B2B Investment Tracker, Aug. 21-28

According to some market analysts, there is a venture capitalist drought. Reports from the Los Angeles Times on Thursday (Aug. 27) said that an unstable market is likely to hamper the ability of tech startups from raising venture capital, while a volatile stock market is likely to mean more delays for IPOs.

This past week, however, VCs from across the globe didn’t seem too sheepish about funding B2B startups. It was by no means a record week of funding, but investors still provided nearly $60 million to startups, with action hitting Canada, India, Japan, and (despite a skittish market) the U.S.

The Breakdown

eProcurement: $3M
FinServ: $30M+
B2B Marketing: $1.5M
Alternative Lending: $6M
VC Fund: $23M

The week began with Canadian eProcurement firm Cortex revealing a $3 million investment in the company through a private placement deal. According to reports, the underwriters, led by Cormark Securities, have agreed to purchase 1.5 million shares in a deal expected to close early next month.

Venture capitalists in India are gearing up for more focus on the B2B technology startup community. Over the weekend VC Circle reported that Unicorn India Ventures has just launched a new startup fund worth $23 million, with more funds expected to funnel in next month. According to co-founder and partner Bhaskar Majumdar, Unicorn wants about 30 companies in its portfolio, and will focus its investments in the B2B cloud, SaaS and Big Data analytics services space. “We will have a substantial B2B play,” he told the publication, “which is not the flavor of the month now but it has a good story.”

On Monday (Aug. 24), Japan-based Freee revealed a $30 million Series C fundraising round led by DCM, Recruit Holdings and Japan Co-Invest Limited Partnership. Freee provides small- and medium-sized businesses with automated back-end money management services like payroll and accounting. With the new funds, Freee said it will be working to adopt its SaaS platform to comply with incoming tax rules in Japan, and will also focus on expanding its customer base.

Accounting services got another boost Monday when Australian startup Accodex revealed its $180,000 fundraising round. The company provides a platform for freelance accountants that need back-end support while they provide financial services to other businesses. According to reports, Accodex saw investments from Venture Catalysts’ Harry Schiff, among others in the U.S. and Australia.

Key to Accodex’s success? The startup actually operates within fellow B2B accounting services firm Xero’s cloud. It’s actually less of a competitive play than one might think, said co-founder Chris Hooper in a recent interview with Startup Smart. “The reality is we have a good relationship with them,” Hooper said. “We’re totally complementary. We solve a big problem for Xero and vice versa.” The startup just opened an office in the U.S. last month, reports said.

B2B marketing servicer CB Insights also announced Monday a $1.15 million investment from the National Science Foundation, five years after its official launch. According to reports, the company, which provides a database of real-time information on businesses and their partners, will use this funding to expand its product. CB Insights is gearing up to launch the CB Insights for Sales service, another tool that automates customer discovery for B2B firms through Big Data analytics. In an interview, co-founder and former American Express executive Anand Sanwal said that the start of CB Insights was to take advantage of machine learning and Big Data aggregation to become “the Bloomberg for private markets.”

The next day (Tuesday, Aug. 25), alternative lending saw a VC bump when U.S.-based Able revealed a $6 million Series A funding round, spearheaded by Blumberg Capital and RPM Ventures, among others. Able describes itself as the “world’s first collaborative lender,” providing small businesses with access to working capital through Able’s unique underwriting process. The company distributes underwriting among peers, the company said, to mitigate risk and price loans. This means SMEs recruit some of their own backers, like friends and family, to fund 25 percent of the loan. “If your friends, family and fans believe in you, then we do too,” said Evan Baehr, Able co-founder, in a statement.

An Unsettled Market

While analysts believe that VCs are likely to be more conservative with their investments thanks to market instability in the U.S., this week saw a slew of financial teeter-tottering – most notably with China’s stock market plummet that reverberated across the globe. But according to reports, fall is generally a time in which corporate investment heats up – how much the economic climate will put a damper on that action in the B2B startup space, however, is unclear – we’ll just have to wait and see.