60 million euros for NABOO AI, which tackles class C spending

Long confined to the image of an events platform, Naboo now claims a much broader positioning. On the occasion of the announcement of its series B of sixty million euros, its CEO, Maxime Eduardo, assumes a change of focus and makes the event an entry point towards a platform for managing indirect purchases, where spending still largely escapes traditional financial tools.

Travel, seminars, service providers, split purchases: these so-called “class C” expenses are numerous, dispersed throughout the organization, and represent a historically unstructured area. “It’s an important subject that mixes payment, compliance and finance,” summarizes Maxime Eduardo, which Naboo intends to tackle and use AI as an execution engine.

A purchasing center rather than an event tool

In large organizations, the events category concentrates several tensions. Operational teams seek a maximum diversity of suppliers to organize their events, while purchasing and finance departments seek to reduce the number to limit management costs and strengthen compliance. “There are some who want fewer suppliers, others who want more, and we come to take stock of the two,” summarizes Maxime Eduardo.

The proposed model is based on a simple principle: a single supplier on the procurement side, Naboo, and a multitude of Tier 2 suppliers on the operational side.

Take back control before cutting costs

Before any savings policy, you still need to know what you are spending. However, events are often split between several budgets, sometimes buried in expense reports, sometimes attached to HR, marketing or communication. “No one really knows how much we spend within a large group on events,” notes the CEO.

The first value provided by Naboo is therefore visibility, with a consolidated, international vision, connected to existing ERPs and procurement tools, which makes it possible to establish a reference base. “It’s only once you really understand what you’re spending that you will be able to put a real policy in place,” he emphasizes.

This logic results in configurable validation workflows, triggered not only by financial thresholds, but also by deviations from internal policy. “What triggers the most validation workflows is when you go outside the box,” explains Maxime Eduardo. Exceeding a ceiling per participant, non-compliance with a group rule, control must take place in real time, without unnecessarily blocking operations.

AI at the heart of sourcing, contracting and execution

In a large group, a single entity can organize several thousand events per year. “A buyer cannot be involved in a thousand events per year for expenses that range from two hundred to two hundred thousand euros,” recalls the manager. AI makes it possible to automate the selection of the most suitable service providers based on complex briefs, integrating multiple criteria.

Second brick: contracting. Analysis of quotes, management of VAT, reading of general conditions of sale, detection of clauses that do not comply with purchasing policies. “You put a human in, it takes hours. You put an AI on the analysis part of contracting, it’s much faster,” explains Maxime Eduardo. The objective is not to eliminate human intervention, but to concentrate it where it really creates value.

Finally, Naboo is going further with the deployment of AI agents capable of simulating the work of an advisor. The ambition is to offer an experience close to general public reservation platforms, while integrating the complexity specific to events. “You have the impression of speaking to an advisor through a chat, but in fact it is different AI agents who will do your sourcing and organize your reservation,” he describes.

A control tower for finance

On the financial management side, Naboo highlights a complete audit capacity. Access to histories, analytical breakdown, measurement of negotiated savings, traceability of decisions: the platform presents itself as a “control tower” of event spending, usable a posteriori for audits as well as for day-to-day management.

This approach aims to reposition events as a manageable category, comparable to travel policies.

An assumed economic model of a platform

Unlike many B2B software players, Naboo does not claim a classic SaaS model. “The solution is essentially free to our customers,” explains its manager. No user license, but remuneration mainly from commissions paid by suppliers, amounting to approximately fifteen percent of the transaction volume.

Part of the revenue also comes from additional services billed to customers, particularly on advanced control bricks. This positioning distinguishes Naboo from certain historical players in travel management, such as Amex or BCD Travel, whose management fees are considered higher. “We are much cheaper, especially on the customer side, thanks to automation,” says Maxime Eduardo.

A trajectory guided by investors

Since its beginnings, Naboo has gone through several structuring phases. A pre-seed of two and a half million euros, when the project was still called WOM, then a seed led by ISAI, oriented towards the large account market. Notion Capital then supported the acceleration in software and internationally, before Lightspeed took the lead in the current series B.

Maxime Eduardo insists on the active role of his investors. ISAI has pushed the enterprise shift, Notion international expansion and AI, Lightspeed today provides in-depth expertise on issues related to models and their scaling, particularly in the United States.

The United States as the new center of gravity

North America is now Naboo’s main growth engine. Initially opened via Montreal, the American market displays much faster commercial dynamics. “This is what exploded our growth in the last quarter since we made x3.5 in the last quarter compared to the previous year,” underlines the CEO.

Three ambitions in two years

Over the next two years, Naboo has set itself three structuring objectives. The first is to reach one billion euros in volume of controlled purchases. The second is to offer software massively powered by AI, offering a more autonomous and instantaneous experience. “We are a service as a software company, not software as a service,” summarizes Maxime Eduardo.

Finally, the most strategic ambition consists of going beyond events to address all class C purchases. “To become an extremely strategic software for purchasing and financial departments”, capable of structuring categories that have hitherto been poorly equipped.

A structuring financing round, one year after the series A

Founded three years ago, Naboo has marked its development with a succession of financing rounds aligned with the evolution of its strategy. The company started with a pre-seed of two and a half million euros, raised from CapHorn and MAIF Avenir (now Ternel), intended to lay the foundations of the product and the model. In November 2023, Naboo completes a seed round of seven and a half million euros, led by ISAI, which supports the refocusing on major accounts and the structuring of the go-to-market enterprise.

In February 2025, the company reached a new milestone with a series A of twenty million euros, led by Notion Capital, marked by an acceleration of software investments, the strengthening of artificial intelligence building blocks and the opening of the North American market. A year later, Naboo announced a series B of sixty million euros, led by Lightspeed Venture Partners, with the participation of all historical investors. This new funding aims to amplify the R&D effort around AI and consolidate international expansion, particularly in the United States, now identified as a priority growth area.