An Interview With Peter Grausgruber, CFO of Bitpanda​

The successful financial services company Bitpanda, based in Vienna, has chosen to use Perk’s software to automate its spend management.

Peter Grausgruber, CFO of Bitpanda, believes there is no better partner than Perk to this end.

In the fall of 2008, out of the blue, an essay appeared proposing a new electronic money system and was published on the new Internet domain bitcoin.org. The system combined the anonymity of cash transactions with the simplicity with which digital information could be exchanged over the Internet.

To this purpose, the system uses methods of asymmetric cryptography to document transactions in a fraud-resistant manner in a decentralized cash book.

Company overview

Vienna, Austria

700 employees

Financial services

Perk Expense

Highest efficiency in spend management

As the first cryptocurrency, Bitcoin revolutionized the global financial system – there is no denying that. In the beginning, this technology intimidated a lot of people.

However, innovative fintech companies – such as Bitpanda – made this innovation in finance accessible to the broader public. The company, founded in 2014, allows anyone to quickly and easily invest in cryptocurrencies, among other things.

Bitpanda relies on future-proof technologies to excel in a dynamic market environment. This requires the highest possible efficiency, including in spend management. Therefore, the Austrian company relies on software from Switzerland. In 2021, Bitpanda decided to automate its spend management with Perk.

Peter Grausgruber, Chief Financial Officer (CFO), is responsible for this decision. “We looked at several solutions.” After a close comparison, it was quickly made very clear: “The best choice is Perk.” Grausgruber can sum up the many reasons for choosing Perk in one word: “Usability.”

User-friendly spend management

There was a time when Bitpanda employees used spreadsheets to manage their expenses. Grausgruber would rather forget these times.

“In the past, employees used Excel sheets to distribute information. This was very tiring, and most of all very bureaucratic.” Employees not only complained about the amount of work that it involved, but downstream processes were also cumbersome and highly dependent on manual intervention.

The implementation of Perk led to an immediate improvement on both fronts.

Grausgruber therefore speaks highly of the “usability” of Perk. By this he refers not only to the user-friendly features for end users, but also to the simplicity of integrating this solution into a complex software environment.

“The main arguments for us are the usability and simple integration.”

A charming approach

Modernizing spend management was part of a broader redesign of the ERP systems landscape at Bitpanda, Grausgruber explains.

“During the evaluation, we also reviewed the interplay of Perk with upstream as well as downstream processes. Here as well, the solution convinced us: the solution can be easily integrated with other systems and ensures a very smooth workflow for all of the processes.”

The decision to choose Perk was made quickly, as was setting up the systems. The implementation of the software with all company-specific adjustments was executed quickly and professionally. “The cooperation with Perk was very pleasant.”

How does the software prove itself in everyday life? Grausgruber answers that he doesn’t hear much feedback. “That’s a good sign. Perk has blended into our routine without any hitch. That’s wonderful.”

The all-in-one spend management platform

In the future, Bitpanda hopes to use Perk not only to automate the expense process, but also to use Perk’s integrated corporate cards.

Grausgruber describes the combination of Perk’s expense management module with corporate cards as a charming approach: “For the long term, we are interested in an all-in-one solution that covers all spend processes in the company. With Perk, we have the perfect solution for that.”

The CFO as strategist

At the time Bitpanda was founded, you could buy a Bitcoin for a few hundred euros. Then the price skyrocketed; currently the Bitcoin rate is around 20.000 Euros.

This development in price shows how much the field of cryptocurrencies has changed. Major changes took place in a relatively short period of time. Over time the established financial institutions also came around, but by then Bitpanda was already miles ahead of them.

The company now has several hundred employees and serves several million customers. Bitpanda’s offering no longer includes only cryptocurrencies, but also stocks and precious metals.

When you ask Grausgruber what challenges characterize his daily work as a CFO, his first answer is: speed. “Figures, data, facts and analyses must be available quickly.” But the finance department should not only deal with the past. As CFO, you are also asked to give advice, and for that you have to monitor future trends.

“One has shifted from annual or monthly financial reporting to actively participating in business strategy.” These increased demands also bring different requirements for software. Artificial intelligence, open interfaces and cloud computing are some key words to describe future solutions.

Grausgruber believes Perk’s software is a frontrunner of this future. “In essence, Bitpanda and Perk are not that different: we both offer innovative solutions that make it much easier for our customers to manage their finances.”