Tipalti Lassos In $13 Million In Series B Funding

Tipalti, the Israeli- and California-based B2B global payments firm, has locked in $13 million in Series B funding, raised in a round led by Wicklow Capital, according to a story in VentureBeat.

Tipalti’s focus has been on small businesses that don’t have the operational wherewithal to manage all of the payments and legal issues when dealing with contractors and customers across the globe. “When you’re paying your supplier, there isn’t a simple, common denominator,” CEO and co-founder Chen Amit told VentureBeat.

The old method for smaller companies dealing with such challenges was to limit the forms of payment accepted and offered, but with so much changing in global payments today, that’s increasingly becoming not a viable option.

“You’d think wire transfers would solve” that problem, Amit said, “but wires are expensive and you encounter a lot of friction” such as local regulations and compliance, the story said. Then there are the local issues (taxes, regulations, currency exchange, etc.) as well as law enforcement matters, such as avoiding letting transactions be accessed by terrorists or drug dealers.

As for activation, Tipalti says customers need only add a single line of code to their site. The fees are paid by the company getting paid. (Note: that needs to be discussed with payees early. If they contract for $X, they’re unlikely to accept less because of the way you have chosen to have your global payments handled.

To integrate the Tipalti platform, paying companies add a line of code to their website.

“Payers then register their banking information, it’s validated, and payment methods are selected — ACH, eCheck, PayPal, prepaid card, paper check, cash, or, if desired, wire transfer,” the story said. “For each payment, the payer submits instructions and Tipalti makes the payment to the payee in any country, in local currency.”