VCs Looking For FinTech Firms To Solve The Pain Of Unpaid Invoices

This week, Barclays and Santander InnoVentures demonstrated traditional banks’ interest in alternative finance when they led a nearly $34 million equity fundraise for invoice financing platform MarketInvoice.

However, the company wasn’t the only one landing support for its invoice finance operations: India’s M1Xchange and U.S.-based Apruve landed funding for their solutions, signaling continued interest by venture capitalists (VCs) in not only alternative finance, but in FinTech firms looking to address B2B companies’ pain points of delayed and unpaid invoices.

Other B2B FinTech firms that landed funding this week include expense management firms Mooncard and Jojonomic, as well as logistics company NEXT, which landed the largest investment round of the week at $97 million.

KiWi

Based in Switzerland, KiWi offers a digital platform for small businesses (SMBs) to accept electronic payments via mobile point-of-sale (POS) technology, while also bridging those merchants to financing. The company recently announced $3.2 million raised for its solution, which KiWi said will be used to focus on growth in Mexico, where it has been operating since 2015. The Series A investment round was led by investiere and Polytech Ventures, while Symbiotics and the 1to4 Foundation also participated, reports said.

Jojonomic

Finch Capital recently invested an undisclosed sum into Indonesia’s Jojonomic, a company that provides expense management and business management technology. Existing backers East Ventures and Golden Gate Ventures also participated, e27 reports said this week. The company first launched in Southeast Asia as an employee expense management solution, though the firm has expanded its offering to provide cloud-based solutions to promote productivity, manage procurement and digitize operations, with a suite of software solutions offered to SMBs and large corporates via Jojonomic Pro. The company has integrated its offerings into accounting and other enterprise platforms, including SAP and Xero, with Jojonomic noting plans to use the investment to introduce additional products and enhance data integrations. The company will also focus on customer acquisition and enhancement of its machine learning use, reports said.

Mooncard

In the employee expense management field as well, France’s Mooncard revealed a $5.7 million funding round, led by RAISE Ventures, Aglaé Ventures and multiple angel investors. Reports said this week that the company aims to grow the adoption of commercial cards in the country by providing businesses with payment cards that they can give to their own employees. Mooncard also offers a mobile app, allowing employees to more seamlessly upload photos of receipts after they make purchases on the cards, while managers can gain visibility into and set controls over spend. The firm plans to focus on expansion with the investment, targeting a customer base of 30,000 by 2022.

M1Xchange

India’s M1Xchange has secured an undisclosed amount of Series A funding from Mayfield India and SIDBI Venture Capital, reports in Inc42 said this week. The company plans to use the investment to explore the integration of technologies like blockchain, and to grow its network. M1Xchange is a trade receivables discounting platform, developed under the approval of the Reserve Bank of India to allow companies to upload their invoices in exchange for financing from investors across India. The solution targets micro-, small and medium-sized businesses, and has onboarded 25 banks and 100 large enterprise customers to its portal, leading to more than $252 million of invoice financing facilitated so far.

Apruve

In the accounts receivable space, U.S.-based Apruve announced a $6 million Series A investment round this week, led by Cloud Apps Capital Partners, while TTV Capital and Allegis Capital also participated. The company enables businesses to extend payment terms to their corporate customers while having an invoice financed by Apruve, allowing businesses to retain customer satisfaction and reduce the overhead costs of placing a client into collections for unpaid invoices. Apruve said it plans to add to its team, and focus on R&D and growing its portfolio, with the new funding.

Zafin

Canada-based Zafin offers technology to financial institutions so they can manage their prices and bundling, and link banks with digital platforms. Investors at Vistara Capital Partners, Beedie Capital and Accenture Ventures provided a combined $17.2 million in Series B financing for the firm, which will be used for sales, marketing and product innovation, a press release said. The investment comes just weeks after Accenture announced it reached an agreement to acquire some Zafin assets.

NEXT

California logistics startup NEXT secured the largest investment of the week with a $97 million Series C funding round, led by Brookfield Ventures, while Sequoia Capital, GLP and other backers also participated. According to a press release, NEXT — which enables shippers and carriers to connect and do business — plans to use the investment to focus on expanding its team, and focus on product innovation. NEXT is also gearing up to launch Relay, a solution designed to address congestion at major shipping ports.