Today in B2B Payments: 3 B2B Platforms Raise Money to Support Growth

Today in B2B payments, Nigeria’s Duplo, Germany’s topi and India’s Soptle announce their receipt of new funding to support the growth of their B2B platforms. Plus, TradeLens delivers the first electronic bill of lading transaction in Europe, while Freshly adds a B2B arm to deliver ready-to-eat meals for organizations.

B2B Payments Firm Duplo Raises $4.3M in Seed Funding

Nigerian payments company Duplo has raised $4.3 million in seed funding to launch new products and expand into new business verticals in Nigeria. While Duplo started out in the payments digitization space, the startup has branched out into the lending business thanks to its B2B buy now, pay later (BNPL) solution.

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

Berlin-based FinTech topi has 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 Co-Founders Estelle Merle and Charlotte Pallua said.

Report: 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, increase product capabilities and expand its 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 said.

Italy’s Bucci Line Deploys TradeLens, Sends Europe’s First Electronic Bill of Lading

Shipping company Roberto Bucci has selected TradeLens for the first electronic bill of lading (eBL) transaction in Europe. The TradeLens eBL, underpinned by blockchain, will fully digitize and streamline the bill of lading process, eliminating frictions and reducing costs.

Freshly Adds B2B Arm to Help Organizations Offer Prepared Meals

Prepared meal delivery service company Freshly has added a B2B arm that will provide ready-to-eat meals to organizations that want to feed people at scale. The new offering called FreshlyWell aims to serve employers, healthcare systems, universities, senior living facilities, hospitality organizations and others that want to provide employees or members with meals on-site or delivered to their homes with discounts or subsidies.

Santander Taps Trovata for Cash Management

Spain-based commercial bank Banco Santander has tapped Trovata for its cash management solution. Through the partnership, Santander will market Trovata’s cash management platform to its banking clients as a way to modernize treasury workflows through data-driven automation. The companies plan to collaborate to continuously improve cash visibility and cash flow insights to help their large corporate clients make better and faster business decisions.

Unique Carpets Ltd. on the Ideal B2B Cross-Border Payments Partner

Bob Binford, executive vice president at Unique Carpets Ltd., told PYMNTS in an interview that three qualities stood out as the most important when it came to selecting a B2B cross-border payments partner: simplicity and ease, safety and security, and a solution-oriented mindset. “Put simply, we need to pay our suppliers on time and efficiently,” Binford said.

Letters of Credit Give Way to ePayments Tech for Cross-Border Trade

While letters of credit are still commonly used, providers of ePayment services are changing how the process works for both suppliers and buyers. Using these services can connect buyers to suppliers in emerging markets that weren’t attainable because of the difficulty of establishing a relationship with a local bank — not to mention maintaining multiple accounts abroad with funds in foreign currencies.

For all PYMNTS B2B coverage, subscribe to the daily B2B Newsletter.