Made in Europe: Spendesk, the European Spend Management Platform

Ten years ago, Spendesk was built around a simple principle: finance teams should be able to empower their colleagues to do what they need to do, while staying in control of company spending.

That principle has shaped every product decision since. As our founder, Rodolphe Ardant, puts it: "Spendesk was built to solve a problem finance teams experience every day" — and that focus has never wavered.

A decade later, Spendesk is a profitable French unicorn. It reached unicorn status in 2022 and profitability in 2025. This is proof that building with discipline, purpose, and the customer in mind actually works.

Profitability is not the end of the journey. It gives Spendesk the stability to keep investing in its mission, supporting its customers and building for the long term.

This decade of work is what Made in Europe really means to us. Supporting our European customers with the expertise we've built in over a decade of operations in this complex, regulated, and often challenging space.

Here is what a decade of European operations actually looks like in practice:

10 years at a glance

This is our original Spendesk European spend management data from 2016–2026, covering 10 years of activity, including card transactions, payables, reimbursements, suppliers, users, and total spend processed.

Getaround x Spendesk: Growing together for a decade

Getaround has been with Spendesk since the early days. Over the past ten years, both companies have grown and evolved side by side.

Here’s what Mohamed Mekkaoui, VP Finance at Getaround, says about that journey:

Why is Spendesk built for European businesses?

European compliance: DORA, PSD2 and e-invoicing regulations

Compliance in Europe isn’t one-size-fits-all. Every market has its own rules, VAT requirements, reporting requirements and ways of working, from France’s e-invoicing requirements to the UK’s Making Tax Digital mandate. Building finance operations that are both efficient and compliant means understanding those differences in detail, rather than applying a single model everywhere.

That also means keeping pace with Europe-wide regulation. Spendesk maintains DORA compliance, alongside the local regulatory frameworks that shape how finance teams operate across individual markets.

Spendesk has been building for European finance teams since 2016. That local expertise has been built over time through regional teams with native language speakers and local offices in Paris, London, Berlin, and Barcelona, with in-depth market knowledge, alongside the infrastructure needed to support customers in practice. We believe that if our customers experience it, we have to as well.

For EEA customers, payment services are provided by Spendesk Financial Services, Spendesk’s own payment institution, which is licensed in France by the ACPR, identified by CIB number 17518, and subject to PSD2. This holds us to the higher regulatory standards on the continent and ensures both your money and your information is protected.

For UK customers, payment services are provided through Adyen N.V., whose UK branch is authorised by the FCA. The setup is different by market exactly because those regulatory requirements are different and they're not optional to us.

This is what Made in Europe means in practice: not just selling in Europe, but understanding the compliance, VAT, payment and operational details that help finance teams stay in control and run efficiently in each market.

Built around the needs of local finance teams

Beyond Spendesk’s core spend management capabilities, we’ve developed regionally specific features around the needs of finance teams in each market. Our local teams work closely with customers and stay on top of changing regulations and ways of working, helping us build the tools finance teams need in practice.

From per diems in Germany to HMRC-compliant mileage in the UK, these features reflect the local requirements that can make a real difference to finance teams operating across Europe.

Product functionality built for European finance teams

European businesses do not all spend, approve, or account for money in the same way. Spendesk brings these processes together in one platform, while giving each entity flexibility to work according to its local needs.

• Local control, without added complexity
  Configure approval workflows, budgets, spending limits and card controls to match each entity’s needs.

• Structured spend data for accounting
  Capture and categorise expenses, invoices and receipts to support each entity’s accounting processes.

• Built to scale across Europe
  Manage multiple entities and supported currencies from one platform, with central visibility for Finance and local flexibility for each team.

🇩🇪 Germany

• DATEV integration, connecting Spendesk with one of Germany’s most important accounting ecosystems.

• Per diem management to support local business travel and expense processes.

• E-invoicing compliance for evolving German invoicing requirements.

• VAT management to support local accounting and tax processes.

Our DATEV Unternehmen Online integration is already live, while DATEV Rechnungswesen (ReWe) is currently in beta and planned for autumn 2026, subject to final testing and confirmation.

🇫🇷 France

• E-invoicing compliance to support France’s transition to mandatory electronic invoicing.

• Sage and Cegid integrations for the accounting tools used by French finance teams.

• VAT management to support local accounting and tax requirements.

Finance teams can explore our guide to choosing an e-invoicing platform as France moves towards mandatory electronic invoicing.

🇬🇧 United Kingdom

• Xero, Business Central and NetSuite integrations to connect Spendesk with the accounting systems UK finance teams rely on.

• VAT management to support local tax and accounting processes.

• HMRC-compliant mileage to help teams manage employee mileage expenses according to UK requirements.

Read more about Making Tax Digital for VAT and our Xero integration.

🇪🇸 Spain

• NetSuite, Business Central and Sage integrations for the accounting systems used by Spanish finance teams.

• Spain Digitisation Compliance for e-receipts via ZeroComa, supporting local requirements for digital receipts.

• Per diem management to support local business travel and expense processes.

• VAT management to support Spanish accounting and tax requirements.

Read more about Spain’s mandatory B2B e-invoicing rules and how to prepare for VeriFactu.

Explore our full list of accounting integrations →

European data sovereignty: where does Spendesk store customer data?

When a finance team signs a contract with a spend management platform, they hand over access to their company's financial data. Where that data lives, under which legal framework and under whose jurisdiction are core questions of European data sovereignty. For a CFO or a DPO, they belong in the due diligence checklist.

A French company, under French law

Spendesk is a French company, incorporated and regulated under French and European law. Customer data is hosted in AWS Ireland, within the EU, and subject to GDPR. Spendesk is not itself subject to US law. AWS's data protection commitments and EU legal frameworks provide additional safeguards against third-party access.

SFS — Spendesk's own payment licence

Since launching Spendesk Financial Services in 2022, Spendesk has operated its own regulated payment institution, giving European customers a direct relationship with a payment provider built and supervised in Europe.

Spendesk Financial Services SAS (SFS) is a wholly owned subsidiary and an ACPR-licensed Payment Institution, identified by CIB number 17518 and verifiable on the EBA register. Licensed since April 2022 by France’s financial supervisory authority, SFS is authorised in France and operates across all 30 EEA countries, with PSD2 passporting into the other 29 EEA countries.

For EEA customers, Spendesk built its own regulated payment institution, Spendesk Financial Services (SFS), rather than relying on a third-party banking partner. SFS is directly regulated by the ACPR, giving Spendesk greater control over the payment infrastructure that supports its European customers. In the UK, Spendesk continues to provide payment services through a regulated partner.

GDPR, certifications, and e-invoicing readiness

Customer data is hosted in AWS Ireland. Spendesk maintains data residency within the European Union, in Europe, under EU law, supervised by the CNIL as lead supervisory authority. UK GDPR compliance is maintained separately under ICO supervision.

Spendesk is ISO 27001:2022 certified (Certificate #122410, valid through February 2027), DORA compliant since January 2025, and PSD2/SCA compliant on all card transactions.

On e-invoicing: Germany's mandatory B2B e-invoice reception requirement came into force in January 2025. Spendesk was compliant from day one. Belgium's Peppol mandate arrived in January 2026 — Spendesk is a certified Peppol Access Point. France's 2026/2027 rollout is already in preparation.

European e-invoicing mandates are not optional. Building compliance into a product takes years. Spendesk has been doing that work.

Why we stand out, even amongst European providers

• With no per-user fees, companies can roll out Spendesk across the whole organisation and manage all company spend through one system.

• No per-card fees, so you can create as many physical and virtual cards as your teams need.

• Up to three entities, all available on our Base plan.

• Manage all company spend for one entity through one centralised platform, at no extra cost

• Manage all types of spend in one platform, including cards, expenses, invoices, subscriptions and procurement.

• Set flexible approval workflows, budgets and spending limits to stay in control before money is spent.

• Automate accounting tasks, from receipt and invoice processing to categorisation and reconciliation.

• Built for growing European businesses, with visibility across entities, teams and countries.

• Easy for employees to use, while giving Finance the control and visibility it needs.

Conclusion

European finance teams operate in a specific context. Their accountants use specific tools. Their regulators set specific requirements. Their data carries specific legal protections.

Spendesk was built inside that context — from the ground up, across ten years of live European operations. The integrations reflect how European accountants actually work. The regulatory structure reflects what European law requires. The data infrastructure reflects what European companies deserve.