Paystand, the fastest growing blockchain-enabled commercial payments platform, today announced it has secured $20 million in Series B funding. The round includes new investment from DNX Ventures, Battery Ventures, Epic Ventures, Commerce Ventures, and Wildcat Ventures. Existing investors Leap Global Partners, BlueRun Ventures, and others participated.
The company plans to use the capital to accelerate the expansion of its products and services, as well as expanding sales, marketing, success, and engineering teams in its Scotts Valley, California and Guadalajara, Mexico offices.
The Paystand platform makes complicated commercial transactions and payments as easy and fast for enterprises as Venmo has done for basic consumer-to-consumer transactions. It is the industry’s only solution for corporations and their finance teams that digitizes the entire enterprise cash cycle and:
- Operates on a zero-fee, subscription model that moves customers away from today’s costly, fee-based transactions.
- Automates the payment experience from invoice to reconciliation and integrates seamlessly with a company’s System of Record.
- Provides a real-time, fund-verified, blockchain assured payment network that can move money between businesses instantly.
- Saves businesses over 50% on the cost of accepting payments and processing invoices, while reducing DSO (days sales outstanding) by more than 60%.
“We’re thrilled to bring together such an iconic group of investors who share our ambition for a more open financial system,” said Jeremy Almond, CEO of Paystand. “We made a promise to reboot commercial finance because it’s insecure, inefficient and built on trustless networks and technology. Today marks another step towards realizing that vision and transforming enterprise finance. We are committed to taking the industry and our customers on a ‘journey to zero,’ without fees, paper, or limits on growth.”
Rapid Customer Adoption, Growth
Paystand’s model is rapidly gaining traction, and in the last 24 months the company added 80 new large enterprise customers and posted a 2.5x YoY increase in revenue, as well as average monthly subscription growth of over 240%. Its payment ecosystem has surged 60% over the past 12 months, with over 160,000 businesses transacting across the Paystand platform, saving tens of millions in fees.
Paystand’s technology digitizes the cash cycle for companies in a variety of industries, ranging from insurance to manufacturing to transportation to pharmaceuticals. For example, the platform helps insurance companies digitally receive premium payments and send claims money, and allows manufacturing companies to digitally pay suppliers and vendors. Current Paystand customers include credit-card company JCB; manufacturing company Allied Aerofoam; retail engagement platform Punchh; stroller company Bugaboo; veterinary-technology company Covetrus; bedding and home-decor company Parachute Home; and Vast Bank, among others.
“We’ve seen significant disruption in consumer payments from companies like Venmo, PayPal, and Square Cash,” said Mitch Kitamura, a managing director at DNX Ventures. “However, US B2B payments represent an even larger opportunity — currently over half of the $25 trillion in B2B invoices are still paid in paper check — yet no one stepped in to disrupt the market until Paystand. We are thrilled to be part of the team to help them realize the transformation in B2B finance.”
Uniquely Positioned to Deliver Enterprise Transformation
Paystand’s fund raise comes as the next generation of fintech companies are poised to upend traditional infrastructure and practices. With over 50% of the estimated $125 trillion in annual B2B payment volume1 still transacting via paper-based and pre-internet methods, the rise of more open, frictionless payment infrastructure has created a clear opportunity for disruption of a decades-old, inefficient, costly industry.
“For too long, the B2B payments model has been inefficient and paper-based—and that’s a problem as most companies today become more digitized and software-driven,” said Neeraj Agrawal, a general partner at Battery Ventures. “Paystand’s technology helps companies in a variety of industries run more efficiently and cost-effectively automate customer payments, and we are excited to partner with management as they continue to scale.”
