Two - €18 Series A funding secured
Published 21st March, 2023
At Two, we’re working relentlessly to make B2B transactions as frictionless as consumer payments. Today we’re happy to announce our €18 million Series A funding! This brings our total capital raised to €28 million, previously unannounced.
This funding round was led by Shine Capital, and Antler with participation from Sequoia Capital, Day One Ventures, Alumni Ventures, LocalGlobe, The Visionaries Club, Alliance VC and more. Since launching in Q2 2021, we’ve grown 243% quarterly and won 79% of competitive sales processes.
Table of contents
- The problem with B2B commerce
- Two’s single solution for B2B commerce
- A global solution for global trade
The problem with B2B commerce
Despite representing $120 trillion in annual payment volume, B2B commerce has lagged behind the payment innovations that have transformed the consumer space in the last two decades. Purchasing as a business is still a manual, time-consuming and inefficient experience. This is because businesses need to send each other invoices then wait 30, 60 or even 90+ days for payment.
Unlike the consumer space, 94% of B2B transactions occur offline, with sellers typically sending invoices to customers who then pay via manual bank transfer or cheque. As a result, business sellers are effectively taking the role of their customers’ bank and are forced to:
- Shoulder credit and fraud underwriting risk
- Manage working capital tied to receivables
- Determine payment days
- Navigate complex collections processes
Removing these requirements for businesses can and will unlock substantial economic growth. In fact, the EU Commission estimates that 6.5 million jobs can be created in the Eurozone alone by minimising late B2B payments. A much needed development considering 1 in 5 companies go bankrupt due to late payments.
Two’s single solution for B2B commerce
Two makes it as easy to accept business orders on net terms as it is to accept card payments from consumers, solving the b-commerce (B2B commerce) problem. In fact, the largest order accepted through Two to date at €450K was end-to-end completed at checkout in less than 45 seconds.
By taking care of credit and fraud underwriting*, paying sellers upfront, and overseeing the receivables and collection processes, Two allows sellers to focus on delivering exceptional products.
*Two may not provide the credit or fraud risk assessment depending on certain variables such as market or solution chosen.
What sets Two apart is our unrivalled acceptance rate combined with one solution across all sales channels for our merchants, helping to shift B2B transactions online. Our unique operating model maximises order acceptance by using multiple credit underwriters to assess the same order, of which Two's proprietary credit engine is one of the possible underwriters.
Unlike competitors that are building B2B payment solutions similar to B2C, we follow the end-to-end buyer and seller experience, offering one streamlined solution across all channels, ensuring availability where B2B transactions happen.
A global solution for global trade
As a world first, the recently announced partnership with Allianz and Santander also enables Two to support large, multinational merchants across all of Europe and North America and offer instant net terms to their business customers through one API solution. We also support all small and medium sized merchants in the UK, Norway, Sweden and the Netherlands.
Mo Koyfman, CEO and founder at Shine Capita provides his thoughts: “Global business-to-business payments remain woefully analog, significantly lagging the innovation we’ve seen in consumer payments over the last decades. The world-class Two team is building an end-to-end global solution for B2B transactions across all sales channels. This has already led to explosive growth with businesses in the U.K. and the Nordics, and, with their recently announced banking partnerships, Two can now offer a truly global B2B solution for large multinational corporations.”
Moreover, buyers using Two come back for more. Andreas Mjelde, CEO and co-founder of Two, elaborates: “As of early 2022 the average buyer already bought more than 15 times per year. This has now grown to more than 50 purchases per year. In fact, Two captures a 58% share of wallet of all B2B payment volume through the online channels of our 175+ active merchants, more than twice of our internal targets”.
Martell Hardenberg, Global Investment Partner at Antler, adds: "Two’s rapid growth is a testament to the large pain points they are solving, by allowing merchants to offer their clients seamless payment and access to credit, while boosting online sales and customer loyalty for their merchants. We are excited to support the exceptional Two team, with an obsessive product-oriented mindset and a compelling approach to become a global leader in a massive market".
Getting started with Two is easy. Merchants can start selling immediately through Two’s portal, integrate via a simple open API, or choose from a selection of off-the-shelf plugins built for leading e-commerce platforms such as Magento, Optimizely, WooCommerce, Spense, and 24Nettbutikk. Two will also launch with Shopify later this year.