Bento for Business, a financial management solution that helps companies keep tabs on employee expenses, announced it has raised $9 million in new funding.
Bento, based in Chicago and San Francisco, has created a card-based digital spend management product for small and medium-sized businesses. Bento's product helps businesses prevent unauthorized spending by controlling employee spending prior to a purchase.
The round was led by Edison Partners and included backing from Comcast Ventures and MissionOG. Bento has now raised more than $18 million since launching in 2013.
Bento said in the announcement that it has tripled revenue and doubled its customer base in the last year.
"Time and again, research says that poorly managed business spend is the single largest threat to the profits of small and midsize businesses in the U.S.," Bento CEO Farhan Ahmad said in a statement. "We solve this problem and bring our customers an intelligent financial management solution that stops unauthorized spending before it happens."
Bento opened its Chicago office in the fall of 2017.
Bento works as a pre-paid Mastercard that's easy to reload and control and distribute to staff or contractors. The startup also offers a mobile app that allows companies to control expenses on the go and lets employees easily check spending limits and upload receipts.
