Flywire Pulls B2B Payments Back Into The Investor Spotlight

The biggest investment news of the week came on Thursday (July 26), when cross-border B2B payments company Flywire announced an impressive $100 million funding round. But it wasn’t the only – or even the largest – B2B startup to secure funding. In fact, the work-sharing industry unexpectedly took the lead this week, landing more than five times the amount of funding as Flywire. Plus, cybersecurity, B2B eCommerce, expense management, small business finance and other verticals took home new funding.

Flywire

Cross-border B2B payments company Flywire secured $100 million in funding this week, led by Temasek, while existing backers Bain Capital Ventures and F-Prime Capital Partners also participated. The Series D funding will be used to accelerate growth in North America, Europe and the Asia-Pacific region, the company announced, while it will also explore entering new markets that include Latin America, the Middle East and Africa. While announcing the funding, Flywire said it has so far processed more than $8 billion in payments for more than 400 corporate customers.

Awfis

India’s Awfis secured $20 million in Series C funding this week thanks to existing backer Sequoia Capital, as well as newcomer InnoVen Capital and The Three Sisters: Institutional Office, reports in YourStory said. Awfis, which provides co-working spaces for businesses, said it plans to use the investment to expand its existing network in India, as well as to develop and launch new services on its technology platform. In addition to linking businesses and startups to working spaces, Awfis’ app also provides add-on services that include accounting, payments, web services, legal and other B2B offerings.

WeWork

Work-sharing startups took a surprise lead this week thanks to WeWork Companies, a Chinese startup that landed the largest investment round of the week. The company announced $500 million in Series B funding led by Trustbridge Partners, Temasek, the SoftBank Group, the SoftBank Vision Fund and Hony Capital, according to a press release. WeWork said it will use its investment to focus on expansion throughout China. The company links businesses from freelancers to Fortune 500 companies to workspaces, as well as to physical and virtual B2B services. The funding follows last year’s $500 million funding that supported the development of WeWork China.

Divvy

Corporate expense management startup Divvy landed $35 million in Series B funding this week led by Insight Venture Partners. While a press release announcing the funding did not dive into how Divvy will use the investment, the company said it hopes to “continue its streak of rapid customer adoption and growth.” The company offers a web and mobile app for businesses to manage commercial cards used by employees, automate expense report generation and analyze spend. Its solution can be used to gain transparency into employee expenses as well as procurement spend, the company noted.

ScaleFactor

A fresh $10 million for ScaleFactor will help the small business financial software provider focus on marketing, business development and product development, the firm said this week. The Series A funding was led by Canaan Partners, while Broadhaven Capital Partners, Citi Ventures, Next Coast Ventures, Flyover Capital, Firebrand Ventures and angel investors also participated. ScaleFactor positions itself as a machine learning-powered SMB financial management solution. Its tool integrates with existing platforms like QuickBooks, while its features include payments, invoicing, budgeting and tax management.

Sokowatch

Africa’s B2B eCommerce market saw a boost when investors backed Kenya-based Sokowatch to the tune of $2 million. The seed funding, led by 4DX Ventures, will be used to bolster the platform, which connects retailers to suppliers both at home and abroad, reports said this week. The solution, which includes a mobile app, digitizes supply chain processes, including orders and payments. The funding, which also saw participation from Village Global, Lynett Capital, Golden Palm Investments and Outlierz Ventures, will go toward expansion across the continent and the piloting of new services. Sokowatch recently introduced a financing solution, linking businesses on the platform to a line of credit.

Outlier

Ridge Ventures led the $6.2 million Series A funding round for Outlier, a startup that provides data and business intelligence solutions. The firm developed its own platform to go beyond anomaly detection, providing insight to executives by identifying patterns in business data and highlighting several key, customized insights for users. Those insights can include information on marketing, product development and other functions of the enterprise, a press release said. The company will use the funding to focus on scaling to meet demand, expanding its staff level and continuing to develop its product using artificial intelligence.

Siemplify

Cybersecurity startup Siemplify operates in the S.O.A.R. space: security, orchestration, automation and response. The company’s platform attracted $14 million in Series B funding from investors this week, led by Jump Capital. G20 Ventures and 83North also participated, according to a press release. The company said it plans to use the funding to focus on investing in sales and marketing, product innovation and customer success. The Siemplify platform is used by firms’ existing security analysts to streamline management of an array of existing, disparate cybersecurity solutions.

Xage

Xage also works in the cybersecurity space, but deploys blockchain for its solution. The company raised $12 million in Series A funding led by March Capital Partners, while GE Ventures, City Light Capital and NexStar Partners also participated. Xage targets the Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT) space with its security technology. The firm said in a press release that it will use the investment to continue to develop its security fabric and infrastructure, add new staff to its technology team, and heighten implementation capabilities with a focus on an array of industries, including telecom, manufacturing, energy, utilities and building management.