B2B Startups Land Funding For Risk Mitigation Tech

This week’s B2B Venture Capital roundup saw more than $76 million in new funding. And while investors targeted an accounts payable payments startup as well as another platform designed to help other startups understand their equity, a common theme this week was investment in risk mitigation capabilities.

That may be due to the pandemic, which has elevated both financial and cyber risks for organizations throughout the supply chain. Below, PYMNTS rounds up the latest funding news in the world of B2B.

Detected

Ireland’s Detected has raised about $327,000 in pre-seed funding, reports in UKTN said this week. The company operates a business verification platform allowing corporate customers, including B2B buyers and suppliers, to verify their business partners and mitigate risk. Detected operates a platform that uses data points to confirm a business’s identity, location and other metrics that are continually updated.

The startup, which raised the funding from angel investors including Southern Water Managing Director Rob Barnett, EV Cargo CEO Craig Sears-Black and Lyre’s Spirit Co. CEO Carl Hartmann, was founded amid the pandemic as supply chain risks skyrocketed.

“Detected delivers a pragmatic, quality solution to a real business issue,” Barnett stated.

Pulley

This startup connects founder and employees to a solution that can help them understand their equity. Pulley recently raised $10 million in Series A funding, Crunchbase reported this week, with payments technology company Stripe leading the investment. Its cap table management solution targets startups to offer investor information and maintain ownership records.

“Traditionally, a company might go public within a few years,” company Founder Yin Wu told the publication. “But now companies are waiting 10 years, and the valuation is bigger and the equity needs are more complex.”

Pulley plans to use the investment, which also saw participation from Caffeinated Capital, General Catalyst and 8VC, as well as angel investors, to accelerate new hiring and invest in product development.

Unit21

Unit21, a San Francisco company that connects risk and compliance teams to technology, has announced a $13 million investment round led by A.Capital Ventures. Other investors included Gradient Ventures, Core VC, South Park Commons, and others, with Unit21 noting it will use the investment for growth of its product and distribution management team, as well as on sales and marketing and to launch in new industries.

The company highlighted the $8.14 billion that organizations have paid in 2019 in anti-money laundering (AML) fines, noting today’s high demands for tailored risk and compliance management strategies.

“To counter an increasing array of sophisticated fraud vectors that have gone mainstream, risk and compliance teams must build custom detection logic and risk models of dizzying complexity,” said A.Capital General Partner Ramu Arunachalam in a statement. “But now with Unit21, these teams can codify powerful, custom rules on a flexible and easy to use no-code/low-code platform.”

Finexio

The $23 million in new funding for Finexio, an accounts payable and B2B payments platform, will help the company focus on further optimizing the last mile of corporate AP payments, the company said in its announcement this week. Led by Medalist Partners, the growth investment also included funding from Florida Funders, Post Road Partners and other investors.

In a statement, Finexio CEO Ernest Rolfson said the funding “represents a critical milestone” for the firm, and will help the company reach new customers “just as CFOs are seeking cost reductions and greater automation in the face of margin compression and cash flow challenges due in part to COVID.”

In addition to the investment, Finexio is partnering with Medalist to integrate a supply chain financing solution within its AP payments platform. The tool will target the middle market and connect small and medium-sized businesses to liquidity, the company said.

4iQ

Cyber intelligence startup 4iQ raised $30 million in Series C funding, the company announced this week. ForgePoint Capital and Benhamou Global Ventures led the investment, while C5 Capital, Adara Ventures and TheVentureCity also participated. A press release said 4iQ will use the investment to fuel go-to-market initiatives and invest in product innovation.

The company, which recently appointed Kailash Ambwani as its new CEO, connects business customers to cyber intelligence solutions to manage and mitigate digital risk, including fraud and money laundering.