This Australian startup just raised $35 million in its first round of funding

When a startup first starts to raise money, observers probably expect the amount to be in the low millions – or even less. Australian-based mobile invoicing company Invoice2go today bucked the trend when they announced that they had just closed a huge $35 million funding round from Accel Partners and Ribbit Capital – their first ever.

This amount is doubly unusual because Australian startups don’t typically see that kind of money. Invoice2go is Accel’s fourth major Australian investment, alongside Atlassian, 99designs and Ozforex.

This is not to say that Invoice2go doesn’t deserve it – they’ve been quietly racking up all sorts of metrics since founding in 2002, when founder Chris Strode saw the need for small business mobile productivity tools right from the initial iPhone launch.

What the company does is simple. They sell cross-platform invoicing apps to small business owners – hence the moniker, 2go – such as Receipts2go, Sign2go, Scan2go, and so on.

Here are their credentials: The app holds the top spot in the Australian iOS app store under the business category – as well as in 50 other countries – and about 100,000 small-to-medium businesses use it worldwide at the moment. As such, over US$10 billion in invoicing has gone through the app to date. This is especially impressive when you take into account that the team hasn’t taken a cent of funding so far, and has been bootstrapping operations.

“We’ve been the quiet achievers, working from the central coast to build a product that is proven to be the best for small business owners around the globe who want a time-saving, uncomplicated invoicing solution,” says Strode in an official statement. “With 100 million small businesses globally, there is enormous potential to scale Invoice2go. Now, with significant investment on board, we are perfectly placed to make what is already a fantastic product even better.”

This is the reason why they’ve raised such a huge amount – to reach those 100 million small businesses. “We came to the $35 million figure because the market opportunity is huge […] To reach them, we need a global marketing effort, which requires a substantial budget,” says Strode.

In addition, CEO-in-Residence at Accel Partners and former eHarmony CEO Greg Waldorf will also be coming on board as Invoice2Go’s new CEO. He will be setting up shop in Invoice2go’s new headquarters in Palo Alto, California, to drive their global expansion plans. Strode will remain in Sydney to lead product development.

See: Bellabox raises $5.5 million to send their beauty boxes across Asia Pacific