Cleavr Raises €1M to Automate Accounts Receivable With AI

Paris-based fintech startup Cleavr just locked in €1 million in pre-seed funding to tackle one of Europe’s most stubborn business problems: unpaid invoices. With late payments choking cash flow for millions of companies across France, this young AI-powered platform wants to change how businesses collect what they are owed.

What Cleavr Does and Why It Matters Now

2 Founded in 2025, Cleavr is an AI coworker that collects cash automatically. 2 Connected to the company’s ERP, their AI manages everything autonomously: from Day 1 post-invoicing to payment receipt.

That matters because the late payment crisis in France is getting worse, not better. 3According to an OpinionWay study for GoCardless, 94% of companies report losing money every month due to unpaid invoices, and 65% of business leaders anticipate a worsening of the situation in 2026.

20 86% of French companies report having experienced delays in the last 12 months, compared to 82% in 2023 and 85% in 2024. The trend is clear. It keeps climbing year after year.

Cleavr AI accounts receivable automation startup funding round 2026

Key Stats on France’s Late Payment Crisis:

20 This phenomenon affects all sectors, with a particularly high proportion of very small businesses: more than half of them now consider the impact on their cash flow to be ‘critical’.

Who Backed the Round and What It Signals

1 Cleavr raised €1 million in a funding round backed by Kima Ventures, Better Angle, Raphael Nahum (CFO of Pennylane), Regis Samuel (CEO of MyUnisoft), and Olivier Brourhant (CEO of Mantu).

The investor lineup tells a story. 33Kima Ventures is the venture capital arm of Xavier Niel, operating as one of the world’s most active early-stage investors. 32Kima Ventures has made 1,273 investments. Having that name behind you at pre-seed stage is a strong vote of confidence.

But it is the angel investors that make this round truly interesting. Raphael Nahum sits at the finance helm of Pennylane, one of France’s fastest-growing accounting platforms. Regis Samuel runs MyUnisoft, another major player in the French accounting software space. These are people who see the accounts receivable problem up close every single day.

2 “Cleavr’s approach is unique because it doesn’t just send reminders, it resolves the collection issue thanks to a truly collaborative AI,” said Nahum. He added that “the team succeeded where traditional tools fail: making collection simple, intelligent, and accessible to all companies.”

How the AI Platform Actually Works

This is where Cleavr separates itself from older collection tools.

2 Traditional tools automate on average only 20% of the collection process: rigid reminder scenarios, without the capacity for dialogue. Cleavr claims to flip that number. 2 Cleavr’s AI manages multi-channel reminders through email, call, and SMS. It identifies the right contacts, whether that is accounting, a manager, or the CFO. It processes payment promises, handles reconciliation, and intelligently escalates to legal recovery when necessary.

Here is the workflow in simple terms:

• Invoice goes overdue
• AI identifies who to contact at the debtor company
• Sends personalized reminders across email, phone, and SMS
• Handles replies, questions, and disputes on its own
• Tracks payment commitments and follows up
• Escalates to legal collection only when needed

1 The platform integrates with existing accounting and ERP systems, enabling companies to track overdue invoices, interact with debtors, and adapt communication strategies over time.

The early results are hard to ignore. 3On average, Cleavr’s clients see a 37% reduction in their DSO within the first few weeks of use. One client testimonial on Cleavr’s website reported that they 6“saved dozens of hours, reduced our DSO, and increased our cash flows by +100K per month.”

Growth Plans and European Expansion

1 Already adopted by around fifty clients, the solution supports the majority of the collection cycle. 3 Thanks to this funding round, Cleavr intends to accelerate its development to meet the cash flow challenges of European companies. The startup is already preparing its internationalization strategy with a deployment goal across all of Europe starting in 2026.

The timing makes sense. Late payments are not just a French problem. 22Nearly 55% of B2B invoices are now overdue across France and bad debts impact an average 8% of invoices. Most companies report longer payment collection times, pushing up DSO and straining cash flow.

With political instability adding pressure to the French economy and 2042,505 business failures recorded in just the first eight months of 2025, a record level that exceeds the pre-Covid level by 37%, leading to €3.6 billion in supplier debts and 173,000 jobs at risk, there is massive demand for tools that keep cash flowing.

Where Cleavr Fits in the Bigger Picture

2 The broader AI accounts receivable sector has seen approximately €203.2 million in funding across recent rounds. Cleavr’s raise is comparatively modest but aligned with a growing focus on automating receivables, invoicing, and broader finance workflows through AI.

What makes Cleavr different is its “AI coworker” approach. CEO Baptiste Nassoy, a NEOMA Business School graduate with previous experience connected to Kima Ventures, built Cleavr around the idea that collection should not require a dedicated team.

His vision is clear: give every small or mid-sized business the same collection muscle that large corporations have. 10Cleavr follows up with customers in a personalized and autonomous way across all channels, makes calls, handles responses, detects disputes, negotiates payment terms, reconciles invoices, and manages litigation with partner bailiffs and lawyers.

For business owners tired of chasing invoices and watching cash dry up, Cleavr’s promise is simple but powerful. A €1 million round may seem small in a world of mega-deals, but for a startup born in 2025 that already has fifty paying clients and backing from some of the sharpest finance minds in France, it is a strong foundation. The real test comes in 2026 as Cleavr pushes beyond French borders and tries to prove its AI can handle the complexity of cross-border collections across Europe. If late payments are truly a “structural plague” as the data suggests, the companies solving it may end up being worth far more than anyone expects right now.

What do you think about AI handling your business collections? Drop your thoughts in the comments below.