B2B FinTechs Diversify Investment Sources Into 2018

Analysts are expecting a lucrative year for FinTech companies in 2018. Reports in American Banker this week said new research from Statista estimates FinTechs in the U.S. alone will secure $4.7 billion from investors of all kind in the new year. Many targets for those investors have significant roles in B2B payments innovation, including blockchain, artificial intelligence (AI), bank technology and FinTechs collaborating with traditional financial institutions (FIs).

Venture capitalists will, of course, be a part of that trend, but FinTechs seem to be diversifying their financing sources these days, especially as initial coin offerings (ICOs) become more popular. This week’s B2B venture capital roundup — the last of the year — reflects this trend of investment in the space stemming from more than venture capital (VC) funds.

Payroll

Salarium
While Salarium is based in Singapore, the payroll and human resources (HR) company only provides services within the Philippines. Since launching, the company has integrated additional services into its offering, including an eWallet and debit Mastercard solution to facilitate payroll, remittances and timekeeping. This week the company offered new details on its ICO plans: Salarium said it aims to raise $20 million via the ICO of its SALPay token offered to current corporate customers. The cryptocurrency can then be used by those customers to facilitate payroll remittances.

B2B eCommerce

OfficeRock.com
Dubai-based OfficeRock.com offers an online platform through which companies can procure office goods. The company said this week it had raised new funding, though didn’t reveal how much it secured. Backers at Enabling Future, Wamda Capital, Jabbar Internet Group, WOMENA and Camac Partners, as well as a group of angel investors, all contributed to the funding round, which follows a $500,000 seed funding round last year. OfficeRock.com said the funds came at a time when it is planning for “explosive growth,” with a goal of streamlining office supply procurement in what it considers to be a fragmented market. The company also said it is looking to create a procurement software solution to further streamline eProcurement processes for its customers.

SMB Lending

Lendingkart
India’s Lendingkart has made several appearances on the B2B venture capital roundup list this year, having secured more than $10 million in debt financing from several backers in August. This week, the company appears yet again with an additional $3.8 million in debt funding provided by the State Bank of India, which Lendingkart said will go towards its own loan book. The alternative small business lender also said it will expand into new geographic markets within India with the latest support. In a statement, Lendingkart founder and CEO Harshvardhan Lunia said RBI plays “a critical role in shaping India’s financial landscape.”

Treasury Management

IBSFintech
A $4 million Series A round would help IBSFintech expand from its home base of India into new markets across Southeast Asia and the Middle East, reports in the Economic Times of India said, though the firm hasn’t secured the funding just yet. The company provides treasury management solutions to corporate customers and secured seed funding earlier this year, though declined to reveal how much.

Open Source

NodeSource
NodeSource announced this week it raised $17.5 million in Series B venture capital to expand its open source technology and services for enterprise customers. The firm’s Series B funding was provided by Silicon Valley Bank, Industry Ventures and other existing investors, including Crosslink Capital and RRE Ventures. The investment round was the largest secured this week, and NodeSource said it will use the investment to expand its engineering, support and go-to-market teams. The company provides support for companies to adopt and scale Node.js for businesses that use key enterprise apps that run on JavaScript.