A Quiet VC Week Eyes B2B Payments, SMB Banking Funding

This week’s B2B FinTech venture capital roundup is dominated by smaller funding rounds totaling less than $100 million in collective fundraising. While it was a relatively quiet week, investors showed interest in FinTechs focused on elevating B2B payment and small- to medium-sized business (SMB) banking capabilities.

Numida

Based in Uganda, Numida provides a range of digital banking and financing services for
SMBs across eastern Africa. The company announced a $2.3 million seed round led by MFS Africa, with DRK Foundation, Equilibria Capital and Segal Family Foundation, as well as angel investors, also participating. The company focuses on connecting SMBs to capital by enhancing the ability to access financial data of the business. It has developed a proprietary credit score to connect SMBs to unsecured working capital loans. Reports did not reveal what Numida plans to do with the funding

Wage

Open banking has unleashed the opportunity for customers to retain ownership of their bank data and share it with third parties. Wage, an infrastructure software startup, is taking that model to the payroll space with technology that unlocks payroll data for third parties, too. The company announced a $5 million funding round. Google’s artificial intelligence (AI)-focused venture fund, Gradient Ventures, led the funding, while 8VC, Pear Ventures, Bloomberg Beta, CoFound Partners, and executives from SoFi, Public, Zillow and Affirm also participated. Wage did not detail what it plans to do with the new funding.

OpenEnvoy

Targeting supplier and invoice fraud, OpenEnvoy offers a suite of robotic process automation (RPA) tools to automate invoice auditing. Investors impressed with the technology have placed an oversubscribed $6.5 million seed round, with funding led by Riot Ventures. RRE, Gokul Rajaram, Naval Ravikant, Firebolt, Coelius Capital, Hack VC, Uncorrelated and TNT Ventures also participated. The new funding will fuel the company’s growth trajectory, with a focus on freight, media and other industries operating with a high volume of suppliers, B2B invoices and contracts.

M1xchange

Based in India, M1xchange announced a $10 million funding round led by Amazon, while BEENEXT and Mayfield also participated. M1xchange holds one of three Trade Receivables Discounting System (TReDS) licenses issued by India’s RBI, allowing the company to facilitate receivables financing for suppliers on the government run-exchange. The company said it plans to use the latest funding to expand into new markets in India.

Hatch

U.S.-based Hatch has announced its formal debut on the market with an SMB checking product alongside a $20 million fundraise from Kleiner Perkins, Foundation Capital and others. The neobank connects SMBs to a checking account and debit card product and offers financing products, with banking services provided by LendingClub Bank.

Orum

U.S.-based FinTech Orum operates technology that can accelerate ACH bank transfers from five days to one day, while elevating the volume of data that can move alongside money. Investors placed $21 million in Series A funding with the company, led by Bain Capital. Inspired Capital, Homebrew, Acrew, Primary, Clocktower, Box Group, Amex Ventures and SVB Capital also participated. The company, which also operates a solution that optimizes the routing of funds across various payment rails, is focusing on growth through integrating its technology with banking partners.

Routable

B2B payments FinTech startup Routable announced a $30 million Series B fundraise, led by Sam Altman, CEO of Open AI and former president of Y Combinator, and Jack Altman, CEO of Lattice. Flexport and a range of angel investors also participated. Targeting middle market businesses that need to send a high volume of B2B payments, Routable said it will use the funding to focus on growing its team and expanding into the larger enterprise customer segment.