Billhop (www.billhop.com/gb), the Swedish company which enables businesses and individuals to pay their invoices by credit card, has closed a €4M Series A investment round from financial technology VC Element Ventures (www.elementventures.vc).

A majority of suppliers do not accept card payments due to processing fees and administration involved, and not all SMEs, sole traders and corporates have the liquid assets required to settle their invoices. Billhop is the payment platform that enables businesses, enterprises and individuals to pay any invoice by credit card, regardless of whether the supplier accepts card payments. 

Billhop manages the entire payment process without onboarding the end recipient of the invoice payment. The service is particularly relevant in the wake of the coronavirus pandemic, with companies often experiencing shrinking liquidity margins. Inability to pay or late payments can have a knock-on effect on both buyer and supplier, and can at worst lead to financial instability.

With most credit card issuers offering an interest-free payment period exceeding 30 days, Billhop’s clients are able to extend their payment terms without straining supplier relationships. Suppliers are paid on time and the client’s cash balance is preserved until their credit card statement is due.

Billhop’s new take on working capital financing is now being utilised by more than 50,000 European companies, including a growing number of Fortune 500 companies. Since the introduction of Billhop’s corporate offering in January 2019, transactions have accelerated by 500% to-date, while the total transactions processed via Billhop, across all of its customer segments, exceeded €270M in 2020. 

The latest investment from Element Ventures will be used for further product development and to strengthen Billhop’s sales, marketing and customer support functions, in order to meet growing demand for working capital financing solutions, now accelerated by the global economic uncertainty brought about by the pandemic.

Billhop was recently named among the fastest growing companies in Sweden with a growth of 768% during the last three years as well as Sweden’s ‘most disruptive company’, by Deloitte. 

Sebastian Andreescu, CEO & co-founder of Billhop, comments: “We are very pleased to have the backing of Element Ventures and look forward to working with Michael, whose experience and knowledge within the financial sector will be a valuable resource for Billhop. The new capital will enable our accelerated growth plan which entails expanding the team, increasing our market footprint, and further developing and improving our solution for European businesses of all sizes.

Ingemar Sjögren, CFO & co-founder of Billhop, comments: “The pandemic has led to massive reductions in Travel & Entertainment (T&E) spend traditionally comprising the bulk of corporate card spend. It has forced commercial card issuers to find new avenues to stimulate card volumes. In supplier payments, the issue has always been the low card acceptance - this is something that Billhop instantly addresses. Whilst card issuers always had a willingness to promote Billhop to increase transaction volumes, we see that this appetite is intensifying in the absence of T&E spend.”

Michael McFadgen, Partner at Element Ventures who led the investment in Billhop, comments: “We set up Element Ventures to find companies just like Billhop. Those fintech firms with a strong focus on B2B and whose technology has the potential to revolutionise the way businesses operate. Billhop has already made fantastic progress helping their customers efficiently access financing and liquidity, having grown organically since launch, and it will prove even more crucial as businesses of all sizes navigate the turbulent market conditions ahead. We’re thrilled the team chose to partner with us and we’re excited for what’s to come.”