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PayShepherd secures $3 million USD in funding to refresh contractor billing systems

PayShepherd, a company that helps heavy industries manage contractor billing, announced that it has secured $3 million USD in funding. The seed funding is led by Nashville Capital Network, with participation from existing investors Thin Air Labs and the Accelerate Fund.

PayShepherd’s platform is designed to help manufacturing facilities and contractors eliminate overspending, benchmarked in excess of $1 million USD yearly per major facility. Applicable to the pulp and paper industry as well, the company also helps in enabling better negotiations and improving relationships.

Commenting on how this funding will help the company’s pulp and paper clients, CEO Wesley Sessenwein said, “We have a very large product roadmap that our customers have been asking for, this funding will help us scale our software engineering team as well as our service delivery and ‘go-to-market’ teams and allow us to achieve these goals.  At the end of the day, our mission is to build digital products that make it easier for pulp and paper producers and their service providers to do business together, the capital will position us to achieve these outcomes.”

The three co-founders; Wesley Sessenwein, CEO, Jennifer Hunter, COO, and Johan Lee, CTO combined over 35 years of experience with the complex legacy systems and relationships in manufacturing facilities to launch PayShepherd in 2018. This new investment will further allow the organization to expand product and engineering capabilities, strengthen operations across Canada and the U.S., open up new verticals, and further develop ecosystem integrations.

Catering to the pulp and paper industry

“Our plan is to be in every pulp and paper mill in Canada in the next three years. We know this is possible because current tools (ERP and procurement systems like SAP and JD Edwards) do not solve the problem and leave millions of dollars on the table. They are built to facilitate high-volume, low-value purchases from a catalogue (think widgets, consumables) and not high-value, low-volume services from a contract, which can be incredibly complex,” said Sessenwein.

He further added, “Ultimately, it’s all about people. We find the best fit with the operators who value their contractors and are invested in building successful long-term relationships. PayShepherd supports them in achieving this outcome by eliminating costly billing errors that can lead to damaging disputes.”

Currently, PayShepherd has customers coast to coast in the pulp and paper vertical. Sessenwein explained that these customers are market leaders, both public and private, with many facilities in their portfolios. They are innovative and are invested in building successful long-term relationships.

PayShepherd works as a billing management and contract assurance platform, to eliminate billing discrepancies and improve relationships in the industrial and manufacturing segments. The platform works with multiple contractors simultaneously and runs historical audits to help identify savings opportunities.

Learn more about the company’s story here.