Berlin-based Billie, a fintech startup that claims to be reinventing the way small businesses manage their working capital, announced that it has secured $100M (approx €86.26M) in its Series C round of funding. According to a statement, this funding round is the world’s largest in the B2B BNPL market to date.
Besides the equity funding, Billie has also bagged $200M (approx €172.47M) per month from a consortium of German banks led by VVRB (Vereinigte Volksbank Raiffeisenbank eG) with participation from Raisin Bank and Varengold Bank.
With this round, the company is now valued at $640M (approx €552M) and nearly quadrupled since the last funding round. Billie had last raised $30M (approx €25.87M) funding in its Series B round of funding in June 2019. Prior to that, it had raised $10M (approx €8.62M) in the Series A financing round.
Investors in this round
The Series C round was led by Dawn Capital, a B2B investor whose fintech portfolio includes category-leaders Tink, iZettle, Soldo and Copper.
In addition, the round was also joined by B2C payments giant Klarna and Tencent, alongside existing investors Creandum, Speedinvest, Picus and GFC.
Speaking on the development, Klarna’s CEO & co-founder, Sebastian Siemiatkowski says, “BNPL (“Buy Now, Pay Later”) for B2B is still in its infancy phase—even though the demand has never been higher. We are here to solve problems and by being able to offer this service to our merchant partners together with Billie, we are doing just that. Something we also underline with our investment in Billie.”
Capital utilisation
The proceeds from this round will help Billie to expand its services internationally, as well as expand its technical integration with Klarna and other strategic partners.
Additionally, the funds will also help the company to enhance its B2B “Buy Now, Pay Later” (BNPL) product, Billie Boost. In terms of product enhancement, Billie plans to add new features such as longer payment deadlines, installments, special offers for B2B marketplaces, and e-invoicing among others in the future.
Making companies fit for the future
Founded in 2016 by Aiga Senftleben, Artem Demchenkov, Christian Grobe, and Matthias Knecht, Billie is on a mission to reinvent working capital management for SMEs by offering innovative lending products.
Matthias Knecht explains, “BNPL has radically changed the payment behavior in e-commerce in the last couple of years. Consumers pay easily and conveniently, when and how they want. Today, B2B buyers from larger companies to individual retailers are going “digital-first” and are already used to automated and frictionless processes in the B2C space. They also expect to see modern user interfaces, high limits for shopping carts, as well as real-time decisions for B2B.”
However, Knecht adds, ““Buy Now, Pay Later” for business customers, is still at a very early stage, and worldwide, there is nearly no provider of a BNPL product like what Klarna offers for B2C. We aim to close this gap, and we are happy to have gained strong partners in Dawn Capital, Klarna and Tencent to establish BNPL as the leading payment method for business customers.”
Billie claims to solve the order-to-cash problem through an automated invoice financing solution tailored for small businesses. In addition to its factoring services, the company also helps SMEs secure better payment terms by offering a pay-after-delivery product for B2B online merchants.
Based on its proprietary, machine-learning-supported risk models, fully digitised processes and a scalable tech platform, Billie offers freedom to SMEs through fast liquidity, automated workflows, and access to modern payment solutions.
Currently, Billie has a team of over 130 employees from over 35 countries.
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