The Treasury4 Story: Part 1
Steve Helmbrecht
Ed Barrie, Nathan Brown, and I founded Treasury4 in 2020 around the desire to build the kind of tools we wish we had as practitioners.
Ed developed a vision for software over the course of his career in treasury and, for the first time, the three of us decided to join forces as entrepreneurs, launch our own company, and begin building a high performing team based on trust and customer success as some of our most important values.
Throughout my career, I have believed in the importance of innovative technology. I was with a fast-growing financial technology company, SS&C Technologies, for seven years, including several years in London to help build and grow SS&C’s international operations and capabilities.
I then moved to industry as a finance practitioner, including nearly ten years as CFO at Itron.
The word that best describes what it’s like to work in finance in a publicly traded company is “relentless” — as in, there are relentless deadlines, expectations, and workload.
I have supported and advocated for the use of the right technology to help the office of the CFO be more effective, whether it is in deploying ERP systems, utilizing other third-party tools as needed, or even giving my team the ability to build some of the capabilities they felt they needed and could not find elsewhere.
Rising Challenges in Treasury
When we launched Treasury4, we did not expect the rapid rise in interest rates that has recently taken place, nor did we predict a heightened concern about counterparty risk and its companion need to diversify that risk via multibank relationships. These dynamics have both elevated the focus on managing cash actively as an earning asset class and created increased complexity.
A chronic underinvestment in treasury technology has resulted in the opportunity to develop and introduce new solutions with a focus on visualizing data to help companies better collaborate and unlock the power of their own treasury data. The demand for such innovative solutions is likely to grow.
Building a trustworthy treasury solution
In late 2019, Ed and I met to talk about his idea for building a richly functional software platform that could support treasury, finance, tax, and legal operations more collaboratively in an organization.
I asked Ed, “What are you most looking for in a partner?” He paused briefly and said, “Someone I can trust.”
We knew Treasury4 had to be based on trust between each other, as well as customers, employees, and investors. We also talked about building strong relationships with banks, advisors, and consulting firms.
In addition to a clear vision, great early adopter customers, and a talented team, it was clear to all three of us that a crucial element to driving growth would be finding the right financial and strategic partner.
We were fortunate to have early round investors with enough confidence in us and our story to provide initial funding in the form of straight debt and convertible notes.
We knew that the next phase of growth would require an equity partner who shared our vision about the need for new technology and the sizable opportunity in the space—one capable of providing not only financial capital but also expertise, advice, and resources to help us grow.
I asked Ed, “What are you most looking for in a partner?” He paused briefly and said, “Someone I can trust.”
We found the answer in WestCap. The Series A financing is a milestone, and we trusted WestCap as an investor and partner to help fulfill our vision.
The amazing team of experienced finance and treasury practitioners with deep institutional expertise at WestCap made it refreshingly fast and easy to establish strong connections based on a mutual understanding of the challenges and need for innovative technology.
The WestCap team shares our view that the opportunity to build new platform solutions for the office of the CFO is large. We are proud of the progress we have made in a short period of time, and we know that our partnership with WestCap will accelerate our efforts.
At Treasury4, our fundamental goal is to build high quality software quickly and deliver it to customers to drive their success. We look for smart, hard-working people who care, and we strive to create a culture where they can do their best work.
With additional capital, we have a distinctive opportunity to grow this team to pull forward our product roadmap while accelerating our go-to-market efforts.
Gain an unparalleled, multi-dimensional view of your financial position with Treasury4’s entity-based approach
About Steve Helmbrecht
Steve Helmbrecht is President and CEO of Treasury4. From 2015 to 2018, Steve was CEO of Lakeside Capital Group, a privately held investment firm.
From 2005 to 2014, Steve was CFO of Itron, Inc. (NASDAQ: ITRI), a world-leading technology and services company dedicated to the resourceful use of energy and water, with over 7,000 employees and revenues exceeding $2 billion. From 1993 to 2000, Steve was with SS&C Technologies, Inc. (NASDAQ: SSNC), a leading financial technology company, including over three years (1996-2000) in London as SVP International, where he grew SS&C’s international operations and customer base.
Steve is a board member at Washington Trust Bank and W.T.B. Financial Corporation and serves on the Board of Regents at Gonzaga University.
Steve Helmbrecht
President & Chief Executive Officer