Payhawk: The role of a CRM in building a billion-dollar business from Bulgaria
The first Bulgarian unicorn, Payhawk, partners with Next Consult to implement Salesforce, unlocking new marketing opportunities and providing visibility into the entire customer lifecycle.
Payhawk has made remarkable strides in the global fintech sector in less than four years, transforming their initial idea into a $1 billion business and becoming the first Bulgarian unicorn. With a total funding of $215 million from world-class investors such as Lightspeed Venture Partners, Greenoaks, QED Partners, and Earlybird Digital East, the Sofia-based scaleup has revolutionized spend management.
Payhawk's comprehensive solution consolidates the previously disparate systems for spending, tracking, processing, and budgeting corporate funds, making it a one-stop-shop for finance teams. Operating in 31 countries across the European Economic Area, the UK, and the USA, Payhawk has achieved impressive traction and success, claiming to automate up to 87% of enterprise financial processes.
During the 10th Annual Salesforce conference, organized by Next Consult, Andrey Bankovski, Commercial Director at Payhawk and one of the very first members of the team, shared his experience of implementing Salesforce and the impact it has had on the growth journey of the company.
Challenges
In order to continue its rapid growth and navigate the complex, fragmented European market, Payhawk needed a robust system to manage diverse customer needs. Initially using Excel and later a small CRM software, the company realized that these solutions couldn't keep up with their pace of expansion. The team was missing easy cross- and upselling opportunities!
Payhawk initially met with the leading Salesforce partner in CEE - Next Consult, in early 2020 but realized that they were not yet ready for Salesforce implementation due to the lack of clearly defined processes and the right internal capabilities.
Solution and outcome
After refining its processes and building the necessary teams, Payhawk turned to Salesforce and Next Consult once again in order to implement a more comprehensive CRM system.
By adopting Salesforce, the company was able to streamline marketing, sales, implementation, customer success, support, compliance, billing, and finance departments. Today, the platform provides complete visibility across the customer lifecycle, enabling the company to automate personalized marketing campaigns and focus on strategic decision-making rather than on manual tasks. Payhawk's team now feels comfortable using the system and finds making changes to processes, campaigns, and reports quick and easy.
Furthermore, Salesforce allowed Payhawk to effectively test campaigns for new markets and customer segments, working in parallel with business development representatives.
"Your expertise, communication, and speed of implementation have been instrumental in helping us leverage Salesforce to its full potential, allowing us to scale and adapt the platform to our evolving processes and needs.",
Commercial Director at Payhawk
Best practices
Bankovski advises companies considering Salesforce implementation to not delay the decision, as a robust CRM system plays a crucial role in the future scaling of fast-growing companies. He also recommends testing the system with a focus group from different departments before launching, in order to avoid potential issues and ensure smooth adoption.
The success of Payhawk serves as a catalyst for the entire IT ecosystem and economy in Bulgaria, inspiring further innovation and growth. With the continued support of Next Consult and Salesforce, Payhawk is well-positioned to remain a leader in the fintech space, driving transformation and delivering exceptional value to customers.
