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20 Things You Didn't Know About Expensify

Expensify

Expensify is an American company that specializes in providing individuals and businesses with expense management solutions. The innovative technology is offered through products that feature expense tracking and management applications that are compatible with a variety of other financial management tools. It's an interesting business that simplifies the processes involved with expense management to save time and effort. Expensify also operates a venture capital branch for providing support for new startups in selected industries. To help you become more familiar with its merits, here are 20 things you didn't know about Expensify.

1. Expensify is an American startup

According to Wikipedia, Expensify was founded in 2008, in Saginaw, Michigan. The founder of the company is David Barrett, a native of the area. Barrett is also the chief executive officer of the business. In his previous business experience, Mr. Barrett developed a strong dislike for preparing expense reports. He determined that there had to be an easier and more streamlined method for preparing these reports. This gave him the idea for the Expensify platform.

2. Barrett is a brilliant programmer

The founder of Expensify has a long history of programming. He discovered a passion for computer and computer programming at a very early age. By the time that he was just six years old, he had started programming. This is remarkable for a child so young, but it's something that came naturally to him. He continued to build his skills and enhance his programming abilities. He is the person who developed the Expensify apps. Previously he developed a file transfer technology for a company called Red Swoosh.

3. Expensify has grown and expanded its operations

Expensify was launched in Saginaw, Michigan, but its headquarters has been established in San Francisco, California. There is an office in honor of Mr. Barrett's Michigan roots in the city of Ironwood, Michigan. The company has also opened offices in Portland, Oregon, as well as abroad. There is an office in Melbourne, Australia, and one in London, England in the United Kingdom.

4. Expensify is helping Michigan's economy

The Ironwood, Michigan office is helping out with the economy of the state. It has been reported that Expensify has grown in size and is one of the biggest employers in the Upper Peninsula. The company is doing its part to put local workers on the job and to help boost the overall economy of the region. In addition to this, it has formed a partnership with Gogebic Community College. Expensify goes through this academic institution to offer local students a variety of scholarships.

5. The leader of Expensify uses the company for political activism

David Barrett has used Expensify to promote his political beliefs. He is a known supporter of the Democratic political party. He has spoken to the United States Congress, representing the app industry and addressing the House, Health, and Technology subcommittee in July of 2015. He also used the Expensify app to send out emails to all of the company's customers as well as non-customers with information on the marketing list for the company. The messages encouraged everyone to vote for candidate Joe Biden. The messages were sent out on October 22, 2020.

6. Expensify has endured some controversy

In the late part of 2017, there were allegations of wrongdoing made against Expensify. The complaints alleged that Expensify had provided contractors with personal information for customers that was stored on their servers. An investigation was conducted into the matter and it was discovered that there was a bug that allowed less than a few hundred receipts to become visible to selected contractors using the Amazon Mechanical Turk service.

7. Expensify has a venture capital arm

Expensify Ventures is the name of the venture capital division of the company. This branch provides early state startups with venture capital funding to help them become established. The division was launched in the first part of 2015 after receiving a round of venture capital funding for its expansion. It raised $17 million and established the Venture side of the business. Expensify Ventures focuses on helping new startups that are involved with payments finance, and travel industries.

8. Expensify uses artificial intelligence technology

Expensify is a company that has developed an expense reporting application that relies on the use of artificial intelligence. This technology automates the processes that were once completed by hand/manually. The app functions when a photo is taken of any receipt. Recognition technology translates the images into merchant data, the date, amount of the transaction, and it automatically places it within a category for expense documentation. The app is also useful for creating receipts from online purchases for submission for reimbursement. The app can be found on Android and Apple marketplaces. It tracks and files expenses for items such as meals, travel, fuel, and more.

9. Expensify is an award-winning company

Expensify has been acknowledged by some of the most prestigious names in the business world. In 2014, Inc. Magazine named Expensify to its list of the top 10 free mobile sales apps. This was followed by a TabbyAward in 2015, and Fast Company's addition of the fir to its World's Top 10 Most Innovative Companies list. In 2016, it was added to the Forbes Cloud 100 list of companies. In 2018, Expensify received a second Tabby Award and it was also named by CPA Practice Advisor for a readers Choice Award in the Expense and Travel Management Solutions category.

10. Expensify is a versatile tech company that falls under multiple industry headings

According to Crunchbase, Expensify is not just classified under one specific kind of industry. It is relevant to a variety of different industries. It is listed as an accounting company as well as for small and medium businesses. It is also listed in Financial Services, in FinTech, Information Technology, Mobile, under software, credit cards, and Freemium headings. Expensify falls under ten major industry headings.

11. Expensify operates with a seven-member executive team

Seven dynamic team members are leading the Expensify team forward. The group includes David Barrett, founder of Expensify and the current chief executive officer of the company. he is joined by the chief financial officer Ryan Schaffer, the chief operating officer Anuradha Muralidharan, Witold Stankiewicz, co-founder, Jason Mills, the director of product and customers, Joanie Wang head of marketing, and the Director of research and development Puneet Lath.

12. Expensify has a 6-member board of directors

The board of Expensify is made up of six members and advisors. Timothy Haley joined the board in 2010. He is the founder of one organization and he currently serves on 13 different board and advisory roles. Travis Kalanick is an Advisor who is the CEO of City Storage Systems with 13 portfolio companies and 6 exits. Blake Bartlett has been a board member since January of 2015. He is a partner at OpenView and investor, currently serving seven board and advisor roles. Bobby Lent has been a board member since 2008. He is a managing general partner at Hillseven Capital with five portfolio companies and 2 exits. Rahul Prakash has been a board member since 2013. He is co-founder and managing director of Coyote Ridge Ventures. David Martirano is a board observer since May 2014. He is co-founder and managing partner of PJC, serving on 13 other board and advisory committees. He is the founder of 2 organizations.

13. Expensify uses a wide range of technologies

Although Expensify delivers a smooth and easy-to-use application, a lot is going on behind the scenes to power the app. There is a total of sixty-eight active technologies being used for the website. A few of them include LetsEncrypt, Google Font API, iPhone Mobile Compatible, and dozens more.

14. Expensify maintains a unique edge over the competition

Expensify has an edge over others in its industry niche. The products that it offers clients are unique because they offer features that are not offered by any other software provider in the world. Expensify's developers have created unique technology that the company has registered as trademarked and patented. Impressively, they've secured 14 registered patents in the computing and calculating categories with 12 trademarks in the scientific and technological services category. This means that no other providers can use this type of technology.

15. Expensify gets millions of monthly visits

Expensify is one of the most popular websites of its type. The monthly visits that it gets to the site are astronomical and it is continuing to attract new visitors with a growth rate of over five percent. As of the ned of April of 2021, statistics show that Expensify receives an average of 1,317,118 visitors each month. It is ranked by Google as the 37,399th most visited website on the internet. Although conversion rates for paying customers have not been shared, it is assumed that the high volume of interested parties also suggests that there are thousands of new customers added daily.

16. Expensify is a venture capital-backed business

Expensify has secured the backing of multiple venture capital firms and investors. It has raised a total of $38.2 million in funds for growth and expansion. The most recent was a secondary market round that closed on April 14, 2021.

17. Expensify has 13 investors

The tech startup has ample funding from a total of 13 investors. It has participated in 8 rounds of funding. This puts Expensify into the category of late-stage venture capital funding. Among the investors are CIBC, Greyrock Investments, Redpoint, Open View, PJC, Hillseven Capital, Coyote Ridge Ventures, Barracuda Networks, and NOMO Ventures. The post-money valuation of Expensify is estimated to be in the range between $50 million and $100 million. Investor confidence is high that Expensify will continue to grow and expand and provide its investors with a handsome return on their initial investments.

18. Expensify is a privately held company

So far, Expensify has not given any indication of plans to file for an IPO shortly. It remains a business that is privately owned with the lion's share of the company still belonging to its founder and co-founder. Precise details of the agreements made by the investors have not yet been disclosed, but it is assumed that each has secured an interest in proceeds that will be forthcoming, along with interest in the Expensify and Expensify Ventures branches of the enterprise. Expensify is keeping the details of its business dealings confidential for the time being, most likely because of agreements made at the wish of investors.

19. Expensify has a moderate-sized workforce

According to LinkedIn, Expensify currently has a workforce of 169 staff members at its San Francisco headquarters. The company is hiring and offers thirteen new job positions. Most of the job openings are for full-stack technicians. While some are based at the various offices in the United States, most of the jobs are offered for remote work. Workers may work from home offices with full contact and support from Expensify support online and through virtual meetings. Although the workforce does not appear to be growing at a significant rate, we can infer from the kinds of jobs that are open that the company plans to expand its current line of product offerings.

20. Expensify is a company to keep your eye on

Expensify is showing all of the earmarks of attaining a high level of success. Although the leaders are not sharing details about the valuation or the financial status of the company, it is making progress in moving towards a high potential for profitability. With investor confidence high and millions pouring into the startup, the stage is set for expansion and growth. We believe that we're just seeing the beginning of this movement with the listing for 13 new tech positions. Expensify offers a streamlined method for expense management that saves individuals a great deal of time and effort, and it's a business solution that can save hundreds of staff hours for companies that have previously accomplished these tasks manually. Although not yet listed on any of the stock exchanges, it's a company to keep your eye on.

Allen Lee

Written by Allen Lee

Allen Lee is a Toronto-based freelance writer who studied business in school but has since turned to other pursuits. He spends more time than is perhaps wise with his eyes fixed on a screen either reading history books, keeping up with international news, or playing the latest releases on the Steam platform, which serve as the subject matter for much of his writing output. Currently, Lee is practicing the smidgen of Chinese that he picked up while visiting the Chinese mainland in hopes of someday being able to read certain historical texts in their original language.

Read more posts by Allen Lee

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