Fortiva and ChargeAfter Expand Collaboration

Today in B2B payments, Fortiva broadens its ChargeAfter partnership, while Presto Ventures raises $36 million to give B2B startups a boost. Plus, Muse now offers a combination supply and invoice financing product.

VC Firm Presto Ventures Raises $36M for B2B Startups

British venture capital (VC) fund Presto Ventures has wrapped a 30 million euro ($36.8 million) funding round to help early-stage B2B startups in Central and Eastern Europe to support as many as 40 B2B tech startups at the seed and pre-seed stages.

Presto’s past investments have included Cloudtalk, IP Fabric, Yieldigo, Sharry and Wolf3D. The company has also named three new partners: Roman Nováček, a CFA charter holder and ex-analyst at U.S. private equity firm GTE; Vojta Roček, who launched and sold business intelligence startup Stories.bi to Workday; and Eduard Kučera, who built and oversaw the business intelligence department of cybersecurity firm Avast.

According to Private Equity Wire, several well-known investors have joined Presto in its portfolio investments, among them Y Combinator, Taavet+Sten, Point Nine Capital, Credo Ventures, Inven Capital, HenQ, KAYA, Senovo, Konvoy Ventures and Startup Wise Guys.

Muse Launches Supply/Invoice Financing Product

Business finance startup Muse Finance has launched a solution that combines supply finance and invoice finance, the British company announced Thursday (June 23). The tool lets businesses pay overseas suppliers while getting access to cash tied to their pending invoices.

With supply finance, Muse pays suppliers on behalf of its customers for products being shipped to the U.K. This gives the customers increased cash flow flexibility while they wait for their merchandise to arrive, with the option of paying back the loan over 120 days.

And with invoice finance, Muse can also ease the repayment of supply financing by letting customers claim 90% of the value of their invoices within 24 hours.

Fortiva Retail Credit Expands Partnership With BNPL Financing Network ChargeAfter

Fortiva Retail Credit, a second-look point of sale (POS) consumer credit program issued by The Bank of Missouri, is expanding its partnership with buy now, pay later (BNPL) financing network ChargeAfter to provide customers with Fortiva financing.

Fortiva’s Retail Credit program uses tech to let The Bank of Missouri offer a “seamless transition” from prime financing to a second-look program with affordable payment options, according to a press release Thursday (June 23). If shoppers are declined for financing from a prime credit provider, they can be instantly processed for the Fortiva program.

Using Atlanticus Services Corporation’s tech capabilities, merchants can get more inclusive financing options, allowing merchants to say “yes” to those with imperfect credit more often, per the release.