Aria builds on their successful freelancer invoice finance model as it shifts towards an embedded digital B2B payment structure, making B2B payments as easy as the B2C checkout experience.
B2B payments represent $120
trillion in volume annually around the world but only seven per cent of this is
conducted digitally. Helping businesses upgrade their payments infrastructure
and get paid instantly, French fintech Aria is today announcing a €15million
funding round to expand their deferred payment infrastructure across the
platform economy and B2B marketplaces.
The funding round was led by
13books Capital with participation from Adevinta Ventures, Ankaa Ventures,
Otium Capital and angel investors including Laurent Ritter (Purple), Mark
Ransford and Guillaume Princen (former Stripe exec).
Aria enables any merchant, B2B
marketplace or vertical SaaS company that sells goods and services online and
offline to offer their sellers a wide array of payment methods and terms, and
get paid instantly — all in a single platform. Aria is able to connect with B2B
marketplaces, transactional SaaS platforms and ERP systems to distribute early
payment of supplier invoices and offers deferred payment options for end-clients
via their API.
CEO and co-founder of Aria, Clément
Carrier, said: “We have solved a big problem for freelancers and the platform economy
but we have seen, first-hand, that businesses face a big bottleneck when it
comes to payments. Most online business purchases today are completed by credit
cards, while transactions via preferred methods for most businesses — like
wires, checks, and online banking — remain offline and have to be conducted
elsewhere. This is because the process is incredibly challenging, often
involving offline quotes and invoices, multiple phone calls and emails, and
long payment delays. Aria manages all of this complexity behind a slick
checkout experience and makes offering flexible payments methods and terms as
easy as using a credit card. The truth is that innovation in B2B commerce
payments has lagged far behind the B2C space. We want to modernise wide-ranging
aspects of how B2B commerce is conducted in the digital age.”
Aria will offer businesses a
check out experience akin to B2C users and underlying this the embedded payment
infrastructure will cover funding, KYC/KYB, debtor risk analysis, anti-fraud
analysis, credit insurance and debt recovery. A detailed dashboard will provide
a clear overview of their payments landscape.
Founded in 2019 in Paris by
co-founders Carrier and Vincent Folny, as ex-freelancers themselves they
understood the pain of waiting for slow payment and uncertainty of income
freelancers experience. Since launching
their deferred payment API in 2021, Aria scaled up quickly to become the
leading provider of deferred payments for the contingent workforce platforms in
Europe. Aria is working with over 100 platforms to solve the payment gap
between when suppliers need to get paid and when buyers want to pay for goods
and services. Aria integrates directly into the platform's systems enabling
instant direct payments to suppliers across Europe and allowing buyers up to 90
days to pay for services and goods.
Over the last 12 months, on the
back of growth in France and their UK launch, Aria has now processed over 0.5
Bn€ in payments for over 30k businesses and freelancers with invoices ranging
from €500 to €20,000. Aria is supported by a €150m facility from several
investors including M&G Investments to advance payments. Aria has partnered
with Europe’s largest freelance platforms and marketplaces such as Malt, Brigad
and Jump which are now being funded across Europe.
Carrier added: “While B2B payment
volume is 5x the size of B2C retail payments, only 7% of B2B commerce is
transacted online. Aria replaces the outdated method of B2B payments with an
online experience that closely resembles B2C. With Aria’s suite of tools,
companies can process any payment method, offer flexible net terms financing,
and get paid instantly — all in one online platform. Buyers have the
flexibility to pay like they would on a consumer website, transacting in a few
clicks.”
Speaking on the deal, Partner at
13books Capital, Michael McFadgen, said: “There is so much to like about Aria
it’s hard to know where to start. Amazing team, exceptional growth, clear PMF
across multiple verticals, highly capital efficient – they have it all. We’re
very, very pleased they chose 13books as their partner for the next phase of
growth and we look forward to supporting them.”
The team at Aria are on a mission
to help fully digitise B2B trade by bringing business payments and financing
solutions online and closer to them, reducing friction in the buying process.
Principal at Adevinta Ventures, Stefan
Grabmann, added: “Aria has developed a
powerful solution enabling businesses and freelancers to receive payments on
their own terms. We believe that the future of B2B marketplaces is
fintech-enabled, and Aria is spearheading this transformation across Europe.”
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