Billie, Europe’s leading provider of “Buy Now, Pay Later” (BNPL) payment methods for businesses, just closed a successful Series C funding round of about €86.2 million. As a result the fintech’s valuation increased to roughly €551.5 million and has nearly quadrupled since the last funding round. This new funding round was led by Dawn Capital, and joined by Klarna and Tencent, alongside existing investors Creandum, Speedinvest, Picus and GFC. The funding round is the world’s largest to date in the B2B BNPL market.
In addition to its equity funding, Billie has secured refinancing lines of more than €172 million per month. The capital will be provided by a consortium of German banks led by VVRB (Vereinigte Volksbank Raiffeisenbank eG) with participation from Raisin Bank and Varengold Bank.
Founded in 2016, Billie provides BNPL payment methods for businesses, offering B2B companies innovative digital payment services. Founded in Berlin, the fintech enables companies to pay and get paid on their own terms simply and easily through modern checkout solutions. Based on proprietary, machine-learning-supported risk models, fully digitized processes and a highly scalable tech platform, Billie offers freedom to big and small businesses alike through fast liquidity, automated workflows and access to modern payment solutions.
“As a specialist B2B investor with a deep fintech focus, we’ve been closely following Billie and the evolution of the B2B BNPL market. Over the last few years, we’ve built a trusted relationship with Matthias, Christian and Aiga, impressed by the clarity of their vision, rapid growth and deep experience not only in B2B payments but in the wider risk and regulatory landscape too. We are confident they are well on the way to revolutionising the B2B payments market and excited to join them on the journey ahead.” says Josh Bell, General Partner at Dawn Capital.
In line with the startup’s vision, Billie will use the new investment for its international expansion, as well as significantly expand its technical integration with Klarna and other strategic partners. In addition, the company plans to enhance its B2B BNPL product—Billie Boost. With B2B features such as longer payment deadlines, installments, special offers for B2B marketplaces, e-invoicing and more to be added to the product.
Dr. Matthias Knecht, co-founder and co-CEO of Billie, stated: “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, “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.”
via https://www.AiUpNow.com
October 25, 2021 at 08:15AM by contact@bcurdy.com, Khareem Sudlow
