Business payments company Bill.com has secured unicorn status and launched a partnership with Mastercard to accelerate accounts payable for joint business customers.
In a press release on Tuesday (April 2), Bill.com announced new funding to the tune of $88 million led by Franklin Templeton, while Mastercard, Fidelity Investments Canada ULC and others also participated. The investment propelled Bill.com’s valuation to more than $1 billion, according to separate reports in Forbes, which added that FLEETCOR, Cross Creek and Temasek were also among the backers.
“Businesses struggle with conventional payment processes, which are complex, manual, paper-based and not always secure,” said Bill.com CEO and Founder René Lacerte in a statement. “Our cloud payment platform is changing all that. We automate payments and back-office business processes, resulting in significant efficiencies and cost savings.”
In another statement, Franklin Templeton’s Anthony Hardy described today’s market as “the golden age of SMB software and B2B payments, with a huge market that’s ready for adoption.”
Bill.com said in its press release that it is approaching three million customers, and currently manages more than $60 billion in annual payment volume.
In addition to the new funding, the firm said in a separate press release that it is rolling out its collaboration with Mastercard, which will integrate its virtual card technology into the Bill.com platform, enabling businesses to pay their invoices via virtual cards.
“Our goal is to empower small business owners with the right tools and resources to run their business,” said Mastercard North America Small Business Lead Ginger Siegel in a statement. “With the partnership with Bill.com, we can bring the benefits of virtual cards to hundreds of thousands of smaller enterprises in the United States. Virtual cards are more secure and provide transparency into cash in-flows and out-flows, which is critical to the growth of all small businesses.”
Their partnership is focused on speed, with Bill.com and Mastercard pointing to the acceleration of accounts payable through the adoption of virtual card technology. The firms said businesses will be able to cut in half the time it takes to manage accounts payable.
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