Paystand has successfully raised $20 million in its Series B funding round, VentureBeat and others reported on Feb. 6. The company will use this money to accelerate the growth of its blockchain-based commercial payment platform.
The current round includes investment from DNX Ventures, Battery Ventures, Epic Ventures, Commerce Ventures and Wildcat Ventures. Existing investors Leap Global Partners, BlueRun Ventures and others also participated.
The company will use the funds to expand its teams in Scotts Valley, California and Guadalajara, Mexico, as well as funding the expansion of its product lines. Paystand offers a blockchain-based platform for its customers that digitizes the settlement of commercial payments in many industries.
Jeremy Almond, CEO of Paystand, said to VentureBeat:
“It’s like Venmo for complicated transactions for commerce. We are rebooting the financial infrastructure because a lot of it was built pre-internet. It holds companies back. We’re coming in with a new business model, doing payments-as-a-service.”
Paystand fully automates the payment procedures for certain industries. For example, it allows insurance companies to digitally receive premium payments and send settlements for claims. Industries such as manufacturing, transportation and pharmaceuticals also benefit from the digitized cash cycle.
Paystand also uses smart contracts to negotiate conditions between companies. As Almond explained:
“We enable the infrastructure between companies to use what they call smart contracts. We pay you on these terms. How do you ensure that happens? Blockchain infrastructure is good for that kind of thing.”
This is made possible by a hybrid blockchain system, made of a public component for security and traceability, connected to private infrastructure for scaling.
The company is on a fast track for growth, having more than doubled its year-over-year revenue in the past 24 months. In the same time frame, it added over 80 large enterprise customers. Some of its current clients include JCB, Bugaboo, Covetrus, Parachute Home and Silicon Valley Bank.
