LONDON–(BUSINESS WIRE)–Hokodo, the fast-growth European fintech enabling B2B merchants to offer their customers payment terms in real time, today announced its $12.5 million Series A.
The funding round is led by Mosaic Ventures, with participation from Notion Capital and several prominent angel investors including Taavet Hinrikus, founder of TransferWise (now Wise), Thijn Lamers, former EVP, Global Sales of Adyen, Max Bittner, CEO of Vestiaire Collective and founder of Lazada and Rich Laxer, ex-Chairman and CEO of GE Capital. Hokodo’s earliest investor Anthemis also joins the round and reaffirms its conviction in the company’s vision.
The new funds will be used to further invest in Hokodo’s proprietary technology and scale the solution across Europe, making it available to the millions of businesses currently unable to extend, or access, credit terms when trading online.
Founded in 2018 by Richard Thornton, Louis Carbonnier and Sami Ben Hatit, Hokodo provides B2B merchants with real-time trade credit solutions. With Hokodo, merchants can offer instant payment terms to their customers through a frictionless B2C-like “Buy Now Pay Later” checkout experience. Designed specifically to remove the complexity and risks associated with offering credit terms online, Hokodo’s solution integrates easily via APIs into existing e-commerce platforms and marketplaces. Behind the scenes, Hokodo automates the whole order-to-cash cycle, from credit checks to collections and working capital finance, while protecting merchants against non-payments.
“Credit terms are a crucial lever to grow sales, especially as the economy unlocks following COVID. But current processes for offering trade credit are not fit for purpose – especially for online sales. With Hokodo, merchants can offer payment terms instantly at the check-out, even on a customer’s first visit; and our merchants are guaranteed to get paid no matter what”, says Richard Thornton, Co-Founder and Co-CEO.
“Hokodo’s Buy Now Pay Later solution is helping the whole supply chain by removing the hassle associated with payment terms. Everyone wins: trade customers can buy now and pay later, while merchants win more business and streamline their order-to-cash cycle. Merchants using Hokodo see an average 40% increase in revenue and achieve unprecedented levels of customer satisfaction”, says Louis Carbonnier, Hokodo’s Co-Founder and Co-CEO.
The total value of the B2B market in Western Europe currently exceeds $12 TN, with $680 BN of these sales already taking place online, forming Hokodo’s primary market. This creates a $15 BN revenue opportunity for Hokodo, which is set to double every 5 years.
“The B2B purchasing experience has long lagged behind its B2C counterpart, and trade customers are calling for more. Hokodo is building a next generation platform for digital commerce, offering real-time credit to make it easier for businesses to purchase goods and easier for merchants to convert sales and grow. We have seen the enormous impact of “buy now, pay later” technology in the consumer market and, by solving the complexity of real-time trade finance, Hokodo is now bringing it to B2B”, says Toby Coppel, Co-founder and Partner at Mosaic Ventures.
Hokodo’s founding team combines over 40 years of experience in fintech and trade credit, and brings together a team of over 30 people, located in London and Paris, driven by a belief in intellectual rigour, entrepreneurial values and a passion for disrupting the trade finance industry to create a better way of doing business. To support the company’s significant growth, Hokodo will double its team by the end of 2021, and grow by another 100% in 2022, with key roles in product, tech, data science and commercial.
Patrick Norris, General Partner at Notion Capital explains: “I like the founders’ combination of skills and experience across credit insurance and risk, plus their thoughtful approach to the extremely complex task of enabling real-time credit for B2B ecommerce. They are also a very close team with a fantastic culture”.
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About Hokodo
Hokodo is a fintech startup offering a range of “Trade Credit as a Service” solutions to bring B2B commerce into the 21st century. Hokodo’s technology empowers B2B merchants to offer credit terms to their business customers instantly, even on their first purchase. In turn, customers benefit from additional payment terms through a frictionless purchasing experience. Hokodo’s solutions are backed by Lloyd’s of London via the Channel Syndicate, a unit of SCOR SE. .
About Mosaic Ventures
Mosaic backs founders who are reimagining the world. They invest $1-10m in those building daring (ad)ventures in Europe. Having raised $300 million across two funds they partner with founding teams that are fundamentally reshaping big markets. The team has over 30 years experience investing on both sides of the Atlantic. In that time, they have invested across 12 countries, in over 70 companies that together have created over $400 billion of value. They also bring extensive operating experience at leading West Coast startups
About Notion Capital
Notion Capital is a venture capital firm with more than $500m assets under management, investing in European SaaS and enterprise technology, with more than 60 investments to date. The Notion team founded, built and exited two highly successful SaaS businesses – Star and MessageLabs – and invests exclusively in enterprise tech and SaaS with the ambition to build global category leaders. The Notion portfolio includes Brightpearl, Currencycloud, GoCardless, Mews, Paddle, Topia, Tradeshift, Unbabel, Tradeshift, Triptease and Workable. For more information visit: www.notion.vc