Biller, the Dutch buy-now-pay-later startup for B2B payments, has been acquired by Banking Circle Group. The acquisition comes just six months after its founding and shows how Biller has cemented itself as a possible leader in the untapped B2B credit space.
Goldman Sachs expects the B2B e-commerce market to become 5x greater in volume than retail payments by 2028. It is widely acknowledged that B2B remains an untapped market opportunity for the payments industry and Biller has already offered creative solutions since its founding.
Biller joins Banking Circle Group’s payment network
The acquisition by Banking Circle Group will allow Biller to further accelerate its European expansion. The startup confirms that it will become part of Banking Circle Group’s ecosystem as part of this deal.
As a young startup, Biller aimed to disrupt the conventional trade credit experience prevalent in the B2B commerce segment. With the acquisition, Biller gets immediate access to “important technology infrastructure, financial resources, the necessary payment rails and licences to accelerate their European expansion.”
“The B2B market is widely underserved and has room for improvements,” Mick Gromotka, co-founder and in charge of product at Biller, told Silicon Canals in November last year.
As former Mollie and Klarna employees, the co-founders of Biller saw the payment revolution that took the consumer market by storm. They want to make buy-now-pay-later simpler for business-to-business transactions. The startup will leverage fronting banking services and account infrastructure from Banking Circle Group to expand its European coverage.
Derek Vreeburg, CEO of Biller, says, “It’s great to find Banking Circle as a strategic partner, only six months after our founding. We are thrilled to join one of the most innovative and fast-growing fintech companies in Europe. This massively increases our chances of rapidly conquering the European market.”
Following this acquisition, Biller aims to expand its coverage to the UK, Germany, Belgium, and Nordics in the first half of 2022. The startup plans full European coverage within the next 12 to 24 months. The startup will also operate autonomously and plans to grow from 15 to more than 150 employees this year.
Back in November, Mick had told Silicon Canals that the startup aims to expand its headcount to 50 by the end of Q2 2022. The acquisition seems to be accelerating its European expansion as well as hiring as the startup prepares to flex its wings and aspires to become the market leader in B2B commerce.
Biller: what you need to know
Biller is an AI-powered B2B commerce startup founded by Mick Gromotka, Derek Vreeburg and Uwe van Rensburg. After working at Mollie and Klarna, the co-founders saw how BNPL can transform payments in the consumer market and realised the untapped potential in the B2B segment. With the consumer market crowded and the B2B market remaining ripe for innovation, they started Biller in 2021 with Dutch venture studio, Slimmer AI.
The premise of the startup was rather simple. B2B buyers were in need of a fast and flexible payment experience similar to one offered by the likes of Klarna to consumers and Biller aims to fill that gap. As explained by Mick, Biller streamlines the business practises and digitises B2B commerce for the modern world.
The startup eliminates barriers like mandatory registration and lengthy processing time for B2B businesses when they try to procure credit. Unlike the consumer segment, Biller uses AI tools to ensure creditworthiness of businesses with an instant credit and fraud check. It also offers dynamic credit limits, a feature unheard of in B2B commerce.
“Biller’s in-depth knowledge of the BNPL industry and their ability to implement and adapt the convenience of the consumer payment experience to the B2B space is truly impressive,” says Anders la Cour, Chief Executive Officer of Banking Circle Group. “As companies accelerate the digitisation of their customer and supply-chain interactions, there’s a growing need for modern-day financial solutions. Banking Circle Group is growing its propositions rapidly to meet this demand. Biller is a natural extension of our suite of offerings and we’re excited to have them on board.”
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