Today in B2B: Global Companies Require Payroll Innovation; Marketplacer Integrates With Adobe Commerce

Today in B2B payments, logistics company Flexe raises $119 million to become a unicorn while African small- to medium-sized businesses (SMBs) rely on buy now, pay later (BNPL) services to bridge the working capital gap. Plus, Starling Bank debuts Bills Manager for SMBs.

Logistic Company Flexe Raises $119M, Becomes Unicorn

Flexe, a Seattle-based logistics company, has raised $119 million in a Series D funding round that will help the brand continue to solve omnichannel logistics issues.

The funding has also pushed it into unicorn territory as a private company with a valuation of more than $1 billion, according to a Tech Funding News report. The fresh capital comes to Flexe at a time when enterprises are continuing to accelerate its logistics program adoption.

Big Companies With Global Workforces Demand Payroll Innovation

Streamlining cross-border payments is a priority for many firms, especially among larger organizations that want to scale their international workforces. Firms that generate more than $1 billion in revenue are the most interested in hiring more international workers and the most interested in innovating international worker payment methods.

Fifty-three percent of these firms said they were “very” or “extremely” interested in expanding their number of international workers, according to the “Cross-Border Payroll and Contractor Payments Report,” a PYMNTS and Nium collaboration based on a survey of 250 executives at U.S. and U.K.-based companies generating more than $100 million in annual revenue.

Starling Bank Unveils Bills Manager Feature for SMBs

Starling Bank has debuted Bills Manager, a new feature designed to help small businesses and sole trader account customers streamline their finances.

The Bills Manager feature enables small businesses to have a direct debit or standing order taken from money in their so-called Savings Spaces, rather than their main account. When a payment is due, the money will be taken directly from the space, streamlining customers’ budget forecasting and business costs.

Payments are synced with accounting tools Xero and FreeAgent through the Starling Marketplace and Starling’s bookkeeping toolkit, allowing businesses to keep track of incoming invoices, outgoing payments and value-added taxes.

Marketplacer Announces Adobe Commerce Integration

Marketplacer, a Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) platform that helps companies build online marketplaces, has been named an Accelerate Partner within the Adobe Exchange Experience Cloud program.

Marketplacer has helped with the construction of more than 100 of these marketplaces to date, connecting upwards of 13,000 businesses around the world. The integration will let Marketplacer offer more value to retailers and brands — and the providers serving them — through curated marketplaces, with faster time to market and quick scalability.

BNPL Is the Working Capital Bridge for African SMBs

There’s a huge gap in working capital financing for SMBs in emerging markets across Africa, estimated at about $340 billion by the World Bank. To help keep businesses afloat, many B2B firms are tackling the problem by providing cash-based solutions to SMBs.

But according to Yele Oyekola, co-founder and CEO of Africa-focused B2B payments platform Duplo, thinking only in terms of hard currency when it comes to working capital is not enough, as he pointed to the need for BNPL for business to effectively tackle the problem. Duplo can finance the payment of a vendor invoice on behalf of a business, after which the merchant will pay back based on the terms offered.