The B2B Well Dries Up Quick For VCs

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Q1 may be known for sluggish venture capital, but with the quarter quickly wrapping up, B2B startups aren’t entirely left in the dark. This week, a steady trickle of funding amounted to about $18 million.

It all streamed in early on in the week, and, come Wednesday (March 30), the B2B venture capital space went radio silent. Find out the small business finance, alternative lending, SaaS and data analytics startups that managed to squeeze in support before investors closed their wallets.

 

Corporate Finance

Veritas Finance

India-based alternative lender Veritas scored about $4.7 million in funding from Sarva Capital, reports said Monday (March 28), kicking off a slow but steady week for B2B venture capital.

According to Veritas, its goal is to fill a massive gap in India’s small business financing space; the company says 97 percent of the debt gap exists among micro and small businesses. Veritas said it plans to use the new funding to expand the number of branches it operates from 12 to 35 across India and to heighten the number of small business customers it serves from its existing 200 clients to 5,000 by next year.

Wave

Up in Canada, investors closed a Series C funding round for Wave, reports said Tuesday (March 29). The startup provides small businesses with online financial tools, and with $6.7 million in new funding from BDC Capital, Wave has how raised a total of more than $22 million.

“Wave is looking to solve a key pain point of small business owners by providing a real-time view — in a single place — of their company’s financial data,” said BDC Capital IT Venture Fund Partner Peter Misek.

“Innovation in financial services is the company’s next focus,” he continued in a statement. “No small business wants to go into a branch for a loan or payments. Wave allows entrepreneurs to focus on running their business by offering them more convenient payment and lending solutions.”

 

Software-as-a-Service

Lesson.ly

Employee training software caught the eyes (and wallets) of venture capitalists this week when reports on Tuesday revealed a $5 million Series A investment round for Lesson.ly, which provides businesses with employee training software.

According to the startup, the funding was led by OpenView Venture Partners but also saw participation from High Alpha Capital and Allos Ventures, the latter of which had already provided $1.1 million to Lesson.ly at an earlier date.

Reports highlighted OpenView’s participation in the funding, however, as the company reiterated its focus on B2B software startups. The company plans to make investments of between $5 million and $20 million to this segment. Lesson.ly is on par with this segment as a company that helps businesses manage their workforce, from employee onboarding to sales and customer training programs.

 

Data Analytics

Pyze 

Data analytics startup Pyze is banking on the adoption of mobile solutions among business owners with its Pyze Growth Intelligence solution, an app that helps businesses assess their growth and performance. With $1.7 million in seed funding provided to the company, announced Tuesday, Pyze is now out of stealth mode.

According to reports, backers included DoubleRock and a host of other angel investors. Key to the startup’s value proposition is that company owners can download the app for free, whereas rival solutions, like Yahoo’s Flurry and Localytics, can cost a business thousands of dollars on a monthly basis.

Pyze links companies to data analytics in areas like customer growth, marketing, behavior analytics, key business metrics and predictive stats, all geared towards mobile app publishers that want to attract new users.