B2B Investment Tracker, June 26 – July 3

The Breakdown:
Cross-border Payments: ?
FinServ: $1.5M
Alt-Finance: $6.9B
E-Invoicing: ?
SaaS: ?

The B2B sector saw exciting investment action last week, though the market may never know exactly how much that action was worth. The industry saw an unusually high number of mergers and acquisitions, the majority of which, however, did not disclose financial details. Still, investors can be sure that the sector saw massive investments in the last few days, as one deal alone was worth nearly $7 billion.

Direct Investments – $1.5M+

The investment action – and the secrecy – started early on in the week, when over the weekend, Mexico-based bitcoin exchange platform Bitso announcing its first funding round thanks to angel investors and the Digital Currency Group, though reports did not specify how much the company raised. The funding will allow Bitso to expand operations in the country, in part through a new venture with government-backed Venture. The Venture initiative will provide faster, less expensive mobile payment services and collaborations with an array of major corporations, including Banamex and Telcel.

The partnership has vast implications for the banking world, according to Barry Silbert, who heads Digital Currency Group. “Whether you are talking about new payments services that help facilitate faster and cheaper money transfers across the world’s most active remittance corridor, or mobile money and microfinance opportunities for Mexico’s underbanked consumers, bitcoin and blockchain technology is poised to transform financial services in Mexico and all of Latin America,” he said, adding that Bitso is positioned to lead this shift in the region.

There was just one other round of direct investment by venture capitalists in the last few days. India-based CFO, which raised $1.5 million on Monday (June 29) from ASK Group promoter Sameer Koticha, secured funding as venture capitalists appear to be getting on board with B2B’s embrace of the on-demand services industry. The startup provides financial services to businesses when they need them – especially to startups and SMEs that need to manage cash flow but may not have the resources for such services 24/7. MyCFO even offers an on-demand, temporary Chief Financial Officer to help get small businesses’ finances in-line until they hire their own permanent CFO.

Mergers and Acquisitions – $7B+

B2B players saw unusually high activity in the M&A space last week, though the majority of deals decided to keep their price tags hidden. General Electric made the sole public divestiture, but boy, was it a big one.

The firm announced that commercial lending unit GE Capital plans to divest its fleet financing operations for nearly $7 billion, reports said Monday. The news followed announcements earlier this year that GE Capital would sell off about $275 billion worth of assets over the next two years; the fleet financing sale is the first major initiative of this plan. Element Financial Corporation will acquire the fleet financing operations for $6.9 billion, including operations throughout North America and Australia. A separate deal is expected to be made for the European assets, reports said.

On Tuesday (June 30) Oildex, an online B2B automated services provider and buyer-supplier connection portal, revealed (without giving away financial details) that it reached an agreement to buy procure-to-pay and e-invoicing tool OpenInvoice, a deal that offers more robust B2B services on the Oildex platform for players in the fuel and oil sector.

“Together, our product portfolio is unparalleled in financial supply chain automation and covers the unique needs of both large and small enterprises that manage a complex supply chain,” said Oildex CEO Richard Slack in a statement. “Our combined platform for supply chain partners (buyers and suppliers) enables them to ‘connect once, and communicate with all’ for all of their business relationships.”

Oildex reportedly already operates with more than 1,100 corporate customers and is connected to more than 50,000 suppliers in the U.S. and Canada.

MAM Software Group announced Wednesday (July 1) plans to acquire U.K.-based eCommerce service firm Origin Software Solutions, which gears its tools towards the auto industry. The takeover, said MAM Software Group President and Chief Executive Officer Michael Jamieson, will bring both B2B and B2C eCommerce services into the MAM Software services suite. “We believe this synergistic acquisition will strengthen our eCommerce strategy and help us meet the needs of a changing marketplace where customer demand for Internet trading solutions is on the increase,” he said in a statement.

The companies added that the merger will provide omnichannel commerce solutions and sales tools for the automotive market industry, which is in need of more sophisticated tools. “Selling automotive parts online is not as simple as many people believe, simply due to the vast array of data that requires integrating to the end solution,” said Origin Managing Director Giles Greenslade.

The companies, which have had a longstanding partnership, did not disclose the financial details of the acquisition.

IPOs – $15.6M

U.K. alternative lender Orchard Funding Group held its IPO on Wednesday as planned, raising about $15.6 million – funds that CEO Ravi Takhar said will be used to fuel its small business lending efforts. Analysts described the debut as “flat,” and while the multimillion-dollar float was successful, some experts say that the U.K.’s alternative lending and “challenger” banking sector is over-saturated without sufficient improvements on the traditional banking industry.