Innflow sells expense business to Yokoy

The expenses tool FlowExpense will in future no longer be offered by Zug consultancy firm Innflow AG, but instead by Yokoy, which was formerly its greatest competitor in Switzerland. This takeover was just announced by the two companies in a press release. Furthermore, they revealed that they have entered into a strategic partnership. 

The reason for Zurich startup Yokoy taking over the expense solution was, according to the Co-Managing Director of Innflow Patrick Meier, the technological lead that Yokoy has achieved through its use of artificial intelligence (AI): “The expense solutions Yokoy and FlowExpense are functionally very similar. However, Yokoy is investing heavily in its Yokoy Inhouse AI Research Lab, which enables the complete automation of expense processes based on machine learning.” 

Colleague Thomas Hottinger believes this benefit is at the heart of the collaboration: “The readout by means of artificial intelligence, which we have not been able to do to this extent ourselves, brings considerable added value for our customers.” In an interview Yokoy conducted with Patrick Meier for its blog, the Innflow boss added: “But a very central aspect is also the cultural match. Since the first contact, we have got on well with the Yokoy team.”

Yokoy offers a self-learning expense and corporate credit card solution that automates the entire process from the photo of the receipt to the correct financial entry. Innflow in turn combines “a vast experience in global SAP projects”. What’s more, the press release says many larger companies and public sector organizations in Switzerland use SAP systems adapted to their requirements. 

The fintech Yokoy was founded in 2019 under the name Expense Robot. When it introduced the first fully integrated corporate card in September 2020, the name was changed to Yokoy. The startup became known to a much wider audience in October following an appearance on the TV show “Die Höhle der Löwen Schweiz” (Switzerland’s Dragons’ Den).