Fintech Roundup: B2BPay, PayJoy & Pineapple Payments
Fintech startups continue to make headlines with investments and accolades. Pineapple Payments announced a $35 million equity investment for its merchant-focused payments technology, PayJoy snagged $6 million while B2BPay won BBVA’s Open Talent Global Fintech for Companies competition.
First, the big money. Pittsburgh-based Pineapple Payments, which offers omnichannel payment processing technology, has secured a $35 million growth equity commitment from Providence Strategic Growth (PSG), the an affiliate of Providence Equity Partners, a global private equity firm with more than $50 billion in assets under management.
Pineapple targets B2B, B2G and integrated software vendors and is led by CEO Brian P. Shanahan, who has spent 26 years in payments, most recently at CardConnect. (First Data announced plans in May to acquire CardConnect for $750 million.)
“We currently have executed LOIs with three completely unique organizations that together serve 30,000 merchants and process $11 billion annually. We believe these deals will allow Pineapple to leverage the best technology and product offerings in the industry to drive future growth by enhancing the merchant-facing payments experience,” Shanahan says.
Alternative Underwriting
PayJoy, which offers smartphone financing for underserved consumers, has closed $6 million of new investment with strategic partners that will help the San Francisco-based company, which has offices in Mexico City, to further expand throughout Latin America, Asia and Africa.
Currently available in thousands of points-of-sale throughout the U.S. and Mexico, PayJoy is able to approve applicants without a formal credit history or banking relationships by leveraging “a unique underwriting process.”
The investment was led by Santander InnoVentures, the fintech venture capital fund of Santander Group, and ITOCHU Corp., one of the largest Japanese general trading companies in Asia. Other strategic partners joined from Brazil, Nigeria, Mexico, China, Vietnam and Europe. This investment brings PayJoy’s total equity and debt financing to $30 million since its 2015 founding.
And finally, Finnish B2BPay earned the top spot among hundreds of entries in its segment in BBVA’s Open Talent competition “because of the way their solution enables SME businesses to grow internationally and trade with greater ease.”
B2BPay gives companies, once the required due diligence checks have been cleared, a virtual IBAN number for a virtual bank account. That bank account can then be used to receive payments from other companies across the EU with the funds then transferred to the company’s local bank account.
“Euro payments in 35 European countries are handled without any fee (in most cases, or a nominal fee if there’s a fee) and SEPA payments are usually settled the next business day,” says B2BPay.
The BBVA Open Talent Fintech for Companies challenge was launched in March as part of BBVA’s wider Open Talent competition.
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