Core Summary

  • Spend management platform Extend has appointed former PayPal executive Francois Horikawa as its first CFO, the company confirmed to CFO Dive via email. The appointment comes as the company seeks to accelerate its path to profitability, according to a press release issued Thursday.
  • Horikawa will "apply his experience in partnerships, pricing, and strategic planning" to help Extend "transform its economic model and diversify revenue streams. He will also focus on strengthening the company's processes, infrastructure, and financial discipline to support its scaling efforts," Extend co-founder, COO, and CMO Guillaume Bouvard told CFO Dive in an emailed statement.
  • Also on Thursday, the New York-based company announced it secured $20 million in additional capital, including new venture debt and an equity investment from B Capital. The round also attracted participation from March Capital, Point72 Ventures, Fintech Collective, and Commerce Ventures. Bouvard said the round will provide Extend with "additional financial flexibility while allowing the company to continue investing" and building its platform.

Deep Dive

Extend offers an expense management platform that helps businesses manage virtual cards and reconcile expenses. The company will rely on Horikawa's financial expertise to "help guide Extend toward operational excellence and sustainable profitability in its next phase of growth," according to the press release.

Horikawa joins the spend management platform after eight years at PayPal, where he most recently served as finance head for the consumer business division, which includes peer-to-peer payment services, Venmo, credit and debit cards, and small business lending, according to his LinkedIn profile. He previously spent five years at American Express, serving as vice president and CFO, and also sat on the board of directors of its Australian subsidiary.

The PayPal veteran will step into the CFO role at Extend as the spend management platform seeks to launch new products and use fresh funding to help the business expand its issuing partners, according to the press release. Extend's latest funding brings the company's total raised to approximately $74 million since its founding in 2017, following a $40 million Series B round led by March Capital in 2021, according to Crunchbase data.

The round "represents a pivotal moment for Extend as we accelerate our path to profitability and launch a paid SaaS product," Extend CEO Andrew Jamison said in a statement in Thursday's press release, noting the company continues to focus on "capital efficiency and deepening relationships with the banking ecosystem."

The company has taken several steps this year to build on recent momentum, aiming to dominate the growing virtual corporate card market. Juniper Research predicted in a May report that the value of business-to-business virtual card payments will reach $14.6 trillion by 2029—accounting for 83% of the total global virtual card market. By 2025, B2B payments will make up 76% of the $5.2 trillion market, according to the Juniper report.

Extend has moved to capture the growing segment of that market; in 2024, the company reported a 35% year-over-year increase in the number of businesses using its virtual card platform, serving more than 10,000 businesses across the U.S. and Canada, according to a January press release.

This year, the company launched new tools leveraging AI technology, introducing an AI "toolkit" in May to help businesses better support financial automation solutions. In March, Extend announced a referral agreement with card network Visa to enable mid-market companies to use Visa-backed virtual card solutions, according to a press release.