The saying, “small businesses are the backbone of our economy” has been around for generations, but it still holds true today. According to a 2016 report from the Small Business Advocate, small businesses make up just over 99 percent of all businesses in America and their employees made up 48 percent of all U.S. workers during that year.
Bento for Business, a digital spending management platform, helps small and medium-sized companies better track and control how those millions of employees spend company money through card-based business accounts. Over the last year, Bento doubled its customer base, tripled its revenues and received best-in-class Net Promotor Scores.
On Thursday, the company announced it has received a $9 million investment from Edison Partners, Comcast Ventures and MissionOG, which it will immediately put to use expanding its team.
We identified to the biggest problems our customers are facing and, more than products, we look for solutions for them.”
“We’ve shown the product performs very well in the market, fulfills a great need and solves a massive problem for our customers,” said Farhan Ahmad, CEO and founder of Bento. “Now it’s about getting that in the hands of more and more people.”
They intend to do that in two ways: through adding more team members, and through ensuring their products and services remain top notch. Bento will use part of its funding to aggressively expand its marketing and technology departments, potentially doubling its headcount.
“The number one marker we set for ourselves is we have a team of people who truly empathize with our customers and we place a very, very high degree of effort on getting things right,” said Ahmad. “Every single person in the team, whether you’re an engineer or customer support representative, care deeply about our customers.”
Bento will also expand its suite of tools for business owners with new offerings, all geared toward saving them time and money.
“We identified to the biggest problems our customers are facing, and more than products, we look for solutions for them,” added Ahmad. “We’re continually improving our existing product every single day and we intend to add a couple more large product releases in the next few months.”
