Commercial payment companies see a streak of funding from VCs this week
Venture capitalists around the world have been pouring millions of dollars into start up payment companies which are transforming the business landscape post-pandemic.
This week, Rapyd and Reserve Trust raised $300 million and $30.5 million respectively. Last week, Nium bagged $200 million in funding taking total funding in payments companies in 2021 to $4.85 billion.
Rapyd, a London-based B2B payments provider raised $300 million in its series E funding round which was led by Target Global with other participants such as Fidelity Management and Research Company, Altimeter Capital, Whale Rock Capital, BlackRock Funds, and Dragoneer, along with participation from existing investors: General Catalyst, Latitude, Durable Capital Partners, Tal Capital, Avid Ventures, and Spark Capital.
The company in its press release mentions that the funding received would be utilized would enable them to ‘capitalize on emerging opportunities driven by the unprecedented demand for Digital Payments, Embedded Finance, and scalable cloud-based payment infrastructure across all segments and verticals, and will be used to accelerate the company’s growth through a combination of organic growth, acquisitions, and strategic investments’.
Last year, Rapyd partnered with Visa to expand its global business operations.
Recently, the company acquired European based payments and card issuing company, Valitor for $100 million and it also notes that the additional funding raised will be used to make ‘several more strategic acquisitions to both support expansion in key markets and grow payment products and experiences’.
Colorado headquartered B2B payments service provider, Reserve Trust has raised $30.5 million in its series A investment round which was led by QED Investors with participation from FinTech Collective and Ardent Venture Partners. The funding round included $17.9M in secondary shares.
“While banks will always have an important role to play in B2B commerce, they have struggled to deliver the technology and services that businesses need to fully digitize domestic and international payments,” said Reserve Trust CEO Dave Wright.
According to the press note, the company provides B2B payment services to ‘financial institutions and fintech’s have previously only been able to obtain from correspondent and sponsor banks’ and the company partners with businesses that would embed domestic and cross-border B2B payments, bypassing traditional banks and offering direct access to key high-value payment rails. The customer funds are stored in a custody account and are backed by Reserve Trust’s Federal Reserve master account.