The 3D’s Of B2B Investments

The month of June saw roughly three quarters of a billion dollars invested in B2B ventures focused on data, development and developing countries. And the key driver? Wanting to keep up with their B2C counterparts in leveraging mobile and the cloud.

According to PYMNTS.com analysis, a total of $756.1 million was invested in B2B payments across a variety of segments – lending, wholesale, procurement, billing and invoicing, data and business analytics in June.  And, as B2B businesses grow to compete in a method similar to that of the B2C market, businesses want solutions that provide deeper analytics, faster development tools and the ability to leverage global opportunities.

Here’s who invested what in whom.

Venture June 2014 feature

Africa

June 16 – Kenya Invested Development, an early stage VC, has invested an undisclosed amount in iProcure, a technology which provides software to enhance sales and inventory management in agriculture markets in Kenya. iProcure’s lets farmers manage ordering based on inventory, point of sale activities, and client profiles along with geo-located purchasing patterns, real-time agent performance and transaction analysis, and built-in mobile payments.

Asia

June 9 – Thailand aCommerce the regional end-to-end e-commerce service provider announced it has closed a Series A funding round of $10.7 million, led by Bangkok-based Inspire Ventures with participation from NTT DOCOMO Ventures, Sumitomo Corporation Equity Asia Limited, Sinar Mas Indonesia, Asia Pacific Digital, Cyberagent Ventures, JL Capital, strategic angel investors, and key executive staff. aCommerce will use the new capital to strengthen its e-commerce logistics infrastructure, expand its delivery fleet, develop its AMP technology platform, and expand its channel management and PopShop products.

June 19 – New Zealand ProjectManager.com, an online project management software announced it raised $3.5 million NZ ($3.08 USD)in series A funding to support momentum in the project management software market and to expand into the United States.

June 28 – India Greytip Software announced it has successfully raised an undisclosed amount from Mumbai based early-stage VC, Blume Ventures. Greytip will use the funds raised to accelerate their growth in the domestic cloud HR and Payroll automation space. Greytip is the leading cloud HR Company in India with nearly 2k organizations using their SaaS application – GreytHR in 60 cities.

Europe

June 2 – France 123Venture invested €2.5 million in Léa trade, a French pioneer in inventory tracking of merchandise imported by SMBs. The firm provides financial and logistic services. In 2013, Léa Trade had €41 million in revenue and 36% growth with 550 transactions. These funds will allow the company to grow internationally and to keep pace with its customers’ growth.

June 3 – Germany Finanzchef24 secured €4 million in a series B funding round from Munich-based VC firms Target Partners and Mercura Capital. Finanzchef24 GmbH operates the largest independent small business insurance comparison portal (www.finanzchef24.de) and Finanzchef PRO for insurance brokers (www.finanzchefpro.de). With this injection of capital, the company plans to further expand its marketing activities and invest in its recently established Finanzchef PRO broker service. The funds will also be used to expand a number of strategic growth projects.

June 3 – UK NVM Private Equity has invested £6.4 million to support the MBO of IT inventory management specialist, Acal Enterprise Solutions, from Acal plc. The funds will be used for growth in demand for server, storage and networking requirements by extending its range of products and services; and widening its customer base across Europe. Acal Enterprise Solutions provides outsourced inventory management solutions to IT maintenance companies and Original Equipment Manufacturers to 1.7k customers in 25 European countries.

June 9 – Spain PackLink, the online shipping solution for consumers and businesses, announced a $9 million Series B investment led by Accel Partners with participation from previous investor Active Venture Partners. The funds will be used to accelerate the international expansion of its consumer platform and release a business-focused offering.

PackLink’s marketplace simplifies shipping by connecting a customer with the right logistics provider on a package-by-package basis. Customers can compare prices, delivery speed and service levels across PackLink’s more than 20 provider partners worldwide. Its soon-to-be-launched business-focused product further addresses the needs of higher-volume shippers such as e-commerce companies. Packlink Pro is a cloud-based platform that integrates with a business’s operational systems, automating the shipping process. Companies can focus on their core business, knowing that their shipments are delivered via the best suited provider at an attractive price.

June 10 – Ukraine Gill Business Systems, which developed a inventory bus ticketing digital platform, raised $ 3 million investment from VC funds InVenture Partners, Intel Capital and Finsight Ventures. The funds will be used to expand into Russia and South East Asia. Ukraine GillBus covers approximately one third of long-distance bus services and enables on-line sales in a non-standardized platform market.

June 10 – UK IOCS a provider of electronic contract processing technology has closed a £2 million Series A funding led by Notion Capital and supported by a group of specialist FinTech angel investors.  IOCS provides the world´s first turnkey e-commerce platform for the online processing of complex agreements (higher risk, higher value transactions which have traditionally necessitated some form of paper contract: e.g. credit, leasing, insurance). The funding will be used to accelerate market execution and expand the team.

June 24Seal Software a UK-based provider of contract delivery and contract analytics solutions, has raised $4 million in new VC funding led by Toba Capital.

June 25 – UK Vitruvian Partners helped a JacTravel MBO from Bowmark London-based JacTravel Group, a technology driven B2B hotel accommodation wholesaler and provider of inbound travel services. The transaction is worth £80 million, and subject to German competition authority clearance. JacTravel partners with over 12.5k independent and chain hotels in 800 cities globally and processes nearly 1 million bookings per year. Under its new ownership JacTravel will accelerate its investment in technology and continue pursuing growth in new markets.

June 26 – Germany The big data finance company Kreditech has closed a Series B round that raised $ 40 million in primary investment from Värde Partners, a global investment manager and Blumberg Capital. Other shareholders, including Point Nine Capital, also participated in the round. Kreditech will use the investment funds to broaden its existing product portfolio and accelerate geographical expansion. The firm offers global online and mobile lending services based on automated big data and machine learning credit scoring.  The company operates independently from credit bureaus and traditional banking infrastructure.

North America

June 2 San Francisco – based RichRelevance, the global leader in omnichannel personalization, announced that it has secured $20 million in growth capital funding led by Centerview Capital Technology with participation from existing investors Draper Fisher Jurvetson, Greylock Partners, Crosslink Capital and Shea Ventures.

The financing will be used to expand RichRelevance’s business internationally and to continue to create new shopping experiences across online, mobile and in store. The firm has 175 customers in 35 countries.

June 3 – Southington CT-based SmartPay Solutions, a leading provider of pay-as-you-go workers compensation solutions, raised $1.4 million funding led by Connecticut Innovations and Tennant Capital Partners. Other investors included Stonehenge Growth Capital, the CEO and CFO. The funding will finance growth.

June 5 – Oregon-based online payments startup NVoicePay raised $1.2 million in new funding.

June 10 – Arlington, TX-based Levine Leichtman Capital Partners has backed a MBO of Smith System Driver Improvement Institute, which works with fleet managers to provide training programs for any vehicle type and is considered the pioneer and market leader in accident avoidance training for fleet vehicle drivers.

June 18 – Atlanta-based LogFire raised an $8.25 million Series A financing led by Edison Ventures. Partners also participated in the round. LogFire is the leading multi-tenant, cloud-based warehousing and in-store inventory management and fulfillment platform provider.

June 19 – San Francisco-based ForgeRock Inc., the leading open platform provider of identity relationship management solutions, announced that it has received $30 million in Series C round of funding. Meritech Capital Partners led the round and existing investors Accel Partners and Foundation Capital also participated. As part of the investment, Paul Madera, co-founder and managing director of Meritech, will be joining ForgeRock™ board of directors. The latest round brings the company’s total funding to $52 million. Funding will be used to accelerate R&D and increase ForgeRock’s global market share via expanded sales and marketing efforts.

ForgeRock developed the first and only open, unified, massively scalable identity relationship management platform purpose-built for delivering customer-facing solutions to any device or “thing,” on-premises or in the cloud. The firm has more than half a billion end users of its IRM solution in 30 countries.

June 24 – RedOwl Analytics, a Baltimore-based company that applies analytics to internal corporate data streams for risk mitigation, has raised $4.6 million in Series A funding. Backers include Marc Benioff, Igor Sill, Kevin Plank, Christian Lawless, Attractor Ventures, Propel Baltimore and TEDCO.

June 25 – WebPT a Phoenix-based provider of electronic medical records solutions for rehabilitation therapists, has raised an undisclosed amount of funding from Battery Ventures

June 26 Crunchbasedreported PaymentWorks, a B2B payments startup, raised $1.5 in funding.