Enterprise blockchain payments platform provider Paystand has announced that it has recently concluded its latest funding round. Via press release, the company revealed that the Series B round of funding raised $20M from a handful of investors.
Paystand has stated that these funds will be directed towards “accelerating” the expansion of various products and services, in addition to its eponymous ‘Paystand platform’. It will also contribute to expanding sales, marketing, success, and engineering teams across all four of its offices (which includes locations in Scotts Valley, California and Guadalajara, Mexico).
Series B round Paystand investors include:
NEW
DNX Ventures – Early-stage VC; focused on B2B Startups
Battery Ventures – Offers investment for technologies between two categories: Venture & Growth, and Private Equity.
EPIC Ventures – Venture capital which invests in “category-defining technology companies”.
Commerce Ventures – VC focusing on entrepreneurs which “build the infrastructure for tomorrow’s industries”.
Wildcat Venture Partners – “venture capital firm, invests in early stage technology companies primarily in the Traction Gap.”
RETURNING INVESTORS
LEAP Global Partners – “Cross-Border Venture Capital firm that invests in LatinX founders and startups that view the Latin American market as critical to their long-term success.”
BlueRun Ventures – VC which believes that it is “building a community of entrepreneurs who are pushing their industries forward”.
The company compares its platform to the likes of Paypal-owned mobile payment platform ‘Venmo’. Fully funds-backed Paystand offers customers real time transactions from payment to settlement and, unlike Venmo, promises customers “zero-fees” to the enterprise clients which it targets, preferring a subscription-based payment solution.
PayPal Stats, according to Statista:
Annual revenue: 17.77 billion USD
Annual PayPal net income: 2.46 billion USD
Year-on-year transaction revenue growth in 2018: 19%
In the press release, Paystand claimed that its platform is the “only” solution for enterprise-level finance teams which “digitizes the entire enterprise cash cycle”.
This is achieved as the platform is founded upon a “blockchain assured payment network” which can “move money between businesses instantly” and is part of the Paystand technology stack, in addition to “Fully automated” payments system.
Without the need for human authorization: this may result in faster transaction speeds than alternatives, such as traditional banks.
“[Customers include] JCB, Silicon Valley Bank, Bugaboo, Parachute Home, Covetous, and Vast Bank while its payment network includes two of the largest airlines, eight of the top 10 pharmaceutical companies, all five branches of the US military, and market leaders across hospitality, insurance, and food and beverage.”
Paystand (Press Release)
“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 (Press Release)
“We’re thrilled to bring together such an iconic group of investors who share our ambition for a more open financial system…
We made a promise to reboot commercial finance because it’s insecure, inefficient and built on trustless networks and technology…
We are committed to taking the industry and our customers on a ‘journey to zero,’ without fees, paper, or limits on growth.”
Jeremy Almond (CEO of Paystand)
“We’ve seen significant disruption in consumer payments from companies like Venmo, PayPal, and Square Cash…
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.”
Mitch Kitamura (a managing director at DNX Ventures)
“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…
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.”
Neeraj Agrawal (a general partner at Battery Ventures)
