As businesses continue to feel the economic impact of the pandemic, all while facing rising interest rates and an impending recession, access to trade credit has never been so vital for their survival.

That’s why, at Hokodo, we’ve successfully engaged a number of European investors and raised a significant series B round of $40 million, to continue redefining the way that businesses transact.

Investing in B2B e-commerce
Our Series B funding round was led by Notion Capital, a VC fund who participated in our Series A raise last year.

“We’ve been following Hokodo since the beginning and made an initial investment as part of their Series A. We’re delighted to lead their Series B and double down on our support of Hokodo,” said Patrick Norris, General Partner at Notion Capital. “There’s a lot of excitement around B2B Buy Now, Pay Later (BNPL) at the moment, and rightly so because the B2B e-commerce market is at least twice as large as B2C. We concluded that the capability and maturity gap between Hokodo and their competitors is enormous. Not only are they the only provider to offer pan-European coverage, but they’re the only one owning the end-to-end value chain. As a result Hokodo is the only firm able to deliver a cutting-edge purchasing experience across the continent.”

Further investment comes from continental European investors Korelya Capital (FR), Mundi Ventures (ES), and Opera Tech Ventures (FR), reflecting the enthusiasm for Hokodo’s product in a variety of markets. Additional funding was sourced from existing investors including Anthemis and Mosaic Ventures.

Frictionless payments for B2B
Businesses want the option to buy and sell on payment terms – as they’ve always done – but offering trade credit online is both complicated and risky.

Since launching our Buy Now, Pay Later solution in 2019, we’ve spearheaded a movement that has modernised the way businesses trust and trade with each other – and quickly become a category leader in Europe.

Louis Carbonnier, co-founder and co-CEO at Hokodo, said: “The B2B purchasing experience has long lagged behind its B2C counterpart, and business customers are calling for higher quality services as online sales continue to gain ground in B2B. Hokodo provides merchants with a truly real-time credit solution at checkout, driving up conversion rates and enabling all parties to buy, sell and do more. Hokodo is currently the only pan-European Buy Now, Pay Later provider in B2B, and this funding will allow us to continue our international expansion to enable 1 million businesses to access a better way to pay by 2025.”

So far, more than 30,000 businesses have chosen to pay later while shopping with the 30+ merchants and marketplaces that currently have our BNPL solution integrated into their online checkout. This new funding will help us to complete our mission of enabling 1 million businesses to access better payment terms by 2025.

Enabling online trade through proprietary tech
Separating us from incumbent and emerging providers is an end-to-end value chain that was built and continues to operate entirely in-house.

“We’re the only BNPL provider that meets all requirements of B2B merchants, including credit scoring, fraud detection, payments, collections, financing and credit insurance,” said Richard Thornton, co-founder and co-CEO at Hokodo. “We don’t rely on any third party to make credit decisions as we can do it much quicker in-house. This means we can accept more buyers at a faster rate, which our merchant partners love.”

Our proprietary underwriting engine allows us to offer instant credit decisions, even to new customers, while having an internal collections team means that our merchants’ commercial relationships are better preserved. All our solutions are underwritten by SCOR Syndicate 2015, SCOR SE’s corporate syndicate at Lloyd’s of London, allowing us to guarantee that merchants will receive 100% of their payments – even when the buyer is unable to pay.

“Especially now, merchants should really care about the sustainability and scalability of their BNPL providers. We believe Hokodo’s unparalleled experience in credit risk, their investment in proprietary data and their unique insurer relationships provide clients with a sustainable and scalable solution to manage payment terms when selling online,” adds Franco Danesi, Partner at Korelya Capital.

International expansion & vertical ventures
We are already live and operational in 6 European markets, with new merchants recently onboarded in France (Paris Fashion Shops) and Spain (Katoo), following launches in Belgium and the Netherlands (Ankorstore) earlier this year. A portion of our new funding will see us double down our efforts to become the B2B BNPL category leader across continental Europe, replicating our reputation and success to date in the markets we’ve already penetrated.

Some of the funding will be used to develop new B2B BNPL products and solutions for telesales and in-store purchases, enabling more businesses than ever to access the credit terms they need to grow. We’ll also be using some of the investment to venture into new verticals that are currently underserved by payments companies.

Be a part of our journey
All this means the Hokodo team will continue to expand, following growth of 200% over the past year. If you’d like to join one of Europe’s most exciting startups and make a genuine impact on the world of B2B e-commerce, take a look at our live vacancies today.

As we prepare for Hokodo’s next chapter, we’d like to extend thanks to all our clients and their customers who have trusted us to help them find a better way to buy and sell to one another. We’d like to thank our investors and partners for all their support. And, finally, a huge thank you to all the Hokodians, past and present, who have helped us get to this point! We’re looking forward to what comes next.