In July 2025, Rydoo acquired a leading AI accounts payable automation solution. On 14th October 2026, Rydoo rebranded to bring two sides of business spend under one name: Rydoo, with Rydoo Accounts Payable and Rydoo Expense. From the outside, that might look like the obvious outcome. However, we seriously considered retiring both names and starting from scratch, and the reasons we didn't say a lot about what Rydoo is now, and how it got here.

Much of this story comes from anecdotes shared by our leaders, who were all part of the rebrand decision from the start and have been closely involved in bringing the two businesses together ever since.

Legally an acquisition. In practice, a merger.

Rydoo and Semine were comparable in size. This wasn't a large company absorbing a small team. Legally it was an acquisition, but the relative size of the two organisations made it feel much more like a merger, so we approached it as one.

In a merger, nobody gets to assume their brand will be the one remaining. Both names were on the table, and so was the option of one becoming the other.

Three brand options, and two fell away quickly

The choices were easy to list as is the way with most acquisitions and mergers: keep one brand, keep both, or create a new one.

Keeping both went first. Two names for two products would have left buyers unsure whether they were dealing with one company or two, and the point of coming together was to go to market as one company.

Keeping only Semine went next. Rydoo was already well known in more markets, far more people searched for it by name, and it had a stronger standing with industry analysts, such as Gartner. Retiring the better-known name would have cost recognition for no clear gain.

That left one decision: build a new brand, or evolve Rydoo and retire Semine.

The best argument for a new name

We want to be fair to the new-brand option, because it had a serious case behind it.

It was a test of whether a name can stretch. Imagine a company that included the product description (expense or accounts payable) in its name. A name that says exactly what a company does is a bonus in some aspects, but as soon as the business broadens, it stops working. When the brand no longer fits what the business is turning into, starting again is the sensible move.

There was a people case, too. A new name would have felt exciting internally. It would also have felt fairer to the colleagues whose brand was about to disappear. If everything is new, nobody loses theirs.

Why keeping Rydoo passed the test

Three things decided it.

The first was the name itself. Rydoo was never tied solely to expense management, so it can carry employee expenses, supplier invoices and whatever we build next. The test that would have justified a new brand was one Rydoo passed.

The second was equity. Years of reputation with finance teams, customers and analysts would have been swapped for a name nobody had heard yet.

The third was risk. A new brand means a full naming exercise, a full brand exercise and months of work, with no way of knowing at the start whether the result would beat what we already had.

The decision came before the design

None of this was settled in one meeting, and none of it started with colours or logos.

An internal team worked alongside an external branding agency from the very first phase, and that phase was about the decision itself: keep a brand, or create one. Colleagues across both companies were asked how they felt about each brand, and their answers fed into the final call. Only once the decision was made did work begin on the new identity.

Nobody took it lightly. The time spent getting to this decision was a big part of getting it right.

Bringing two teams together

Keeping Rydoo meant Semine's name would retire, so we put people at the centre of the integration from day one. Helping everyone feel part of one company, and understand why decisions are made, is where an integration creates the most value.

That's why we brought both teams together in person in January 2026, rather than waiting almost a year to mark the moment at the rebrand. Our leaders shared that any company going through the same thing should get everyone together as soon as they have a plan, because showing people there is a plan is part of the point.

We keep investing in bringing teams together, in person and virtually, around the shared vision, and the rebrand is one more step in that work.

What one name now has to carry

The rebrand is the visible part of a bigger change. The business changed first. The name then had to do more and the brand had to look different.

Finance teams handle two kinds of spend: what employees spend, and what suppliers invoice. Most tools cover one side, and plenty promise more than they prove. For a large company, building either side in-house with AI isn't a realistic alternative either. There's too much at stake in sensitive data, money and compliance.

Rydoo can now manage virtually all of a company's spend, payroll aside. Every invoice and receipt, whether paid by an employee or a department, runs through one harmonised workflow, with Rydoo Expense for employee expenses and Rydoo Accounts Payable for supplier invoices.

Rydoo Expense is built for multinational companies and is live in 130+ countries, with compliance intelligence covering tax, paperless, per diem, mileage and e-invoicing rules for 45+ countries. Rydoo AP reads every line of every invoice, whether it's a PDF or an e-invoice, and automates over 40 million invoice lines a year. Across both, Rydoo Intelligence handles the routine work and brings finance in for the judgement calls only, freeing up your people for higher value work.

That's also why the new identity looks the way it does. It's built to show the work rather than describe it: clear, precise and performance-focussed.

What changes, and what doesn't post-rebrand

If you use Rydoo Expense, the way you work in Rydoo stays exactly the same. What's changing is: a whole new look, messaging, and a cleaner interface. What's staying is everything else: every feature, your navigation, your data, your integrations, your login, and more.

If you’re a Rydoo Accounts Payable customer, you'll see the Rydoo name, logo and look, as well as a new web address to sign in, now all within rydoo.com. Every feature, your data, your workflows, your account, settings and integrations stay as they are, with the same team behind them.

And if you're new to Rydoo, welcome. We're very happy to have you here, whether you're starting with expenses, invoices or both. Our customers know there is a ‘before Rydoo’ and an ‘after Rydoo’. You can experience that now and see how Rydoo Expense and/or Rydoo Accounts Payable works for your company.

See more about Rydoo Expense and Rydoo Accounts Payable at rydoo.com.

What comes next for Rydoo

The new brand is live. The work behind it carries on.

We'll keep building on what our customers value most: deep AI automation, strong compliance and one offer across business spend that keeps getting better. Every improvement has the same aim, taking more manual work out of business spend for finance teams, wherever they operate, and freeing them up for higher value, strategic work.

For everyone at Rydoo, success looks like a stronger proposition, a better-known brand and more finance teams around the world turning to Rydoo to solve problems they've lived with for too long.

A year ago, we had two companies and a choice to make. We’re proud we kept the name that would stretch and achieve everything we plan to.

See the new Rydoo at rydoo.com