Europe, Asia Pull Through With Big Funding

This week, investors in the U.S. were preoccupied with, well, other things, which probably accounts for the absence of U.S. B2B FinTech startups on this week’s list. But never fear: Europe and Asia pulled through with several rounds landing at alternative lending, eInvoicing and B2B eCommerce players.

The largest funding round was a blast from the past: a whopping $75 million landing at a company in India in an industry that saw most of its attention from venture capitalists last year — and which has been noticeably lacking in 2016. Find out what sector scored the dough below.

Alternative Lending

Arex

Arex, an invoice financing platform, swooped in first this week with $3.27 million in funding announced last Friday (Nov. 4). With its origins in Finland, Arex said it plans to expand into the U.K. next year as it looks to ease the cash flow burden of small and medium-sized enterprises. Reports said Finland-based Lifeline Ventures and U.K.-based LocalGlobe, along with other backers, led the funding round. Arex enables SME borrowers to set the discount rate at which they are willing to sell their invoices, reports explained, with a charge of 0.25 percent that goes to Arex for every invoice that is financed. “Arex is enabling both SMBs and the larger corporates who use us to instantly turn their unpaid invoices to cash,” said Cofounder Perttu Jalkanen.

Accounts Receivable

Motionsoft

With a focus on accounts receivable solutions for health and wellness organizations, Motionsoft announced a $6 million Series C investment round Tuesday (Nov. 8). The firm, which received the backing from existing investors, offers companies like health clubs and gyms a software system to manage their members and accounts receivable. With new funding, the company said it will look to develop a full-service solution next year centered around payments processing.

eInvoicing

Teamleader

Based in Belgium, Teamleader eases small businesses into the world of digitization, providing services to help these companies migrate to the virtual world of things like invoicing and CRM. Since its inception, Teamleader Cofounder and CEO Jeroen De Wit said that the firm has focused on a trend: “We noticed that our SME customers [of our original company] always ran into the same problems: managing their customer base, creating and sending offers to leads and the invoicing process,” he said in an interview with TechCrunch.

On Thursday (Nov. 10), the firm revealed nearly $11 million raised in venture capital. The Series B funding was led by Fortino Capital, reports said, and follows previous investments that have helped the company expand into the Netherlands, Germany and Spain.

B2B eCommerce & Logistics

Bizongo

B2B eProcurement marketplace Smartpaddle Technology revealed a $3 million investment for its Bizongo platform last Friday. The India-based company said the Series A funding was led by IDG Ventures and existing backer Accel Partners. Bizongo focuses on packaging materials and food containers, offering a digital platform for businesses to procure things like disposable food containers, boxes and bags. The company targets the food and hospitality, retailer, wholesale and other industries, reports said. According to Bizongo, the latest funding will be used to expand its supplier base and expand across India.

Rivigo

Announcing its biggest funding round to date (and the largest of the week), logistics company Rivigo, based in India, is reviving the nation’s logistics investment trend that blew up last year. The company said Monday (Nov. 7) that it secured $75 million from global private equity firm Warburg Pincus. The firm specializes in long-haul logistics and trucking, which Warburg Pincus Managing Director Viraj Sawhney said was the largest logistics segment in the country. “The company is delivering a fundamentally superior proposition for customers and truck drivers by deploying a unique operating model, enabled by the smart use of technology and analytics,” Sawhney said about the investment in Rivigo. The Series D round of funding will be used to scale up its offerings across the country, the firm’s founder and CEO, Deepak Garg, said.

Gfresh

With a focus on seafood, China’s Gfresh offers companies a way to procure food online. It may be a niche market, but it’s caught the attention of Alibaba Group Holding’s investment arm, as well as Legend Capital, which led the $15 million Series A funding to the cross-border B2B eCommerce company. Gfresh announced the investment round Tuesday, while also revealing that Alibaba Cofounder Simon Xie and Legend Capital Managing Partner Wang Wenlong are joining Gfresh’s board of directors. Further, Gfresh will collaborate with Alibaba’s Tmall for product sourcing and logistics, reports said. The company already services procurers in North America, Europe and Australia, reports noted, and already runs its own supply chain logistics units.