Company: Alan

Interviewees: Mark Goad, General Manager, Canada; Mark Rogal, Head of Operations, Canada

Location: Toronto

About Alan

Alan is a health insurance company founded in 2016 and headquartered in Paris, France. They provide health insurance for businesses of all sizes and independent workers, and support over 650,000 members across 27,000 companies. Alan has reached $1.2B ARR with over 50% annual growth year over year and expects to surpass $1.6B ARR in 2025. The company has raised $160M from investors including Index Ventures and Greenoaks, alongside individual cheques from prominent Canadian founders.

In 2024, Alan expanded into the Canadian market with a small team based in downtown Toronto. The Canadian operation started with one employee and has since grown to 13, with plans to double again. Canada has grown faster than the team anticipated, averaging 49% monthly growth over the past six months. Because Alan's service to members includes processing reimbursements when they pay out of pocket for healthcare, the team needed a banking setup that could handle a high volume of outgoing payments quickly and without manual intervention.

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The Problem

A legacy bank turned a simple process into a weekly time drain

When Alan launched in Canada, the team opened accounts with one of the big five banks, which immediately made reimbursements and expense management harder than they needed to be.

Alan's most frequent banking task was member reimbursements. When members pay for healthcare expenses out of pocket, Alan needs to return that money quickly. Speed of reimbursements is one of the core metrics Alan uses to outperform legacy carriers, and it connects directly to their member experience scores. At the legacy bank, each reimbursement required multiple manual steps, and the team was spending hours each week completing transactions that should have taken minutes.

“When we started Alan in Canada, we used one of the five legacy banks. One of the issues we were having was a lot of complexity and a lot of friction in the process. And so as a company that does quite a lot of reimbursements, that could lead to hours, basically spent in a week.”
- Mark Goad, General Manager, Alan Canada

Managing team expenses, issuing corporate cards, and keeping spending records for compliance added more manual work on top of the reimbursement volume. For a small team building a new market from scratch, spending hours each week on banking administration was not workable.

The Solution

One platform for member reimbursements, team cards, and compliance

About six months into their Canadian launch, Alan switched to Venn. Alan completed the transition entirely online and the team was running on the new platform almost immediately.

Venn addressed the two things that mattered most to Alan: speed and simplicity. Member reimbursements that had required hours of manual work each week now processed in seconds. The team also gained tools to manage expenses, create cards, and maintain compliance records without adding administrative overhead.

Here is what changed once Alan switched to Venn:

• Fast transfers that process in seconds, not days
• Virtual cards created instantly for one-time or recurring purchases
• SMS and email receipt reminders that keep compliance records current without manual follow-up
• Team spending cards for expenses, travel, and lunches without requiring individual approvals
• 1% cashback on all card spending
• A dashboard with full visibility across all accounts and activity

Why Venn

Simple, automated, and ready to scale with a team that is growing quickly

More than a year after switching, Alan has cut its weekly banking time by 75%, and the team rates Venn a 10 out of 10. Every feature they adopted on day one is now a standard part of how the team operates.

Virtual cards are one example. Creating one instantly for a single purchase fits the volume and pace of work at Alan. SMS and email receipt reminders handle compliance records automatically, which Mark Goad describes as keeping compliance “through the roof relative to a legacy solution.” Team cards for everyday expenses, including lunches, travel, and tools, remove the approval overhead that slows down a growing team every time someone needs to make a purchase.

Mark no longer spends time managing the banking tasks that used to consume hours each week.

Alan is also growing quickly. The Canadian team went from one employee to 13 in a year and a half, with plans to double again next year, and Mark expects Venn to scale alongside them.

‍“I was the first employee a year and a half ago. We’re now 12 or 13, and we’ll be doubling again next year. I expect Venn will scale with us.”
- Mark Goad, General Manager, Alan Canada

Who Venn Is For

Canadian companies that process high volumes of payments and need compliance records without a dedicated finance team

Venn works best for Canadian businesses where payment speed and accurate record-keeping connect directly to the service the company delivers to its customers, and where a small team is responsible for both.

For companies like Alan, where member experience depends on how quickly money moves, banking infrastructure connects directly to service quality. Every hour the team spends on manual banking administration reduces the time available for serving members and building the Canadian operation.

‍"Venn has a very easy UI. We are able to set up our pays in minutes. We are able to transfer in seconds. It really has not given us any issues.”

- Mark Rogal, Head of Operations, Alan Canada

Venn fits teams that want to reduce manual transaction work, run routine payments automatically, and give employees the ability to spend without creating an approval queue, while keeping full visibility centralized. For Alan Canada, it replaced hours of weekly banking administration with a system that runs without requiring ongoing attention.

Join the companies that use Venn to manage team spending, reduce costs, and operate with confidence. Try Venn today!

FAQ

How quickly did Alan get set up on Venn?

Alan completed onboarding entirely online with no in-person meetings or paperwork. The team was running on Venn almost immediately after switching, roughly six months into their Canadian launch.

Does Venn work for companies in regulated industries?

Yes. Venn’s SMS and email receipt reminders automatically collect documentation from cardholders, which keeps compliance records current without manual follow-up. Alan operates in a regulated insurance environment and uses this feature to maintain audit-ready records across the team.

Can a small team manage multiple cards and spending categories through Venn?

Yes. Alan’s team of 13 uses Venn to issue virtual cards for individual purchases, manage spending on lunches and travel, and keep all activity visible in one dashboard. Administrators can view all transactions across the account without needing separate tools or reports.

What is the 1% cashback on Venn cards?

Venn pays 1% cashback on all corporate card spending, deposited automatically into the account each month. For Alan, which runs card spending across a growing team for day-to-day expenses, this means a recurring return on spending the team was already doing.

How is Venn different from a big five Canadian bank for a small team?

The main differences Alan experienced were transfer speed and self-serve account management. At a legacy bank, reimbursements and card management required multiple manual steps and added hours to the weekly workload. On Venn, transfers process in seconds, card creation takes minutes through the platform, and the team manages everything without calling in or waiting for approvals.