Pipe, a fintech company enabling embedded financial solutions for software platforms, today announced its strategic acquisition of Glean.ai, a leading AI-powered spend management company.
With this acquisition, Pipe becomes the first embedded finance company to bring together embedded capital and spend management for small businesses via its partners.
Glean.ai was built to address the lack of transparency surrounding a company’s expenses. Founder Howard Katzenberg, former CFO of OnDeck, wanted to solve the challenge he’d experienced firsthand: not having the right visibility into how company finances were being spent. The result is Glean.ai, the AI-powered spend management solution that provides one-click access to spending trends, billing errors, and savings opportunities, as well as delivering real-time, cross-functional budgeting and bill pay tools. Glean.ai utilizes AI to examine patterns over time and help business owners make timely, data-driven decisions.
According to the U.S. Small Business Administration, nearly half of small businesses today use personal credit cards and fail to separate business and personal expenses. While mid-market and enterprise companies have access to robust spend management solutions, such as Brex and Ramp, there remains a gap for SMBs who don’t have a complete view of their business expenses. With this acquisition, Pipe will be able to offer the spend management tools that small businesses do not have access to today.
Glean.ai’s spend management solution is an ideal complement to Pipe’s existing embedded capital and business charge card solution, which are delivered through Pipe’s payments and vertical software partners. Pipe is working with the world-class Glean.ai team to integrate it within Pipe’s internal processes and build an even better spend management solution partners can offer to their small business customers. Glean.ai will continue to be available to existing and new customers directly from Glean.ai.
“We’re thrilled to announce the addition of Glean’s spend management solution to Pipe. It’s a strategic move that empowers us to address the two biggest pain points faced by small businesses today—access to capital and effective spend management,” said Luke Voiles, CEO, Pipe. “By combining Pipe’s innovative technology, resources, and expertise with Glean, we’re giving business owners the precise tools they need to thrive. With seamless access to capital and smarter spend insights, we’re enabling sustainable growth, better operational oversight, and long-term success for small businesses.”
Katzenberg, a seasoned fintech executive, brings extensive industry experience and has long shared a vision with Voiles for transforming business finance. “I am incredibly excited to join forces with Luke Voiles and the team at Pipe,” said Howard Katzenberg, CEO, Glean.ai. “This partnership is a perfect alignment of our joint vision and values, and it represents a game-changing opportunity for small businesses. They get the support and resources to grow, while Pipe and Glean together create a more powerful, unified platform that accelerates their success.”
Greenhill & Co. served as the exclusive financial advisor to Glean.ai on this transaction.