Fintech startup Sprinque has just raised €6 million as flexible payment solutions grow in demand across Europe. The Amsterdam-based startup aims to help B2B businesses grow in an increasingly digital world by offering a BNPL and flexi-pay checkout.
As financial concerns sweep across the continent, one thing is coming clear. Both consumers and businesses want more flexible payment options. The ability to spread costs over a period of time and the mitigation of big upfront payments is attractive to businesses right now, as costs keep rising and incomes slightly stagnate. But is it the best course of action?
That’s perhaps a question for another article, but, for B2B payment platform Sprinque, it certainly seems to be. The Amsterdam-based startup is on a mission to bring B2C payment flexibility to the B2B market – and investors are buying into it, giving the team’s bank account a €6 million boost.
Funding details
- €6 million raised in a seed round
- The round was led by Connect Ventures, with participation from Kraken Ventures, Inference Partners, and SeedX
- Existing investors Antler, Volta Ventures, and Force Over Mass also contributed
Founded in 2021 by Manoj Tutika (CTO), Mark Holleman (CPO), and Juan Espinosa (CEO), Sprinque offers a flexible B2B payments platform, aiming to help B2B businesses grow with minimal risk in a digital world. Sprinque enables B2B merchants and B2B marketplaces to extend payment terms to their customers, via a Pay by Invoice solution, with the option for them to pay 15 – 90 days later, without taking on additional risk or operational overhead.
The white-labelled solution can be fully embedded via APIs, Magento, Prestashop and WooCommerce plugins, or operated offline via its Merchant Control Center.
Businesses are moving to online transactions at a rapid rate – and it is now becoming the norm rather than the expectation. It’s reported that B2B eCommerce is already 5x the size of B2C eCommerce, but the market is still lagging in regards to optimal solutions and tools and merchants are facing a number of challenges.
A key obstacle to overcome for online B2B transactions is that buyers expect to receive an invoice for their purchases and buyers are accustomed to receiving net payment terms of 15, 30, or 60 days, or longer, for their invoice. However, in online transactions, suppliers do not meet buyers face to face, resulting in them being generally reluctant to start production, ship their products or provide their services, without knowing upfront that they will get paid.
Juan Espinosa, Co-Founder and CEO: “We’ve identified this problem across every B2B industry. Buyers won’t convert and be retained if the ability to Pay by Invoice is not given to them, but the existing offline and manual processes B2B merchants rely on are not adequate to manage risk and serve hundreds of online buyers across multiple geographies. Sprinque has been built to enable merchants and marketplaces to offer Pay by Invoice with payment terms in the most seamless way possible for the most ambitious merchants.”
Amsterdam-born Sprinque aims to solve this through its payment solution. Its platform mitigates risk by taking on all defaults and fraud risks, as well as automating the end-to-end process of offering Pay by Invoice with net payment terms at scale.
On the buyer end, Sprinque performs a real-time fraud and credit risk assessment (with a +95% approval rate) when buyers create an account with the merchant, or when they select “Pay by Invoice” at checkout. When approved, Sprinque issues a revolving credit line that buyers can use for multiple purchases. Sprinque then pays the merchant when the final invoice is issued, taking away the risk of default.
Currently, the young startup is targeting businesses in the Netherlands, Spain and Germany, but is looking to expand to other countries quickly. This new investment will be used t fuel expansion into European markets and build functionality outside the Pay by Invoice product, as well as develop risk-sharing solutions and manage all payment flows for B2B merchants and marketplaces.
Rory Stirling, General Partner at Connect Ventures: “Sprinque’s founding team has a deep understanding of B2B commerce and how to help their customers improve conversion, retention and cash flow. They recognise that a B2C-style BNPL payment method doesn’t translate into a B2B context, so instead they are building a differentiated product designed specifically for the breadth and complexity of B2B commerce.”
Thibault D’hondt, Principal, Force Over Mass: “In an increasingly online environment, the move to digital payments and financial operations in B2B trade is inevitable. In our quest to find the next big winner in B2B payments, Sprinque’s management continued to impress us with their complementarity skills and executional strength. We couldn’t be more excited to double down on our investment and help the company unlock this multi-trillion opportunity.”
