Today in B2B: Business Warrior Acquires SaaS FinTech Alchemy Technologies

Today in B2B payments, Locality Bank and Hurdlr get together on invoicing and income tracking while Business Warrior adds SaaS FinTech capabilities with Alchemy Technologies acquisition. Plus, outdated AP systems can crimp companies’ communication with their vendors and Middesk raises $57 million in a Series B funding round.

Digital FI Locality Bank, API Firm Hurdlr Team on Invoicing, Income Tracking

Digital-first community bank Locality Bank will work alongside Hurdlr, a business expense, invoicing and accounting application programming interface (API), to give businesses easier ways to invoice and track expenses and income.

The partnership will see the bank using its custom-built online platform for various integrations like the one with Hurdlr.

Raj Bhaskar, CEO and co-founder of Hurdlr, said the partnership would help advance the mission of making “important functionality for local businesses.”

Middesk Raises $57M Towards Business Identity Improvements

Identity platform Middesk, which works to automate business verification and underwriting, has raised $57 million in a Series B round to fund new products, scale its team and provide education on business identity.

Founded in 2019, the company is also working to address the difficulties involved in onboarding new customers. The solution Middesk provides offers the tools, data and documents needed by banks, insurers and other companies to help automate the onboarding process.

Business Warrior Buys SaaS FinTech Alchemy Technologies

Business Warrior, which offers small businesses marketing and lending services, has bought Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) FinTech Alchemy Technologies, a press release said, to add lending services and international reach.

Alchemy provides end-to-end cloud-native lending experiences intended for use by FinTechs, merchants and banks. The release noted that Alchemy services include personal loans, point of sale financing, health and beauty financing, construction loans, solar and home improvement financing and small business lending. Alchemy has customers in the U.S. and Puerto Rico, Mexico, United Arab Emirates, Australia and the U.K.

Alchemy will operate under its current name as a subsidiary of Business Warrior. The release said Alchemy Founder and CEO Timothy Li would be global head of technology with Business Warrior.

Businesses Cite Outdated AP Systems as Hampering Vendor Communications

Regardless of the actual volume of payables a company processes each month, organizations that lack the solutions and infrastructure to efficiently manage this aspect of their operations will soon run into obstacles that limit their growth, according to “High-Volume Accounts Payable,” a PYMNTS and Routable collaboration.

For this report, PYMNTS surveyed 204 finance executives in four industry segments that are coping with rising payments volumes and are under great pressure to handle more payments quicker: online marketplaces, virtual events management, gig economy and transportation, logistics and shipping.

Most of the companies surveyed said their growth will be limited if they are unable to sufficiently handle the increase in payments volume they are anticipating. Topping the list of 10 other challenges they are facing with their accounts payable (AP) systems is insufficient or inefficient communication with vendors or service providers, with 15% saying that is their most important challenge, and another 4% said it’s a challenge they’ve experienced, but not the most important one.