Today in B2B: B2B Buyers Want Simpler Payments

Today in B2B payments, HitPay grabs $15.8 million for its Singapore payments gateway, while Bonfire Ventures raises $231 million to help B2B software startups. Plus, Capital One launches an enterprise B2B software business, Debite rolls out its BNPL service for small businesses in the U.K. and Planergy’s spend management platform is now available to Amazon merchants.

Bonfire Ventures Raises $231M for B2B Software Startups

Bonfire Ventures, which helps B2B software companies raise money during their seed stage, has closed a $168 million seed funding round and a $63 million second-opportunity fund, putting its total fundraising since 2017 at more than $1 billion, according to a company press release Tuesday (May 31).

Bonfire offers curated, hands-on partnership to B2B software founders as they move through their investment journey, starting at the seed stage, progressing to the Series A level, and moving forward with product launches, development and other aspects of their businesses.

FinTech Cardlay Announces Integration With Concur Expense

Danish B2B FinTech Cardlay has integrated its Payment Cloud solution with Concur Expense, the company announced Wednesday (June 1). According to Cardlay, the solution lets businesses that use the SAP Concur Portfolio “benefit from an integrated, carbon-neutral and secure virtual card offering without changing their current bank relationship.”

Cardlay said the Payment Cloud supports real-time virtual card issuance, giving companies a quick, sustainable and secure way to pay for what they need. The company said the integration is built on advanced APIs in the core of the existing banking infrastructure, allowing for a plug-and-play set-up for the customer that lets them choose their preferred financial institution.

Capital One Debuts B2B Software Business

Capital One Financial Corp. has launched Capital One Software, an enterprise B2B software business that will offer cloud and data management solutions for B2B companies that work in the cloud, according to a press release.

The new initiative’s first product is Capital One Slingshot, a data management solution for customers of Snowflake, the Data Cloud company, which is designed to help businesses more quickly adopt the Snowflake Data Cloud, manage cloud costs and automate processes. Capital One has used its own in-house cloud and data management tools for years, the company said.

Slingshot helps businesses manage costs through intelligent cost savings recommendations and dashboards to monitor warehouse performance; gain insights and visibility into changes to Snowflake costs and usage through proactive alerts; federate warehouse administration to lines of business and scale without exorbitant new costs; and automate governance using custom workflows, dynamic warehouse provisioning and self-service capabilities, per the release.

Business Buyers Increasingly Expect ‘Uber-Like’ Payments Simplicity

Buyers have seen how the interactions between consumers and merchants in business-to-consumer (B2C) eCommerce have been optimized, and they now want the same customer experience in B2B.

It’s one seismic shift reshaping B2B eCommerce, and a challenging one, given that payments in the space are far more complex than on the consumer side — involving extra steps around underwriting, back-end reconciliation and settlement.

A second shift is that B2B eCommerce is going global. Buyers from other countries, too, are looking for a frictionless payment experience. Additionally, sellers looking to increase their margins want to get closer to their buyers, and they’re doing so by developing marketplaces and creating eCommerce websites to sell directly to the end consumer.

Amazon Business Merchants Can Access Planergy’s Spend Management Platform

Accounts payable spend-control firm Planergy and Amazon Business have teamed up around orders placed through Amazon Business’ online store, the companies announced.

The companies stated that the arrangement will let businesses run purchases from Amazon Business through Planergy’s approval system. Once an ordered is authorized, Planergy will generate a purchase order linked to the Amazon order. The rest of the order-fulfillment process will include steps that generate various verification documents.

Singapore’s SMB Payments Gateway HitPay Nets $15.8M

HitPay, a Singapore-based payments platform for small- to medium-sized businesses, announced Tuesday (May 31) that it had raised $15.7 million in a Series A funding round that it will use to continue building its payments infrastructure platform, which includes support for local and international payment methods and integrations with accounting and eCommerce platforms.

HitPay said more than 10,000 merchants use its platform, which offers local and cross-border payment acceptance and payouts, an online store platform, point-of-sale software with card readers, plugins and payment links.

The company’s services are also available in Malaysia, Hong Kong, Australia, New Zealand, Canada, the U.S., the U.K., Europe and the UAE. The company said it is set to expand to new markets in Southeast Asia over the coming months.

UK-Based Debite Launches BNPL Service for Early-Stage Companies

London-based financing platform Debite announced its launch in the U.K. Monday (May 30), saying it was out to help early-stage companies through its buy now, pay later tool.

Debite said its platform has been designed for early-stage companies underserved by traditional lenders and can offer spending limits higher than the loan and credit products typically available to this segment of customers.

The company is launching with two main products: Spend & Save Loans, which offer instant cash to help businesses manage the cost of critical growth initiatives, and the Boosted Debite Card, which offers dynamic credit limits that are typically 20 times higher than traditional lenders at 0% interest if paid within 30 days.