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B2B e-commerce has a trust problem. Not with people. Not with companies. With the space in between.
A seller can verify that a buyer is a real person. They can run a company credit check in seconds. But confirming that the specific person at checkout has legal authority to commit their employer to a €50,000 invoice on net-60 terms? That question has been answered the same way for decades: manually, slowly, and at enormous cost to conversion rates and fraud exposure.
Today, we're announcing our partnership with Signicat to change that - bringing real-time B2B buyer authority verification to European e-commerce for the first time at scale.
What is the authority gap in B2B e-commerce?
We call it the authority gap: the verification blind spot that sits between personal identity and company identity in B2B transactions.
Consumer identity verification is mature. Over 150 million Europeans authenticate daily through national eID schemes like BankID, MitID and Vipps. Business credit checks are routine. But neither solves the core B2B commerce challenge: confirming that the individual buyer at checkout is a legal representative of their company, with authority to bind it to a purchase.
The result is a painful choice for B2B merchants. Accept the risk and offer payment terms without full verification. Or trigger manual reviews - document requests, compliance checks, phone calls - that kill conversion and frustrate buyers who expect a consumer-grade checkout experience.
As Two CEO and Co founder, Andreas Mjelde explains: "A British distributor can instantly verify that a buyer is a real person named Maria García. They can check that García Industrial S.L. is a legitimate Spanish company. But can Maria commit García Industrial to net-60 terms on a five-figure order? Until now, answering that question meant days of back-and-forth with documents and phone calls. We've collapsed that to seconds."
How Two and Signicat solve B2B buyer verification
Two's B2B payment and risk platform now connects directly to Signicat's identity infrastructure - combining personal verification through national eID schemes with company registry data on legal representatives and beneficial owners across European jurisdictions.
When a business buyer authenticates at checkout, the system simultaneously confirms:
- Who they are - verified through the national identity scheme they already use
- Who they represent - matched against company registry data
- Whether they have authority - confirmed against legal representative and beneficial ownership records
It's the trust framework Nordic banks have used for years to verify personal identity, extended cross-border and applied specifically to the challenge of B2B commerce.
Why B2B e-commerce fraud targets the authority gap
The timing of this partnership reflects a genuine and growing threat. Global B2B e-commerce sales are projected to reach $36 trillion by 2026 - but fraud and compliance friction are slowing the shift from traditional sales channels to online B2B commerce.
Signicat's 2025 research found that 54% of European fintechs reported rising fraud, much of it exploiting exactly the gap between personal and corporate identity verification.
"The fraud isn't sophisticated. Someone claims to represent a company, you can't verify it quickly, so you either reject the sale or accept the risk," said Sven Richard Samdal, Head of Growth at Signicat. "We built infrastructure that lets Two verify authority the same way Nordic banks verify identity - using the national trust frameworks Europeans already use, extended across borders."
Rejecting the sale means lost revenue. Accepting unverified risk means exposure to first-party fraud and compliance liability. Real-time authority verification eliminates the false choice entirely.
What this means for B2B merchants offering net terms
For B2B merchants and trade sellers, the Two and Signicat partnership means:
- Instant credit approval for verified business buyers, without manual applications
- Reduced fraud exposure from unverified or fraudulent authority claims
- Higher conversion rates by removing compliance friction from the checkout flow
- Cross-border confidence through verified identity data across European jurisdictions
For business buyers, it means the frictionless checkout experience they expect as consumers - combined with the net payment terms their business needs.
About Two
Two is a Norwegian fintech company building next-generation infrastructure for B2B payments in a market estimated to be several times larger than the global B2C payments sector. Two revolutionises B2B commerce by making net-term selling as effortless as card payments, enabling invoice sales in seconds across all purchase channels.
With 80+ employees and offices across Oslo, Stockholm, Glasgow, London, and New York, Two operates in 18 markets and processes over EUR 900 million annually, powering frictionless B2B purchases for 100,000+ businesses globally. The company's AI-powered platform delivers instant credit approval, built-in fraud protection, and end-to-end payment administration - giving buyers seamless payments with flexible terms while sellers benefit from increased conversion, larger order values, and reduced credit risk.
Backed by Sequoia Capital, Shine Capital, and Antler, with partnerships including DNB, Santander, and ABN AMRO, Two is establishing itself as the leading global player in B2B Buy Now, Pay Later. For further information, visit two.inc
About Signicat
Signicat is a leader in digital identity, helping private and public organisations verify users’ identities, authenticate access, and sign agreements with confidence. Founded in 2006, Signicat’s Digital Identity Platform brings together identity proofing, authentication, electronic signing, and orchestration through a single integration. It supports the full digital identity journey from recognition and onboarding to login, consent, and legally binding contracts. More than 20,000 customers in 45 countries trust Signicat to reduce fraud, remove friction, and meet European and global regulatory requirements such as eIDAS, PSD2, AMLR, and the GDPR. The company serves high-trust sectors including financial services, insurance, telecommunications, and the public sector. Signicat actively contributes to shaping Europe’s future digital identity ecosystem and participates in the EU Digital Identity Wallet Large-Scale Pilots, including WE BUILD, Aptitude, NOBID, and EWC, helping to define interoperability and standards.
In 2019, Signicat was acquired by leading private equity investor Nordic Capital. Today, Signicat employs over 530 people across 20 offices in 15 European countries. For further information, visit signicat.com
