From $250 million for Tradeshift to a $2 million pre-Series A funding round, VC activity in the B2B space was varied in scope and size. The themes? Global expansion and using tech to make traditional B2B processes (and materials) a bit more streamlined and modern.
Venture capital activity within the B2B realm saw a few large deals, and a subset of smaller ones.
The dominant headline of the week came as Tradeshift, which serves supply chains with a focus on payments and marketplaces, said that it had raised $250 million in a Series E funding round that was led by Goldman Sachs and Public Sector Pension Investment Board (PSP Investments). Additional participation came from a series of investors that included HSBC and Gray Swan, among others.
The company said that the latest funding brings total activity to a cumulative $400 million, at a valuation of $1.1 billion.
The capital raised will be used for what Tradeshift termed “core strategic initiatives” with an eye on global expansion into Europe and Asia, and growth in transaction volumes. Additional key initiatives will include investments into blockchain and artificial intelligence through the company’s Frontiers division, which debuted in January 2018.
Signifyd, which offers fraud protection for eCommerce firms, said it had secured $100 million via a Series D round that was led by Premji Invest. The financing round gives the company a $400 million valuation, reported Bloomberg. Existing investors included Bain Capital Ventures and American Express Ventures, among others.
The company will double its staffing levels to about 320, said the newswire. The funding will also be slated toward global enterprise and omnichannel retailers. The premise of the company’s shared intelligence is one that helps to reduce false positives.
Construction equipment supplier Emagispace, which bills itself as a “building block technology company,” said that it raised a bit more than $5 million in Series B funding, where that round was led by Alpha Edison. The company makes reusable building platforms that can be deployed quickly. The funding, said Emagispace, will boost its EmagiKit offerings geared toward the workspace.
Separately, LifeSight, which uses machine learning algorithms and data sets to examine consumer behavior (offline) and deploys offerings across brands and retailers, said that it raised $2 million in a pre-Series A funding round from Provident Capital Partners. The company has said the funding will be used to expand engineering, data science, data management and other capabilities in India, and new Asian markets will be targeted over the next two years.
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