Brex is leading a B2B Gold Rush
After Years of Underinvesting VCs now LOVE B2B
Having been in B2B for more than a few years, I always got frustrated telling everyone how big the market is…..and it is literally in the Trillions. (with a T). Credit Suisse’s excellent Payments report of January 2020 put it at $125 Trillion.
Well that all seemed to change recently (not clear exactly when) as now everyone is loving the CFO Stack or the B2B Payments Stack or…..call it what you want but acknowledge it is HOT !
Here is my own B2B payments stack and there are others but if you built a company in any part of this, odds are you would be doing your own Scrooge McDuck Gold Dive right now.
Melio
I follow this space pretty closely but I had honestly not heard of Melio. Well no idea how I missed one of the unicorns (hate that word) in the space I follow. But that gives you an idea of how much activity there is in B2B. On my framework they are hitting the Procure to Pay and Invoice to Cash.
Founded: in 2018
How Much raised: $256 million to date
Who Wrote Checks: Accel, Aleph, Bessemer, Salesforce and AMEX Ventures
Valuation: $1.3 Billion
What they do:
“We are an accounts payable and accounts receivable tool to enable them to pay any vendors and also let them get paid by business customers,” Melio co-founder and CEO Matan Bar told Crunchbase News.
HighRadius
HighRadius is one that I do know and have followed. They interestingly combine AR Automation and Treasury ignoring the AP side of the accounting equation. Which is actually most common, companies tend to do either AR or AP but more often as noted on Melio above, they are doing both sides of the cash management balance sheet. Full disclosure they are more AI focused than I realized previously.
Founded: in 2006
How Much raised: $475 million to date
Who Wrote Checks: Tiger Global D1 Capital ICONIQ and Susquehanna Growth
Valuation: $3.1 Billion
What they do:
“Through embedded analytics and artificial intelligence, HighRadius aims to support chief financial officers through accounts receivable and treasury automation, working capital optimization and cash forecasting.” PYMNTS
iBanFirst
I include iBanFirst for two reasons, first they offer a very high value service for international payments and secondly as a European B2B payments company to show the buzz around B2B is not only a US phenomenon.
Less well known than others mainly as they cover an important niche but a niche. iBanFirst decided to tackle the complexity of cross border multi currency payments. They deliver with a real time tracker of these high value complex payments. Headquartered in Belgium with operations in France and across Europe, iBanFirst has over 4,000 customers across Europe.
Founded: in 2013
How Much raised: Euros 52.2 million to date
Who Wrote Checks: NJJ Capital, Serena, Breega Capital, bpiFrance and Elaia
Valuation: In a very Euro VC thing, they don’t publish their valuation.
What they do:
“iBanFirst provides a specialist online platform for multi currency transactions. As an alternative to the traditional bank offer, iBanFirst enables a payment experience and package of financial services addressing the needs of SMEs in their daily operations..” iBanFirst Blog
Brex
Hard to write about B2B funding hotness and ignore Brex. I have to admit after Brex came out with a business credit card, I yawned. BUT their brilliance was in the lack of friction in getting the account setup. Now, they have taken it to the next level as they look to be any new or growing business’s bank of choice. No Fees, No Friction…..etc. basically the anti-bank which is a very strong position to take.
Founded: in 2017 (the newest and most valuable of the bunch)
How Much raised: $500 million to date
Who Wrote Checks: Tiger Global, TCV, Madrone Capital Partners, Ribbit Capital DST Global among many others.
Valuation: $7.4 Billion
What they do:
“All-in-one finance for every business.” Get a business account, credit cards, spend management, and peace of mind. All in one.” — Brex Website Header
Others (non exhaustive list)
- Routable raised $30M from the Altman brothers (Y Combinator guy and his bro) to automate both AR and AP.
- Auditoria raised $15.5M in a series A led by Venrock to automate finance and cashflow projections.
- Veryfi raised a $12M series A to help companies with unstructured data like invoices and receipts become data points.
- Ramp (tryramp) raised $115M in a series B valuing the company at $1.6 billion for their Corporate Card and Spend Management platform.
- Pilot, I heard about Pilot from the 20 Minute VC podcast as they are a sponsor. Pilot wants SMBs to have Big Co superpowers. They have raised $120M to date and have investors including Sequoia Capital and Stripe.
Well I have not run out of B2B payments companies to write about, I have run out of time. There are many more and I may cover them in the coming weeks as there appears to be no end in site for B2B love from VCs.
