Klarna backs Berlin’s B2B buy now, pay later leader Billie in $100m round

As buy now, pay later valuations continue to soar, Berlin’s B2B pay later leader Billie has also seen its price tag skyrocket.

This morning Billie reported a $100m equity funding round at a $640m valuation, quadruple its last valuation in 2019, as well as a refinancing credit line of $200m per month from a consortium of German banks including Raisin DS and Varengold Bank.

Dawn Capital in London led the equity portion of the fundraise, with B2C buy now, pay later giant Klarna and China’s Tencent also taking part, along with existing investors.

Essentially Billie offers buy now, pay later options for business-focused retailers, rather than those aimed at consumers, which might have more specific and bespoke requirements.

The cash will be used for Billie to expand internationally and deepen its technical integration with Klarna and other strategic partners. Billie also plans to expand its own Billie Boost buy now, pay later option for businesses with longer payment deadlines and instalments.

“Today, B2B buyers from larger companies to individual retailers are going ‘digital-first’ and are already used to automated and frictionless processes in the B2C space,” said Billie’s co-CEO and co-founder Matthias Knecht.

“They also expect to see modern user interfaces, high limits for shopping carts, as well as real-time decisions for B2B. However, “Buy Now, Pay Later” for business customers, is still at a very early stage, and worldwide, there is nearly no provider of a BNPL product like what Klarna offers for B2C.”

Speaking of Klarna, the market leader’s CEO and co-founder Sebastian Siemiatkowski commented on the funding round saying: “We have known Matthias and the Billie team for some time, and are impressed by their mission to offer frictionless B2B payments to merchants and businesses across the world.

“We are here to solve problems and by being able to offer this service to our merchant partners together with Billie, we are doing just that. Something we also underline with our investment in Billie.”