Candex Raises VC To Help Businesses Pay For Gig Services With Blockchain

B2B payments startup Candex announced $3.5 million in new funding late last week.

A press release issued Friday (March 23) said Candex secured the funding from Edenred Capital Partners, Partech Ventures, Advisors.fund, Camp One Ventures, NFX, Tekton Ventures, Big Sur Ventures and angel investor Mark Goines.

California-based Candex said it will use the investment to focus on expansion and to secure Fortune 500 corporate customers.

Candex facilitates vendor payments for its corporate users that take advantage of gig economy services. The rise of the gig economy means companies can access a wide array of vendors, but an increasing volume of suppliers can lead to complications in the accounts payable department, the company explained, adding that the average large enterprise sees 90 percent of service vendors accounting for just 5 percent of overall spend. This can lead to the administrative costs associated with vendor management exceeding the cost of the vendor’s services.

“It is amazing how much time and effort gets wasted when a typical organization tries to work with small vendors,” said Jeremy Lappin, Candex co-founder and CEO, in a statement. “Candex brings the speed and ease of consumer payment apps to large businesses, leveraging a private blockchain to ensure compliance and massively streamline financial system records.”

The company’s solution enables businesses to create private eMarketplaces that let employees work with approved vendors and communicate via a chat interface. Candex supports procure-to-pay on the platform for transactions below $100,000 and manage documents and data associated with the transaction and vendor services.

“The Candex eMarketplace approach is a brilliant solution for the tail spend needs of today’s enterprise, and this financing is perfectly timed to enhance the company’s leadership position,” said Goines, who is also joining the company’s board of directors.

B2B payments is an increasingly attractive target for investors. Last week, another industry startup, Paymerang, announced $26 million in funding from Aldrich Capital Partners. Paymerang provides accounts payable services with a focus on digitizing supplier payments.