Vartana, the B2B sales closing and financing platform, today announced it has raised $20M in Series B funding led by commerce & fintech growth firm Activant Capital, with participation from Mayfield and Audacious Ventures. This growth investment comes on the heels of the company’s $12M Series A round, announced in January 2023.

Founded in 2020 by Kush Kella and Ahmed Sharif, two former Motive (prev. KeepTruckin) employees, Vartana is building the first-of-its-kind, fully-embedded enterprise checkout platform designed for B2B software and hardware purchases. The platform serves customers like Verkada, Samsara, and others to provide them with the capabilities they need to close deals faster, retain customers, and unlock cash flow.

Large software and hardware purchases are often financed by a third-party lender, giving customers flexibility on how and when to pay. But the incumbent process of offering flexible payments is full of paperwork and intentionally opaque, making it slow and difficult to scale. It bogs down sales teams when speed and customer service matter most—during the deal-closing process. As companies tighten budgets and the SaaS industry faces staff cuts and potential customer retention crisis, there is an even deeper need for enterprises to offer flexible payment terms to their buyers.

Vartana is bringing the long-overdue consumer-grade fintech innovation to the enterprise sales suite. The company’s platform supercharges sales teams’ existing workflow by seamlessly embedding within a rep’s CRM, a process that can now be completed in as little as 30 minutes. Once live, Vartana can streamline the loan origination process—which traditionally takes two weeks—to as few as three minutes. Vartana’s customers see up to 30% conversion uplift, as sales teams are able to spend more time selling new deals and less time navigating pricing hurdles.

Fresh off a year which saw 600% YoY GMV growth, Vartana was introduced to Activant via their deep research on the B2B commerce & checkout sector. As part of the investment, Activant partner Andrew Steele will join the Board of Directors.

“In 2023, enterprise sales teams are under immense pressure to perform, and with budgets rapidly tightening, the market is more primed than ever for a tech forward solution. We’re thrilled to have found an investor like Activant Capital to further our development into the B2B payments space, and we’re confident that this strategic partnership will help us build the products that help all companies exceed their growth targets.” said Kush Kella, Vartana Co-founder and CEO.

Vartana will use its Series B growth capital for continued product innovation, scaling their go-to-market to more enterprises, including the software & hardware reseller market, and to expand the Vartana Capital Marketplace, which ensures Vartana can offer customers the highest loan approvals, with the most diverse set of payment terms, at the best rates. Vartana also plans to rapidly scale its team, aiming to double their headcount by year’s end to around 100 people.

“We’ve gotten to know the embedded finance and checkout space intimately over the last three years. One of our key learnings is that the most critical transactions aren’t happening on ecommerce – they’re within the sales team. Sales is the lifeblood of every business, and Vartana is uniquely bringing modular, best-in-class embedded fintech to the sales suite of some of the largest public and private enterprises in the world.” said Andrew Steele, Partner at Activant.

Quona Capital, a venture capital firm investing in innovative fintech startups in emerging markets, has released its 2022 Impact Report, which showcases the measurable impact its investments have made on financial inclusion. The report highlights the progress its portfolio companies have made in helping underserved individuals and small businesses access affordable and reliable financial services. The complete report is available at https://tinyurl.com/bddxmnyc

Quona’s 2022 Impact Report reveals that since the firm’s inception in 2015:

• Quona has made investments in 72 leading fintech companies across India and Southeast Asia, Latin America, Africa and the Middle East

• Together, these portfolio companies have touched more than 144.5 million customers’ lives, 79% of which were underserved. 

• These investments generated over $1.5 billion in revenue in 2022 alone, bringing significant social and economic benefits, including increased access to financial services, job creation, and improved financial health for individuals and communities.

The report also underlines Quona's continued commitment to investing in the financial technology sector with a focus on driving greater financial inclusion and impacting positive change in developing economies. By working hand in hand with founders and entrepreneurs to scale transformative fintech businesses, Quona demonstrates its ability to help create impact at scale.

“Since our first check, we have remained deeply committed to investing in startups that are tackling some of the world’s most challenging problems,” said Monica Brand Engel, co-founder and managing partner at Quona. “Today our investments span a wide range of fintech solutions—including digital payments, lending, insurance, embedded finance and other financial services—that leverage technology to eliminate barriers to access.” 

The firm’s approach to investing, which generates insights across geographies from companies with common themes, such as embedded finance, logistics, and more—enables it to bring important perspectives to founders.

The impact report features individual case studies that illustrate the impact of Quona's investments:

• For example, Klar, a challenger bank increasing access to financial services for people in Mexico, found that 49% of its customers used it to access formal financial services for the first time through its platform, and that 25% of its customers were female. 

• Khazna, a digital super app offering formal credit to Egypt’s 20 million underbanked consumers, found that 82% of customers were accessing such a product for the first time through its app, and that 60% associated financial access with quality of life improvement. “Khazna helped me to feel calmer regarding my financial situation despite goods and services getting higher everyday,” noted one customer. 

“We are proud of the impact our portfolio companies have made in reaching underserved populations in a post-pandemic world,” added Jonathan Whittle, co-founder and managing partner. “We remain committed to supporting entrepreneurs who are leveraging technology to advance financial inclusion, and we look forward to continuing to attract capital to this important work.”  

Ganesh Rengaswamy, co-founder and managing partner added, “When you realize the impact that getting access to financial services can have on so many consumers and MSMEs across the globe, it’s astonishing. It’s a great privilege to work with so many founders who are determined to make a difference in the world.” 

Tandem Bank is further cementing its position as one of the nation’s go-to banks for those looking to save, borrow and spend a little bit greener, as it reports its business performance for 2022. 

With a transformational year, the bank has surpassed a number of financial milestones: • Underlying operating profit of £4.5m – breaking into underlying profitability for the first time in  bank’s history 

• Retail deposits increased from £771m to £1.75bn (uplift of 128%) 

• £350m of second charge mortgages originated (FY21: nil)  

• Tandem launched bespoke mortgage product in February 2022  

• £238m of green home improvement lending (FY21: £136m), taking the book to £272m (FY21:  £150m) – representing 68% of lending at YE 

• Motor Finance re-launched, totalling £11m (FY21: £0.3m) taking the book size to £18.3m  (FY21: £9.3m)  

But with redefining its mission to make it easier for more people to choose a greener lifestyle, the  bank also had successes in maximising potential in supporting the UK’s transition to net zero and the  shift to a carbon-neutral economy: 

• New single Tandem brand with clear business purpose to support green credentials – Banking for a Greener Future 

• The launch of the UK’s first greener Marketplace 

• Creation and roll-out of new impact strategy and ESG framework, focused across product,  planet and people 

• 68% of all loans now supporting green lending (23% by value) 

• Over 35k trees planted and 20k volunteering hours by employees across Tandem’s five sites • Signatory of the 2025 Fintech Pledge and proud member of the Green Finance Institute’s  Coalition for the Energy Efficiency of Buildings 

Activity has and performance has also been underpinned by enhancements in the bank’s product and  proposition offerings, including: 

• Launch of first specialised mortgage product 

• Launch of new EPC discount mortgage feature 

• Delivery of new savings journey for customers, including an award award-winning savings  app and online journey 

• Partnership with Raisin savings platform 

• Launch of its market-leading Top Up rate for savers 

But underpinning Tandem’s future is an investment and enhancement of its digital, data and technology capabilities. This saw the bank’s acquisition activity and operations – Oplo and Allium  – merge under one business, as well the development of its platform, growing its network of strategic partners, financial advisers, and brokers. This has also further been developed with the acquisition of  unique money-sharing fintech, Loop Money in Q2 2023. 

Commenting on the performance, Alex Mollart, Tandem’s CEO, said: “2022 was a  transformational year for Tandem, against the backdrop of a difficult macro-environment. 

“Our shift to become a greener bank has given us a single purpose to get behind, aligning all of our efforts to ensure we support the UK’s transition to a carbon-neutral economy. This has helped us achieve an underlying operating profit for the first time and, importantly, provides a path to delivering ongoing and sustainable profitability. 

“We’ve already seen success across early 2023 too, I’m excited for what Tandem has to offer,  including an exciting delivery roadmap and expanding our technical capabilities – evidenced already  this year, with our recent acquisition of Loop Money – as well as continuing our mission in supporting  greener living up and down the country.” 

As the UK’s greener, digital bank, Tandem is focused on helping households reduce their carbon footprint and supporting the UK’s transition to a carbon-neutral economy.  

The bank offers sustainable and simple ways to save, borrow, and spend with market-leading savings, home improvement loans, mortgages, and motor financing. Underpinning this product offering is a strong fintech banking platform, that includes an award-winning app and a digital franchise that supports a growing network of financial advisers and brokers.  

Wolters Kluwer Tax & Accounting (TAA),  a leading global provider of software, integrated workflow solutions, and information for tax, accounting, audit, and compliance professionals, today announced the appointment of Bas Kniphorst as Executive Vice President and Managing Director for TAA Europe, effective June 1. Kniphorst was previously Vice President and Managing Director of Wolters Kluwer Legal & Regulatory (LR), Benelux. 

Jason Marx, CEO of Wolters Kluwer TAA, commented: “Bas has a deep understanding of the tax and accounting market with a long track record of driving customer-driven innovation, transformation, and growth. He also has invaluable knowledge of our products, and customer requirements. I’m excited to work with him as we drive further innovation and growth for the division across Europe.”.

“During my time at Wolters Kluwer, I have been fortunate to work across the globe, managing a variety of high-performing teams. It is an honour to return to the Tax & Accounting division and I’m excited by the opportunities we have ahead of us in Europe,” Kniphorst said. “I am passionate about innovation, specifically around our products, and look forward to working with our talented teams who devise smart solutions to tackle complex problems for our valued customers every day.” Kniphorst holds a Master of Arts in International Studies and Bachelor of Arts in Economics and Politics from Durham University, United Kingdom.

Kniphorst joined Wolters Kluwer in 2001 and has extensive cross-divisional leadership experience, having held leadership roles for both TAA and LR across Europe, North America, and Asia. As VP of Product Management for TAA Research & Learning United States and Canada, he successfully launched the award-winning CCH AnswerConnect solution. He was also instrumental in the U.S. launch of CCH Axcess iQ - the first artificial intelligence-driven solution for U.S. accountants combining tax news with actionable client information

As previously reported Marx became CEO of the division earlier this year. He formerly headed the company’s North America Tax & Accounting business. 

BPC, one of the world’s leading payment solution providers, today announced an enhanced partnership with the pioneering fintech company, Ellipse World, Inc. (Ellipse). The partnership will focus on bolstering security measures and privacy for customers by integrating EVC® (Ellipse Verification Code), Ellipse's dynamic card security code/CVV/CVC technology into BPC's acclaimed SmartVista platform to provide EVC processing services.

Ellipse is spearheading a revolution in payment cards with a unique and innovative solution to tackle Card-Not-Present fraud: the EVC All-In-One micromodule. This battery-free EMV module is a drop-in replacement for payment cards, replacing the existing printed panel with a digital screen to transform traditional cards into full-fledged security devices. Each time an in-person contact or contactless card transaction is initiated, the card generates and displays a new security code on the screen. This changing security code eliminates fraudulent card-not-present transactions by effectively safeguarding the card information from theft by malicious actors, and simultaneously reduces false declines by providing a trusted data point.

Vasily Grigoriev, Managing Director of Global SaaS at BPC, said “We are excited to partner with Ellipse to enable our clients to deploy cutting-edge payments technology. BPC is committed to supporting innovative fraud prevention solutions, ensuring that our consumers are able to leverage the right security solutions. Having Ellipse’ dynamic CVV technology together with our established Fraud Prevention service we are about to achieve an unprecedented level of card security on behalf of our customers.”

“Through leveraging and integrating existing EMV rails, we have developed a unique method to reducing financial fraud associated with e-commerce and card-not-present transactions” added Cyril Lalo, founder and CEO of Ellipse. “Through our partnership with BPC, we are empowering a greater number of financial institutions, businesses, and consumers to enhance their e-commerce journey with peace of mind and serenity.”

The partnership with Ellipse demonstrates BPC’s continued commitment to adopting market-leading payments technology, ushering in a new era for payment card capabilities. Traditionally, payment cards heavily relied on a fixed security code (“static CVV/CVC”) for transaction verification or authentication. However, through the integration of Ellipse’s ground-breaking EVC technology into SmartVista, BPC’s global clientele may now experience an unprecedented upgrade to their card portfolio. 

This remarkable development marks a bold stride forward in the evolution of card security, ensuring a secure and convenient transaction environment for customers worldwide. The EVC micromodule is the missing link between the physical and digital realms, instilling trust and confidence in cardholders when utilizing their cards for online transactions.

Adyen, the global financial technology platform of choice for leading businesses, today announces the launch of Payout Services. This offering enables Adyen's customers to payout acquired funds in the preferred method of their affiliated users or partners with increased velocity, and represents Adyen’s commitment to keeping their customers’ needs at the core of their product development. By removing unnecessary delays and third parties from the funds movement process Adyen is able to free up millions in daily cash flow for customers,⁽¹⁾ supporting greater operational efficiency and helping businesses to achieve their ambitions faster.

Adyen's capability to do this stems from its branch and banking licenses and direct connection to real time banking and card schemes. By moving funds from point A to B within a single banking infrastructure, payments can be processed up to three days faster than the industry standard. 

With a single API, Adyen customers can payout globally to their user base such as gig economy workers and marketplace sellers, greatly improving the platform experience with faster access to cash. The launch means that customers can access more of their money to earn interest, invest in R&D for future growth and minimize their need for external financing. With Adyen's API, instead of having to manage multiple providers across regions which creates operational complexity and slows a business' ability to scale, enterprise customers can manage funds globally with a single partner.

For platform end users, payouts via real-time banking and card schemes offer the advantage of quicker access to their hard-earned funds. According to Boston Consulting Group, 75% of SMBs expressed the need for same-day settlement or faster^.(2) By speeding up payouts, Adyen's platform customers can meet this demand and further enhance their end user experience. 

"We see this as an opportunity to provide a market-leading solution that supports real-time payouts,” said Roelant Prins CCO, Adyen. “We can greatly streamline the cash flow of our customers, improving corporate treasury management and empowering end users to receive faster access to their cash. Our solution makes it easy for enterprises to accept and payout funds in one place, acting as a catalyst for business growth with our innovative technology."

Tink, Europe’s leading open banking platform, and ecolytiq, a climate engagement solution, are collaborating to incorporate financial and sustainability-focused coaching into a seamless experience. By combining the power of money management tools with climate education tools, Tink will make it possible for new and existing customers to plug in sustainability-based services – with the ability to scale across markets.

Carbon tracking services will help financial institutions to empower their customers by providing awareness of the estimated impact their purchases have on the environment using open banking functionality to access enriched transaction data in real-time.

Combining Tink's open banking and data enrichment capabilities with ecolytiq's sustainability features will help financial institutions assist their customers with understanding how their consumption habits impact their environmental footprints across all their bank accounts and transaction types. This enables customers to build a truly holistic coaching experience across spending and its connection to sustainability.

We expect a key benefit of Tink and ecolytiq’s collaboration to be the seamless integration for financial institutions to implement sustainability-based features across their digital channels. ecolytiq's suite of climate engagement products will be made available directly on the Tink platform through a single API, removing the need for institutions to integrate multiple providers’ solutions.

For customers already integrated with Tink, this collaboration means financial institutions will add sustainability-focused coaching to their offering in a seamless way, and for those not already offering open banking-driven services, will implement both financial coaching and sustainability-related money management tools at the same time.

As part of Tink’s consumer engagement and financial coaching offering, the ecolytiq sustainability-based services will be scaled across all 18 markets where Tink is currently present.

Ulrich Pietsch, Co-Founder and Managing Director of ecolytiq stated: “Pairing open banking with sustainable banking is good news for financial institutions looking to make a difference. With climate action being so urgent, our partnership puts banks in the position to immediately meet the rising demand for climate-forward banking products with minimal technical integration. It’s a win-win for banks, who are ready to embrace the future.”  

Christophe Joyau, SVP of Banking and Lending at Tink added:  “The fusing of Tink’s open banking and data enrichment technology with ecolytiq’s sustainability-focused solutions presents an exciting opportunity to increase people’s understanding of their impact on the environment, and change consumer behaviour. Our recent research found that almost two-thirds of 18-34 year olds want more information about their carbon footprint, and nearly half of them would switch to a financial provider who allowed them to see the environmental impact of their purchases.

“As part of our growing offering in data-driven financial services, we are enabling financial institutions to better engage with their customers through embedded third-party providers, while also retaining customer loyalty.”

Payhawk today announced the launch of its new “Enterprise Plan”, alongside new product features and a partnership with Microsoft - a provider of leading Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) software.

"We are glad to have Payhawk as a partner on the Microsoft AppSource," said Stavrinos Kyriakou, Microsoft ISV Development Manager for Southeast Europe. "Their solution is a valuable addition to our Business Central portfolio and spend management solutions, and we believe it will be a useful resource for businesses looking to modernize their spend management procedures."

Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central, 365 Finance and Oracle Netsuite are some of the most popular ERPs for businesses with over 200 employees. According to a dataset from 6sense, Microsoft Dynamics have a 27% market share in the ERP category globally. 

Alongside the ERP, traditionally businesses use several solutions to manage different types of business spend, such as corporate cards, payroll, supplier invoices and employee expenses. Multinational businesses are likely to have different providers in each country, quickly building a web of disconnected systems. All spend data from these systems together with receipts and other documentation, must then be transferred to the ERP for accurate and timely bookkeeping and financial planning. 

Many of these legacy systems lack automated data capture and native integrations with ERPs. This is solved with intensive manual work which wastes employee time and prevents real-time reporting. Finance teams struggle to focus on partnering with business leaders. 

With Payhawk’s new Enterprise Plan, Finance teams using Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central, 365 Finance and Oracle Netsuite ERPs now have a genuine alternative to these legacy systems. They can provide an excellent employee expense experience coupled with automated expense processing and seamless two-way communication with their ERP. They can save up to four days a month to instead be spent on more strategic projects. 

"We have five entities, with approx 300-500 expenses a month in the parent company. It used to take me one whole day per entity to review, import and export, and put the expenses in the correct format. With the direct Payhawk integration to NetSuite, I spend just an hour a day on this. It's an enormous help." Eduardo Felipez, Management Accountant at Heroes

Also offered in the new Enterprise Plan is multi-entity management functionality that helps better manage spend and liquidity across different entities. Finance teams can apply group-level expense settings and workflows, driving standardisation and efficiency in spend management processes globally. A group dashboard shows real-time spend, upcoming expenses and available funds to cover. Finance teams get spend oversight per entity and team, and visibility of expense processing across the global organisation resulting in a faster month and year-end close.

“The Payhawk Group Dashboard lets us monitor group-wide expenses even faster and with more agility. We can now manage liquidity planning more efficiently and accurately through the dashboard and take better control by segmenting data by subsidiaries, teams, and cost types.” Serkan Yüksel, Lead Digital Transformation Finance at Hypoport SE

Finally, Payhawk is launching a new AI-powered camera in the mobile app which automatically identifies and crops receipts. This improves the accuracy of expense data and results in easier expense processing, particularly useful for global businesses with high expense and invoice volumes. 

Hristo Borisov, Payhawk CEO and Co-founder says of the recent Payhawk product launches: “With the launch of our new Enterprise Plan, we make available a range of new features that provide larger global businesses with a genuine alternative to traditional bank cards and expense management systems. Critical to this is offering trusted API integrations with the most popular Enterprise ERPs to deliver the maximum in bookkeeping automation. We’ve also built tools to help finance leaders understand and manage spending at the group level including new dashboards and group expense and approval settings, for easy ongoing management of users at scale.”

For a limited time, Payhawk is providing a special offer of 20% off the new Enterprise plan, this discount is applicable for those who sign up before July 31st. Existing customers can seize this opportunity by upgrading to the Enterprise plan before the same deadline.