Young B2B FinTechs Secure Their First VC Rounds

A French payroll FinTech secured the lead with a nine-figure investment round, but this week’s B2B venture capital roundup is dominated by younger B2B FinTechs announcing their first venture capital funding. Seed investments landed at B2B payments, small business banking, crowdsourced financing and cryptocurrency startups as investors continue to embrace variety in their funding targets.

Transak

Cryptocurrency payment gateway Transak announced a $660,000 seed funding round led by Consensys, The Lao, IOSG, Lunex and Koji Capital, as well as angel investors, reports in Entrepreneur India announced recently. The company facilitates the exchange between crypto and fiat currency for corporates, and will deploy the latest funding to expand operations, secure new partnerships and grow its staff in India, with a focus on engineering experts. “The Indian blockchain market is growing rapidly and needs on- and off-ramps to make the crypto world accessible to all,” the company’s Co-founders Sami Start and Yeshu Agarwal said in a statement.

Honeycomb Credit

The U.S.’ Honeycomb Credit wants to make capital more accessible to entrepreneurs through a loan crowdfunding model, and investors at the American Family Insurance Institute for Corporate and Social Impact are helping to drive that mission by leading a $1.75 million seed funding round for the firm. Innovation Works, K50 Ventures, The Urban Redevelopment Authority of Pittsburgh, Reinforced Ventures and Flight.vc also participated, according to a press release. Honeycomb Credit’s business model is made possible by Regulation Crowdfunding, which lowers barriers for non-accredited investors to participate in crowdsourced financing. In a statement, the company’s CEO George Cook pointed to increasing capital needs among small businesses through the pandemic, and the need for alternative ways to access funding beyond traditional bank loans.

Higo

Based in Mexico, B2B FinTech Higo positions itself as the “Venmo for B2B payments” across Latin America. Investors at Homebrew recently backed that mission by leading a $3.3 million seed funding round for the company, while Susa Ventures, Haystack and J Ventures also participated. Higo automatically collects information from compliant eInvoices received by businesses, and provides visibility into accounts payable data to streamline AP in a digital fashion. The funding will go toward new hires in engineering and other areas of the business, with a focus on accelerating growth, TechCrunch reported.

upSWOT

The largest seed investment round of the week goes to North Carolina’s upSWOT, a FinTech company connecting financial institutions with technology that strengthens their ability to service small and medium-sized business clients. The company, which secured $4.3 million, likened its business model to that of Plaid, integrating into the various platforms SMBs use to assess financials and obtain real-time insights into cash flow. Common Ocean Ventures led the investment round, while CFV Ventures, ICBA, First Southern National Bank, SpeedUp Venture Group and existing backers also participated.

Lendo

Lendo, which targets SMBs with crowdsourced invoice financing, has announced $7.2 million in Series A funding raised from Derayah Ventures. Seedra, Shorooq Partners, 500 startups and Impact46 also participated. The Saudi Arabia-based firm allows companies that meet certain criteria to upload invoices to the platform and access short-term funding of up to $800,000.  Lendo plans to use the investment to fuel growth.

PayFit

The leader in this week’s roundup is payroll FinTech PayFit, coming out of France. The company announced a $107 million Series D investment round, according to TechCrunch reports, with Eurazeo Growth and Bpifrance’s Large Venture leading the way. Existing backers Accel, Frst and Xavier Niel also contributed to the round. Offering payroll and human resources (HR) automation, PayFit connects firms to technology that streamlines a variety of workflows, including exporting payroll data to accounting software, payslip creation, and insights into benefits payments like health insurance, all while remaining compliant with continually changing regulations. As the company grew, it also introduced support for employee expense management, with the ability to automate reimbursements. The new funding will support PayFit’s growth trajectory through the addition of new employees this year, the firm said.