Billie, a buy now, pay later specialist for the business-to-business (B2B) market, has successfully raised $100M in a Series C round of funding. The new funding puts the company at a $640 million valuation; a four times increase since its last round —a $35 million Series B in 2019.
The funding was led by Dawn Capital —Europe’s leading business-to-business investor and had the participation of existing investors Creandum, Speedinvest, Picus, GFC, payments giant Klarna, and internet giant Tencent. In addition to the equity funding, the Germany-based fintech has also secured refinancing lines of $200 million per month from an association of German banks led by VVRB (Vereinigte Volksbank Raiffeisenbank eG), with participation from Raisin Bank and Varengold Bank.
Founded in 2016, Billie provides businesses with financing point-of-sale tools for extending credit terms to buyers, alongside invoice collection tools. Based on its proprietary, machine-learning-supported risk models, fully digitised processes and scalable tech platform, Billie offers freedom to small and medium-sized enterprises through fast liquidity, automated workflows, and access to modern payment solutions. Through its innovative lending product offerings, Billie claims to be reinventing the way small businesses manage their working capital.
Klarna’s investment with Billie comes on the heels of a major strategic deal it made with Billie, and as part of the deal, Klarna and Billie will integrate their services. Commenting on the funding, Sebastian Siemiatkowski, Chief Executive Officer and Co-founder of Klarna, said that his company was impressed by Billie’s mission to offer frictionless B2B payments to merchants and businesses across the world. “BNPL 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,” he added.
Billie plans to use the new investment to significantly expand its technical integration with Klarna and other strategic partners. “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’s Co-Founder and Co-Chief Executive Officer, Matthias Knecht, said.
In addition, the firm will use the new capital to finance its international expansion and enhance its buy now, pay later offerings, with the addition of new features such as longer payment deadlines, instalments, special offers for business-to-business marketplaces, and e-invoicing.
