Business model

Paid sells a software-as-a-service procurement platform to enterprise buyers, with supplier-side functions including client management, contracting and invoicing described as free to suppliers.

Traction

By November 2020 Paid counted BT among its users, with the telco's platform use tied to its multi-billion annual procurement spend through BT's Procurement Digital Garage. The company had six staff at that time and planned to double the team.

Latest developments

In November 2020 the company announced £2.2m in seed funding and said it would use the proceeds to double its headcount, hiring in product, engineering and customer success while growing its customer base.