Fluent Grabs Seed Funding For Blockchain B2B Network

Fluent has just become the latest startup to suggest that venture capitalists are banking on the blockchain. The B2B payments company, which provides businesses and financial services players with a blockchain-based suite of tools for global commerce and trade, announced on Tuesday (May 10) its latest round of funding.

Seed funding for Fluent hit $1.65 million, the company revealed, and saw participation from ff Venture Capital, Digital Currency Group, Crosscut Ventures, Draper Associates and several others.

Following last year’s pre-seed funding, the seed investment brings the total raised for Fluent to $2.5 million, according to reports.

In a statement provided to PYMNTS, Commerce Bancshares Vice President of Commercial Systems and Product Innovation Chris Wiedenmann said the funding is a sign of strength of the team behind the product.

“Commerce is keenly focused on innovation in the payment space and has, for some time now, provided customers with a comprehensive suite of highly competitive and often industry-tailored products and technologies,” the executive said. “We respect the Fluent team’s unique capabilities. They are able to blend their innovative technologies with exceptional knowledge of the intricacies of banking. It is a skill set that should serve them well as the rate of change in payments continues to accelerate.”

Fluent offers cross-border payments solutions, as well as supply chain finance and peer-to-peer working capital, via an online marketplace. In a statement, ff Venture Capital Partner John Frankel highlighted the diversity of Fluent’s offerings.

“Fluent is offering a robust solution — backed by an exceptional team — to help businesses better manage credit in their supply chain,” he said. “Fluent is harnessing the underlying technology in cryptocurrency to enable pain-free supply chain financing. This is a space we have been interested in for some time and excited to see such a talented team take a novel approach to reducing friction in global supply chain commerce.”