Hailed by Octopus Ventures as “one of the most exciting fintechs we have come across building on top of the existing open banking rails”, Tom Beckenham, CEO of Comma has lots to be pleased about in 2021. With a £4.34M ($6M) in a seed round under its belt, led by Octopus Ventures and supported by Connect Ventures, Comma is giving small and micro businesses the ability to bulk-pay their bills and taxes efficiently.
On 18th November, Tom will be scooting across Huckletree White City where Comma is based and heading to their auditorium for our Money Talks fireside. Here, he will share his fundraising journey and top tips so you stand a better chance of succeeding.
Tom studied at Sydney’s College of Fine Arts, where learned to code whilst experimenting with animation. A move to the UK saw him switching lanes and founding ‘Specle’ in 2007. The business provided software to advertising professionals and delivered the bulk of the print advertising in the UK, as well as digital out-of- home adverts which led to exclusive deals with the likes of Condé Nast and The Economist..
After exiting Specle, Tom ran global operations at an international marketing consultancy, overseeing financial operations across five global entities in Europe, US, Brazil, and China for 11 years.
Exposed to the pains of billing and payment processing (we hear you), Tom decided to “remove business banking bs from people’s lives” – to make the whole process simpler. No doubt drawing inspiration from his pain , Tom founded Comma to simplify payment processes and give business owners their time back. And a million small business owners clapped!
Today, Comma is the UK’s first bulk payment system that pays bills, taxes and salaries for accountants and small businesses, making the payments process for large amounts as simple as paying by card using open banking technology.
If you are in the process of fundraising or shortly about to do so, our fireside chat is the time to learn the dos and don’t of fundraising and get that burning question answered. Come along to our in person Money Talks series’ on Thursday 18 November from 17:30 at Huckletree White City to hear more from Tom Beckenham and to meet like-minded entrepreneurs. Refreshments provided.
