APAC, North America Shine Through With B2B Funding

A week of more than $200 million for B2B FinTech firms across the globe shows that venture capitalists’ support for the space continues. Asia-Pacific and North American startups took the lead this week, with funding going to small business (SMB) accounting, payroll, B2B eCommerce and cybersecurity firms — just to name a few. Take a look below at the full list of B2B startups that secured new funding this week.

ShopX

Headquartered in India, B2B eCommerce platform ShopX nabbed $35 million from backers at Fung Holdings, reports in VCCiRCLE said this week. With a focus on small retailers, ShopX offers online commerce and supply chain management services with support for mobile access to its services. The company operates primarily in the food and groceries, digital services and electronics space. ShopX said it will use the funding to focus on product investment and development of new services for small retailers, and to expand geographically. According to reports, it’s the first time ShopX secured funding from someone other than Infosys Co-founder Nandan Nilekani, who has provided more than $19 million to the firm.

freee

Small business accounting firm freee, based in Japan, announced a $60 million Series E funding round this week, said reports. With plans to expand its service offering for corporate customers, freee provides cloud-based accounting and human resources (HR) management solutions. The company says it services more than 1 million business accounts and works with more than 5,000 certified accountant advisors for its corporate customers. In addition to financial management solutions, freee is also focused on supporting integration with businesses’ existing tools. According to reports, the company says it can integrate with more than 3,500 existing apps and services. With interoperability in mind, freee plans to build an API ecosystem to support even more integrations.

Skippr

Australia’s financial services industry is at a crossroads as regulators crack down on unfair practices, particularly against small businesses. Recent criticism against alternative SMB lender Prospa led the company to nix its IPO plans. Despite the alternative finance market’s struggles, investors have backed Skippr to the tune of $11.8 million in debt and equity financing. SocietyOne and Douugh Co-founder Andy Taylor led the funding, said reports in the Australian Financial Review. Skippr’s solutions include invoice financing combined with cash flow management solutions, offering interest rates between 14 percent and 15 percent. Skippr said it plans to continue focusing on growth so it can finance more small firms.

HYAS

With a big-name backer like Microsoft, Canada’s HYAS plans to take its new funding to continue focusing on providing businesses with cybersecurity solutions. The company positions itself as a firm that can not only identify and mitigate security threats, but expose the humans behind those cyberattacks. This week, the company revealed $6.2 million in Series A funding, raised by Microsoft’s M12 venture fund, while other venture capitalists and cybersecurity experts also participated in the investment.

Stampli

California’s Stampli offers businesses an invoice management solution designed to make it easier for businesses to get paid. With $6.7 million in Series A funding, led by SignalFire (with participation from Bloomberg Beta, Hillsven Capital and UpWest Labs), Stampli said it plans to continue to scale and grow. In a recent interview with PYMNTS, Stampli’s Co-founder and CEO Eyal Feldman described the company’s mission to use the invoice as a means of communication, both within the enterprise and between trading partners. Using machine learning and bot technology, the company enhances automated invoice processing so customers can pay the bill more quickly.

Namely

Payroll is on a roll with investors, again. Namely, based in New York, announced $60 million in venture capital secured from GGV Capital, while Tenaya Capital and existing backers also participated. The funding is just the start of big changes for the company. Reports in New York Business Journal said, in addition to the round, Namely named a new CEO to replace Matt Straz. Elisa Steele will take the lead after serving as president and CEO of Jive Software. The investment follows last year’s $50 million funding round. Reports said analysts anticipate Namely to go public at some point in the near future, though there are rumors that the firm is a popular target for a takeover.

Teamleader

Keen Venture Partners led a $22 million Series C funding round for Teamleader, an enterprise Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) platform based in Belgium. The company supports small businesses’ digitization efforts, linking them to software solutions like invoicing and customer relationship management (CRM).Teamleader said that PMV and existing backers Sage Capital and Fortino Capital also participated in the funding, which will be used to continue international growth, accelerate its product roadmap and focus on efforts to build out its tool to be integration-friendly with businesses’ existing back-office tools.