How Upflow enhances security credibility with Vanta

The Company

Collections automation to ease accounting

Based in Paris and NYC, Upflow helps companies and finance leaders across the world improve their collection efforts and drive their cash flow effortlessly. Their automation accounts receivables software features personalized email workflows as well as extensive collection dashboards.

The goal of Upflow is to provide a solution for growing companies as they scale. “The problem that companies have as they scale is that it becomes really hard to keep track of what needs to get paid, what needs to be followed up with, by whom, how, and when,” says Barnaby Malet, Cofounder and CTPO at Upflow. “We have this really simple tool that just plugs into your billing accounting program and helps you stay on top of your collections process and get paid on time.”

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The Challenge

Building a brand while being secure

Upflow is a category creator and is not competing with other fintech companies. Instead,  it's trying to convince companies to add Upflow to their existing toolstacks. “Teaching people that it's a problem worth solving - which it is - and that Upflow will solve the problem for them, that's challenging,” Barnaby says.

As a fintech company that is scaling and selling internationally, Upflow cares deeply about security and protecting customer data. Because they integrate with customer billing and accounting systems, they’re ingesting a lot of financial data that is confidential. 

On top of education and brand awareness, Upflow also has to be intentional about its security posture. And, as Upflow scales to sell to more mature customers, proving security is a priority. Barnaby, who has a background in software engineering and coding, identified the need to prove security at an international level and acknowledged that his own experience couldn’t meet global security standards. Moreover, Barnaby didn’t have the time needed to manage security and compliance in the way that he knew it needed to be managed.

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The Solution

Migrating to a trusted partner

‍Upflow was proactive in its approach to getting SOC 2. “It's a stamp of approval, and you know it means that you have checks and balances in place,” Barnaby says. “Security is important, and it helps you create that culture before you take off and scale.”

Through positive word of mouth and trust in the brand from other companies, Upflow turned to Vanta. Barnaby worked closely with a customer success manager at Vanta to migrate from the previous compliance platform. “The migration was really fast and efficient.”

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The Impact

White glove customer service

Upflow was given what it considers “white glove service.” Vanta’s CEO, Christina Cacioppo, hopped on a call with Barnaby to ensure the migration from the old platform to Vanta went smoothly. Christina was eager to be present in the migration process and to cater to the customer experience as much as possible.

Upflow has not only saved time, their number one priority in moving to an automated platform, but they’ve also opened sales opportunities that wouldn’t have been available without a SOC 2. “If we didn’t have our SOC [report], I would assume that there are some deals we just wouldn’t close. It would just be impossible to close the types of customers we have now.”

Furthermore, Vanta’s reputation as a modern security and compliance platform has helped Upflow in the professional world. “Most forward-thinking individuals recognize that it makes sense to use Vanta or something like it.”

In order to maintain security and compliance, Vanta has become an essential part of Upflow’s toolstack. “For the purposes of security compliance, Vanta is a core part of that.” As part of the toolstack, Vanta doesn’t require manual work, which allows Upflow to prioritize its time to other areas of focus.

{{quote-2}} “When you end up speaking to the CEO, you feel quite special."

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