B2B Payment Funding Down — But Not Out

Venture capital, private equity, seed and angel funding have been in the doldrums this summer, but there has been activity in the B2B payments space. According to Crunchbase, 10% of the top 100 most recent transactions were in the B2B FinTech space.

PYMNTS has identified trends in several key sectors of the economy.

Information Technology

In IT, there is a trend to solve numerous issues including the fact that hardware often lags behind software as a service, by providing hardware as a service.

An example is Berlin-based FinTech topi, which raised $45 million in a second equity investment round for its platform that enables merchants to offer computers, monitors, smartphones, printers and other products to their business customers on a subscription basis. “The as-a-service models that have long been established for software will also become the standard for hardware,” topi founders Estelle Merle and Charlotte Pallua said.

“Our subscription platform will ensure businesses’ liquidity is protected, while employees never have to work with outdated equipment again.”

This investment round comes about eight months after the startup’s pre-seed funding round, which raised $4.5 million. As PYMNTS reported at the time, topi aims to become an international enabler of frictionless payments for B2B companies.

Read more: Berlin’s B2B Payments Startup topi Raises $4.5M Pre-Seed Funding

While announcing the new funding, topi also reported that German electronics retailer Gravis has partnered with the FinTech to expand the retailer’s offering of Hardware-as-a-Service following a successful pilot program.

Read more: Topi Raises $45M to Support Growing Hardware-as-a-Service Trend

Agriculture

 The ag sector is the most ancient and thus has perhaps the greatest inertia in modernizing its payments infrastructure. However, innovators are disrupting this longstanding status quo. Recent fundings include:

• Tridge — $114 million Series D —Tridge’s online trade platform pairs global food agriculture buyers and sellers.
• Produze — $2.6 million seed round —Produze links farmers to worldwide merchants, allowing for direct sales.

Other

• Finix Payments — $30 million series B —Finix Payments is a FinTech company that develops a payment processing platform for businesses.
• Nitra — $16 million seed round —Nitra brings all-in-one finance to the traditional industries of America.
• iPid — $3.3 million —International Payments Identity(IPiD) is an international payments addressing platform for cross border payments.

Transportation

The transportation industry not only accounts for a significant share of GDP, but it also moves virtually every tangible good and is instrumental in services as well. It has been another laggard in digitization and automation of payments. Thus, it is fertile ground for innovation and disruption and is attracting funding. An example is AtoB, which recently raised $155 million in a Series B round.

Africa and India 

B2B payments platforms and marketplaces in India and Africa are attracting funding, a sign that despite the generally depressed investment environment, the space has promise that transcends general bearishness.

B2B Payments Firm Duplo Raises $4.3M

Nigerian payments company Duplo has raised $4.3 million in seed funding to launch new products and expand.

Duplo has raised a total of $5.6 million to date, including the $1.3 million the company picked up in February.

Read more: Nigerian B2B Payments Startup Duplo Raises $1.3M

Angel Round Helps B2B Platform Soptle Expand Across India

B2B retail eCommerce platform Soptle has raised an undisclosed amount in an angel round, with the funding helping to grow its team, product capabilities and distribution network across India. “We have a unique distribution approach to building India’s largest [fast-moving consumer goods (FMCG)] distribution SaaS platform that activates critical connections between FMCG manufacturers and distributors/wholesale as well as retailers,” Soptle Founder and CEO Pravas Chandragiri told BW Disrupt.

Read more: Report: Angel Round Helps B2B Platform Soptle Expand Across India

Other recent fundings in India include:

• Solv, which operates an online B2B marketplace focusing on small- to midsize businesses (SMBs) in India, raised $40 million in a Series A funding round.

Solv enables SMBs to trade in categories such as grocery, consumer goods, apparel, electronics and accessories, home furnishings and footwear.

Read more: B2B Marketplace Solv Raises $40M for Indian Expansion, BNPL

• ApnaKlub, a B2B wholesale platform that also works with fast-moving consumer goods (FMCG), raised $10 million to increase its credit and supply chain financing, cater more to kiranas (small grocery stores) and wholesale partners and expand to other parts of India.

Some of the things ApnaKlub offers include aggregation, transport, and inventory handling, along with a delivery service that delivers products directly at predetermined prices.

See also: ApnaKlub Raises $10M Towards B2B Wholesale Platform Improvements