Fundbox, a Silicon Valley-based fintech startup and a B2B payment and credit network that transforms how funding flows, today announced it announced a fresh equity investment from MUFG Innovation Partners Co., Ltd., the corporate venture capital arm of Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group (MUFG), Japan’s largest financial group and the world’s fourth-largest bank holding company. With this financing, MUFG Innovation Partners tripled its investment in Fundbox’s recent Series C round, bringing the total equity funding in the round to almost $200 million.
Founded in 2013 by Eyal Shinar, Michal Cieplinski, Tomer Michaeli, and Yuval Ariav, the San Francisco-based Fundbox is a technology platform focused on disrupting the $21 trillion B2B commerce market by building the B2B payment and credit network. With Fundbox, sellers (of all sizes) can quickly increase average order volumes (AOV) and improve close rates by offering more competitive net terms and payment plans to their SMB buyers.
“We are pleased with how Fundbox’s advanced data science and technology capabilities have contributed to its superior portfolio performance, especially during COVID-19,” said Akihiko Okamoto, Managing Director & Chief Investment Officer for MUFG Innovation Partners. “Even in the face of these extraordinary economic conditions, the strength of the business has been impressive. Our team has great confidence in Fundbox.”
While COVID-19 has had a wide-scale negative impact on many Fintechs, Fundbox has gained strong positive momentum by continuing to grow its customer network, originating credit for existing customers, and enabling faster payments for B2B suppliers. Despite a modest increase in losses early in the pandemic, key portfolio health indicators are now back at, or better than, pre-crisis levels.
“Our investments in real-time data access, machine learning, and automated credit management have helped us respond very quickly to this crisis, allowing us to continue serving the majority of our customers in addition to adding new customers,” said Eyal Shinar, Founder, and CEO of Fundbox. “The funding and support from sophisticated strategic investors like MUFG will enable us to continue investing in our technology platform and customer experience.”
To date, Fundbox has received numerous accolades for innovation including the prestigious Forbes A.I. 50, Red Herring North American 100, Forbes Fintech 50, CB Insights Fintech 250, Benzinga 2019 Fintech Listmakers, Forbes Billion Dollar Startup To Watch among others. Since the company’s founding in 2013, Fundbox has raised more than $400 million from a blue-chip group of investors led by Khosla Ventures, Allianz, MUFG Innovation Partners, General Catalyst, Spark Growth Capital, Arbor Ventures and Bezos Expeditions, and is currently experiencing incredible growth momentum.
