Seed Of The Week: Hyperline

When Lucas Bédout was working as VP of Engineering at French fintech Spendesk, he witnessed firsthand the headaches that come with managing complex billing systems for fast-growing companies. That experience led him to co-found Hyperline in 2022, along with former Spendesk colleague Clément Garbay, to tackle what they saw as a growing crisis in revenue management.

This week, the Paris-based startup announced it has raised $10 million in a Seed extension round led by Index Ventures, bringing its total funding to $14 million. The additional capital, which also includes money from Adelie Capital, will fuel Hyperline's mission to help businesses navigate an increasingly complex landscape of subscription models, usage-based pricing, and AI-driven services.

"The subscription economy has evolved dramatically," Bédout said. "Companies have started to introduce more complex pricing strategies to capture more value. For example, selling a smaller subscription fee but then adding more options like usage-based add-ons. What was missing was the flexibility. Because when you start invoicing people for various prices and not just one subscription fee, then that means the entire stack for your invoicing process needs to change. What was missing was flexibility. That's what we brought to the market."

Hyperline's platform aims to solve this through what Bédout calls a "quote-to-cash" approach. The system integrates with a company's CRM, allowing sales teams to configure quotes and contracts based on parameters set by finance teams. Once a customer signs, Hyperline automatically manages the entire revenue process - from subscription billing to usage tracking, payment processing, and analytics.

The technical challenges were significant. "Getting invoicing and pricing right is very specific to each company, even though companies tend to have similar goals," Bédout said. "The devil is in the details."

The company needed a core engine that was flexible enough for companies to configure it to meet their needs. But it also had to manage massive amounts of data in real time because some clients process up to 10 million transactions daily.

This focus on flexibility and automation appears to be paying off. Since its initial $4.4 million seed round in June 2023, Hyperline's customer base has grown twentyfold to over 150 companies, including AI startups like Gladia and Veesion. Current clients generate anywhere from €3 million to €100 million in annual recurring revenue.

The Winding Road

Bédout's path to founding Hyperline was unconventional. He started working as a software engineer at 18, skipping university entirely. After seven years of coding, he moved into management but soon realized he wanted to build something broader than just code. His experience at Spendesk, combined with his technical background, helped him identify the growing disconnect between traditional billing systems and modern business needs.

The startup's rapid growth has been driven largely by word of mouth and network effects. "Most of our customers today come from referrals," Bédout said. "One German client introduced us to another, who introduced us to two more." Strategic partnerships with payment processors like Stripe and Mollie have also catalyzed expansion across Europe and into the US market.

The new funding will primarily support two initiatives: scaling up commercial operations and advancing the platform's automation capabilities. Currently at 14 employees, Hyperline plans to grow to 25 by year-end while maintaining its product-first approach.

Bédout is particularly excited about the potential of AI to transform how businesses interact with billing systems. "Right now, we have some automation, but I believe in two years, the user experience will be completely different," he said. "Instead of manually searching for anomalies or chasing payments, the system will proactively suggest solutions - like recommending specific email templates for customers with repeated failed payments."

Looking ahead, Bédout aims to triple or quadruple the business by 2025 while expanding the company's international presence beyond France, which currently accounts for about 55% of customers. But his ultimate vision goes beyond just scaling numbers - he sees Hyperline leading a fundamental shift in how businesses manage revenue.

"Right now, we're better than what exists in the market," Bédout said. "But I feel like in two years, the way we interact with products is going to be significantly different. User experiences are going to transform completely. We need to make sure we're not just keeping pace with that change, but staying several steps ahead.