B2B FinTech Closes Q1 With Nine-Figure Funding Rounds

While last week’s B2B venture capital roundup was dominated by seed-stage funding rounds, this week shows Q1 2021 closing out with a bang thanks to later-stage, nine-figure investments. B2B FinTechs in the cross-border corporate payments, supply chain management, small business InsurTech and financial fraud mitigation arenas all benefited from backers’ aggressive funding efforts.

Grovara

Jumping on the B2B eCommerce train is Grovara, a startup based in Pennsylvania with a particular industry in mind: the organics and wellness sector. The firm offers an online B2B marketplace for natural and organic brands to connect with global suppliers. Investors just placed $5.5 million in seed funding with the firm, with David Pottruck leading the round. Additional banking came from SPINS, Bluestein Ventures, Spiral Sun Ventures, Siddhi Capital, CEAS Investments and E and A Venture Capital. Grovara said in its announcement that it will use the funding to invest in sales and grow its leadership team, as well as expand its talent within its supply chain team. Marketing, global partnerships and product enhancements are also on the docket.

Leaf Trade

Cannabis B2B marketplace and payments platform Leaf Trade also raised $5.5 million, with Artemis Growth Partners leading the Series A investment. Future Shape 1.5 and Hyde Park Angels also participated in the funding, which will help the company expand operations throughout the U.S. west coast and fuel further investment into its underlying technology. With a focus on compliance, Leaf Trade offers a streamlined digital platform for B2B buyers and sellers to connect and transact, with its B2B payments solution Leaf Pay allowing for an alternative to card, wire, check and cash payments.

Pollinate

Securing $49.45 million in funding, U.K.-based Pollinate plans to expand across borders with its technology that helps financial service providers strengthen their offerings to business customers. The company’s Series C investment round was led by Insight Partners, while existing investors NatWest Group, Mastercard, National Australia Bank, EFM Asset Management and Motive Partners also participated. Pollinate focuses on helping banks embrace digitization with their small business financial services, connecting FIs to technology that includes small business financing, payments, loyalty, marketing and analytics tools. In its growth plans, Pollinate plans to expand into North America and accelerate its white-label marketplace.

Airwallex

A $100 million Series D extension investment round is boosting B2B FinTech Airwallex into new heights. The company targets businesses with a range of cross-border payments, treasury management and expense solutions. Greenoaks led this investment, the company said, noting that it will deploy the funding to accelerate global growth, explore partnerships and invest in product and engineering. Airwallex Co-founder and CEO Jack Zhang pointed to corporates’ accelerating digitization as a key driver of growth for the company. “The world will only become more digital, and with more businesses than ever now operating online, Airwallex has proudly been at the center of this evolution,” he said.

FourKites

Also securing $100 million in Series D funding is FourKites, a digital supply chain technology company that helps enterprises in the logistics space boost visibility into shipments. The company announced the funding this week from Thomas H. Lee Partners, L.P., which led the round. Also participating are Qualcomm Ventures, Volvo Group Venture Capital AB and Zebra Technologies, along with existing investors August Capital, CEAS Investments, Hyde Park Angels, Hyde Park Venture Partners and Bain Capital Ventures. FourKites said the investment comes amid a “new era” for supply chain management, as technologies like machine learning drive real-time visibility. The company said it will use the investment to move forward in its vision for the industry, in which stakeholders and infrastructure are interconnected through data.

Pie Insurance

Operating in the InsurTech arena, Pie Insurance targets small and medium-sized businesses with solutions to procure and manage workers’ comp insurance. The company announced an impressive $118 million Series C investment round this week led by Allianz X and Acrew Capital. Existing backers Greycroft, SVB Capital, SiriusPoint, Elefund and Moxley Holdings also participated, a press release revealed. Pie Insurance focuses on data analytics to enhance the insurance coverage experience for SMBs. The new funding, the company said, will be used to strengthen its existing workers’ comp insurance operations by further technology investments. In addition, the firm plans to introduce new product offerings this year, with its Co-founder and CEO John Swigart noting that “commercial insurance is long overdue for the online transformation that personal lines have benefited from for years.”

Feedzai

Taking the lead in this week’s venture capital roundup is Feedzai, another technology company targeting banks and other financial institutions. The firm raised $200 million in Series D funding from KKR, Sapphire Ventures and Citi Ventures. Feedzai works with financial institutions to provide artificial intelligence and machine learning to combat fraud and other financial crimes, including money laundering. The company’s latest funding values the firm at more than $1 billion, reports said, and the firm said it will use the investment to continue to fuel its global expansion and expand product offerings.