Co-founded by Cork woman Lydia Foott, Qashio plans to invest €8.5m
Lydia Foott of Qashio. Photo: Aishwarya
Qashio, a Dubai-based fintech co-founded by Cork entrepreneur Lydia Foott, plans to invest €8.5m over the next 24 months on expanding its new Dublin office and R&D base as it earmarks Ireland as the launchpad for its expansion in Europe.
The company has said these plans could see it hire up to 100 people.
Qashio is a spending management company which allows businesses – especially the SME sector – to manage expenses and facilitate payments through software-enabled corporate cards for employees.
The cards can be controlled and tracked in real time, removing the need for manual expense reporting and giving finance teams full visibility and control over employee spending.
Foott, who has spent about 15 years working in Dubai, is the chief operating officer and a founding member of the company, which is run by Armin Moradi.
The company opened its European headquarters at the Lennox Building on Dublin’s South Richmond Street in December.
The platform allows finance teams to issue corporate cards instantly
The Irish launch came just months before the UAE suffered an economic shock triggered by thousands of retaliatory Iranian missile and drone attacks, most of which were intercepted by the UAE. The region was targeted by projectiles for the first time in a month last week, and an oil facility was hit.
Qashio plans to hire 50 people for its Dublin base, with a further 50 hires planned at a later stage. The base will be home to Qashio Labs, an R&D facility designed to develop the Qashio platform and create products for businesses operating.
Qashio says its platform eliminates the needs for physical receipts from employees; instead, they submit receipts via WhatsApp and Qashio’s AI tool extracts the data and matches it to the transaction instantly. The platform allows finance teams to issue corporate cards instantly with pre-configured limits and category restrictions.
It also offers a loyalty programme that enables its business customers to earn Qashio points from every transaction and convert them into airline miles, hotel points, and other rewards.
In the UAE, it has linked up with Visa and Emirates, and intends to do the same in Ireland. Emirates has been flying on a reduced capacity from Dubai’s main airport since the US-Israeli war with Iran began.
Qashio last year raised $19m to help fund its European expansion, which will be led by Kevin Gallagher, its new European general manager. Gallagher previously helped scale Workday’s commercial presence in Ireland and helped grow Trulioo’s new business revenue in Europe.
Qashio is a sponsor of this year’s Dublin Tech Summit, which will take place on May 27 and 28.