It was a short week in the U.S., but venture capital, private equity and seed investors continued to go long in the B2B payments space. PYMNTS recaps recent funding events in the sector and links them to trends in several key sectors of the economy.
Healthcare
Healthcare accounts for nearly 20% of GDP and has been a laggard in B2B payments automation. Thus the sector continues to attract disruptive startups.
Virtual primary care became extremely popular during the pandemic. While that trend has lost momentum, the modality has persisted during the recovery and is still attracting capital.
For example, virtual primary care startup 98point6 raised $20 million in a funding round.
Read more: Telehealth 98point6 Secures $20M, Signs First Tech Licensing Deal
The funding was backed by existing investors the Growth Fund of L Catterton and Activant Capital.
Headquartered in Seattle and co-founded in 2015 by CEO and Chairman Jeff Greenstein, Robbie Cape, and Gordon Cohen, 98point6 is striving to pioneer an innovative approach to primary care by pairing deep technology with the expertise of board-certified physicians.
Invoicing and Payments
PYMNTS has reported that accounts receivable (AR) automation could play a critical role in shortening payments delays, minimizing AR errors, and reducing days sales outstanding (DSO).
Automating invoicing and payments is a major trend attracting capital.
See also: Deep Dive: AR Automation and Overcoming the Challenges That Can Prevent Successful Implementation
For example, B2B invoicing and payments platform Chargezoom has raised $10 million in Series A funding to continue its product expansion and double the size of its staff by the end of the year.
Read more: Chargezoom Raises $10M to Grow AR Automation Solution
“We are grateful to work with investors who share our vision of redefining B2B payments,” Chargezoom CEO Matt Dubois said, “We plan to double-down customer-focused development efforts, creating tools that modern businesses need to reduce payment friction and accelerate their growth.”
Chargezoom integrates with common accounting applications like QuickBooks, FreshBooks and Xero, and provides tools that allow businesses to collect payments faster with full generally accepted account principles (GAAP) compliance and without the need for manual accounting tasks, according to the press release.
Read more: Billing Platform Chargezoom Offers FreshBooks Integration
The company has partnered with Fortune 500 payment service providers and most of the top 20 merchant acquirers in the United States, per the release, powering transactions directly and through these partners’ white-label solutions.
B2B Procurement
Eezee, a Singaporean procurement startup, has raised $7.5 million in a Series A round, which will go toward growing its team and developing new B2B online procurement product features.
The Eezee digital procurement platform lets businesses shop and search for products like office stationery, safety equipment and industrial supplies. Streamlining the procurement process has been touted by the company as a way for businesses to save time and money.
Read more: B2B Procurement Platform Eezee Raises $7.5M in Series A
The funding round was led by Ayala Corporate Technology Innovation Venture Fund (ACTIVE Fund), one of the top corporate venture capital firms, the report stated. There was also participation from previous investors Insignia Ventures, Wavemaker Partners, January Capital, HH Investments and several business angels.
Finance Automation
Finance automation platform Mesh Payments has raised $60 million in new funding and will use it to expand its go-to-market (GTM) efforts and continue its product innovation.
Read more: Mesh Payments Raises $60M to Expand Finance Automation Platform
The Mesh platform helps finance teams automate, control, and optimize their corporate spend. It integrates with NetSuite to reduce the need for manual data entry and enables numberless Visa physical cards that sync with virtual cards to give finance teams more flexibility and control.
“The confidence in Mesh from investors and customers, even in a turbulent market, reinforces that our finance automation platform is what companies want to help them navigate a cost-cutting environment,” Mesh Payments Co-Founder and CEO Oded Zehavi said.
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