Balance raises $56m Series B to enable B2B merchants grow their digital revenue

By Edlyn Cardoza

Balance, a pioneer in B2B marketplace and e-commerce payments, recently announced a $56 million Series B fundraise, bringing the company’s total funding to $87 million. Forerunner Ventures led the round with support from Salesforce Ventures, Hubspot Ventures, Lyra Ventures, and Gramercy Ventures. Notable leaders in B2B e-commerce also participated in the round as angel investors, including former Shopify CMO Jeff Wisener, Faire CTO & co-founder Marcelo Cortes, and previous investors Ribbit Capital, Lightspeed Ventures, Avid Ventures, Upwest and Jibe. Balance will use this funding to expand its offerings to new, global e-commerce platforms and enable B2B merchants to grow their digital revenue.

Since launching in February 2021, Balance has supported hundreds of B2B merchants and marketplaces, growing its customer base by 10x. The company has ushered centuries-old industries online like lumber, chemicals, steel, retail, and food. These include MaterialsXchange, a marketplace for buying and selling lumber and panels; ChemDirect, a marketplace for companies that need on-demand chemical supplies; Abound, a wholesale marketplace for retail; and notch, an ordering platform for restaurants and distributors.

“From my time at PayPal, I realized no one was tapping into the opportunity to unlock the potential of B2B eCommerce and marketplaces payments,” said Bar Geron, CEO and co-founder of Balance. “We’ve entered the fourth ‘Industrial Revolution’ that will take global trade online, creating a truly efficient market. Balance is bringing centuries-old systems into the modern-age through the power of digitization.”

While B2B payment volume is 5x the size of B2C retail payments, only 7% of B2B commerce is transacted online. Balance replaces the outdated method of B2B payments with a self-serve, online experience that resembles B2C. With Balance’s suite of tools, companies can process any payment method, offer flexible net terms financing, and get paid instantly — all in one online platform. Buyers have the flexibility to pay as they would on a consumer website, transacting in a few clicks.

“For years, the consumer has led the charge in modernizing how we transact, but innovation in B2B commerce has lagged far behind the B2C space,” said Kirsten Green, Founder & Managing Partner at Forerunner. “There is incredible potential to modernize wide-ranging aspects of how B2B commerce is conducted in the digital age, and the market opportunity is enormous–only 7% of the $120T B2B payment volume is conducted digitally today. We are thrilled to partner with Bar and the team at Balance as they work to accelerate the transformation of this industry.”

By 2025, it’s estimated that 30% of all global economic activity will shift to e-commerce, up from 5% today. Balance’s mission is to fully digitise B2B trade by bringing business payments and financing solutions online, reducing friction in the buying process. Balance increases access to goods while simultaneously reducing costs for businesses and consumers.

“The transformational shift in B2B commerce to online channels such as B2B marketplaces comes with complexity that demands new fintech infrastructure. Balance’s end-to-end B2B payments platform addresses this opportunity head-on and we believe they will become the industry standard,” said Nowi Kallen, Managing Director at Salesforce Ventures. “We are excited to partner with Bar and the Balance team given their deep understanding of the unique factors required to bring B2B payments online.”

“Secure and seamless digital payment products are essential in the rapidly expanding B2B e-commerce marketplace, but many of the available solutions offer an outdated and fragmented experience for most B2B financial transactions,” said Brandon Greer, Head of HubSpot Ventures. “Balance’s end-to-end checkout solution removes the friction from the payments process and enables companies to deliver the cohesive buying experiences today’s customers expect.”