- B2B payments company Nekui announced it has raised $144 million. These are the details.
Melio — a B2B payments company that helps small businesses digitally manage their supplier payments — announced that it has raised $144 million to reach more small businesses across the US as they shift to digital solutions in order to help manage the economic effects of COVID-19.
Small businesses generally use a variety of different tools to manage supplier payments with nearly half of B2B payments carried out with paper checks. And Melio’s digital accounts payable and receivable dashboard provides a single and integrated tool that allows small businesses to transfer and receive payments in a faster, easier way, giving oversight, and control over cash flow, reducing or eliminating late payment costs, and giving businesses back valuable time.
Founded by CEO Matan Bar, CTO Ilan Atias, and COO Ziv Paz, Melio’s fundraising enables the company to accelerate growth and reach more customers. And it will also support the company’s plans to provide B2B payment capabilities to third parties, mirroring the development the tech industry has seen with B2C payments. And recently, the company partnered with Intuit Quickbooks — one of the leading fintech platforms for small businesses — to power one of its bill pay solutions.
Small businesses have been crucial to the health of the US economy, accounting for 44% of all economic activity and employing roughly half the workforce. But COVID-19 has exacerbated existing pain points for small businesses, including the inability to pay using paper checks and coping with financial volatility. Before launching, Melio set up its own bookkeeping firm in New York to serve small businesses directly, an experience that has informed its understanding of their unique challenges.
KEY QUOTES:
“At a time when small businesses need the most flexibility, they have the least. Our mission is to keep small businesses in business. We do this by allowing small businesses to manage payments remotely, paying when and how they want, giving them more control and helping businesses manage cash flow . Business payments shouldn’t be more complicated than paying a friend with your phone.”
— Matan Bar, Melio Co-Founder and CEO, who previously led Consumer P2P Payments at PayPal
“We are living in unprecedented times. Small businesses are the backbone of the U.S. economy, yet they are under intense pressure in the current environment. They require as much flexibility and control over their cash flow as possible to persevere. Melio provides the tools to achieve both and will play a critical role with small businesses and vendors to continually adapt, develop, and persist.”
— Ken Chenault, former Chairman and CEO, American Express and now Chairman and Managing Director, General Catalyst.
“Melio is firmly on the side of every small business owner in the US. By smoothing out the volatility businesses are experiencing during this challenging period, Melio is helping businesses stay in the black and avoid predatory loans.”
–Adam Fisher, Partner at Bessemer Venture Partners and Melio board member
“I’ve been doing this for 25 years and I’ve never seen growth like Melio. They understand the needs of small businesses – needs that no-one else is properly addressing. Before launching, Melio set up their own bookkeeping firm in New York to get under the skin of small businesses. It is a substantial market and Melio can be a giant.”
— Michael Eisenberg, co-founder and Partner at Aleph and Melio board member
“Melio sits at the convergence of two powerful trends; the digitisation of both payments and small businesses, both of which have been accelerated by COVID-19. Melio designed a product that is unique in its simplicity and ease of use.”
— Philippe Botteri, Partner at Accel and Melio board member
“Melio has made it super easy for shifl to facilitate payments with every shipment that we manage. We are paying many different fees on behalf of our customers for each shipment, but we have been able to expedite our payments 2-3 times than before, and most importantly, we eliminated the costly inefficiencies that were traditionally involved in the industry.”
— shifl Founder and CEO Shabsie Levy
