Please note that we are not authorised to provide any investment advice. The content on this page is for information purposes only.
Aria, a French fintech firm, recently concluded a funding round with €15 million raised. The company intends to use the funds to expand its deferred payment infrastructure across the platform economy and B2B marketplaces.
The round’s leader and largest contributor was 13books Capital. However, the company also saw a number of other backers participate, including Ankaa Ventures, Adevinta Ventures, Otium Capital, as well as several angel investors, such as Mark Ransford, Laurent Ritter, and Guillaume Princen, the former executive at Stripe.
What does Aria do?
Aria was founded four years ago, in 2019. Over the years, the firm teamed up with over 100 platforms with the goal of solving the payment gap between when suppliers need to get paid, and when buyers want to make a payment for goods and services they are purchasing.
Aria’s technology was designed in a way that allows for direct integration into the systems of a targeted platform. The integration allows users to make direct payments to suppliers instantly, including countless firms across the entire Europe. Meanwhile, it allows buyers as much as 90 days to make their payment for ordered goods and services.
In the last 12 months, the company has managed to process around €0.5 billion in payments for more than 30,000 businesses and even freelance workers who used it for their invoices. The growth comes following the company’s expansion in France, as well as its launch in the UK. The amount of money per transaction varied, with invoices going from €500 to €20,000 per transaction.
It is also worth noting that Aria is supported by a €150 million large debt facility from multiple investors, one of which is M&G Investments.
Aria’s goal is to replace the outdated B2B payments
The company’s co-founder and acting CEO, Clement Carrier, commented on the firm’s business model by pointing out that the B2B payment volume is 5x the size of the B2C retail payments. But, despite that, only 7% of B2B commerce is transacted online.
He added that Aria’s goal and purpose are to replace the outdated method of making B2B payments by providing an online experience that closely resembles B2C. To that extent, the company has developed a suite of tools that allow companies to process nearly any payment method.
In addition, firms can use these tools to offer flexible net terms financing and get their payments instantly. Apart from offering all of this, the biggest benefit is that it is all available on a single online platform. Even the buyers get to enjoy the flexibility of being able to pay like they would on a consumer website, with transactions conducted in only a few clicks.
