B2B Payments Today: China’s Edict Could Cause SMB Headwinds; Visma Eyes 2023 IPO

Today in B2B payments, MonetaGo is fighting financing fraud and Visma could go public in 2023. Plus, the Chinese government forces Ant to reconfigure its loan business, Papaya Global lands $250 million for cross-border payments and Billogram grabs $45 million to expand its digital invoicing platform.

Papaya Global Raises $250M Toward Onboarding, Cross-Border Pay

Tel Aviv-based payroll and payroll management platform Papaya Global recently closed a fundraising round with $250 million in fresh capital, The Times of Israel reported, noting the company is now valued at $3.7 billion. This was Papaya’s third fundraising round in in less than a year.

Papaya plans to focus on growth and attracting new, larger clients with the new funding, including Fortune 500 companies.

In March, the company raised $100 million investment to boost its value to more than $1 billion. There was also a $40 million investment in September 2020.

Norway’s Visma Considers 2023 IPO

Norwegian software service firm Visma is targeting 2023 for a potential initial public offering, a spokesman told Reuters.

Visma’s majority owner is Hg, a private equity firm that stated in a news release Thursday (Sept. 9) that the software company’s value as of a recent series of private investments is about $19 billion.

Billogram Closes $45M Round for Digital Invoicing Expansion

Digital invoicing platform Billogram recently closed a funding round with $45 million from global tech investor Partech, according to a press release emailed to PYMNTS.

With the new capital, Billogram plans to expand into six new markets and double its workforce, according to the release.

As Ant Reconfigures Loan Business, China’s SMBs Could See Credit Headwinds

Alibaba’s Alipay is being broken up and reconfigured, under Chinese government directives. Ant Group is the owner of the financial platform, which has more than 1 billion users in place.

The move to create a separate app focused on Ant’s lending business follows earlier edicts to carve out the lending businesses from Ant’s main operations. In that case, the two lending operations — tied to traditional credit cards and to small, unsecured loans — would be consolidated into a new entity.

MonetaGo Combats Financing Fraud With New Global Offering

Singapore-based financial technology solutions provider MonetaGo on Monday (Sept. 13) is fighting global financing fraud in trade finance with a new platform.

MonetaGo is also partnering with SWIFT on a proof of concept involving API-enabled infrastructure to improve connectivity management, authentication, security, interoperability and network reach. The pilot could help more than 11,000 institutions tied into the SWIFT network access MonetaGo’s finance validation service.