Corporate Payments Firm AccessPay Secures US Backing

U.S. investors have placed new funds with U.K.-based corporate payments and treasury technology company AccessPay, reports in The Telegraph said on Sunday (Jan. 13).

Beringea, True Ventures and Route 66 provided $11.6 million for the company, marking one of the biggest investment rounds for a FinTech company in Northern England. Based in Manchester, AccessPay provides a digital platform for payments, cash management and treasury operations by integrating businesses’ back-end operations with their banks.

“We are one of a few players in the world focusing on that space,” said AccessPay CEO Anish Kapoor, adding that the company addresses the friction associated with back-end corporate financial technologies operating in siloes.

“The problem we continue to see are these services operating in total isolation to one another, which often means the corporate is faced with exposure to security, greater risk and complexity in day-to-day operations,” he said in a statement. “Connecting these services through our platform removes these issues, and enables the change finance and treasury teams are looking for.”

Kapoor noted that AccessPay aims to bring the “same level of simplicity to business-to-business [B2B] payments and cash management” that Square offers for consumer transactions. The funds will be used to more than double its current headcount of about 50, reports said.

Maria Wagner, investment director of Beringea, said in a statement announcing the funding, “Beringea seeks to back thoroughbreds that can become lasting successes. Corporate payments have not seen the same level of innovation as consumer payments. AccessPay’s platform solves a big pain point for large corporates.”

Beringea, based in both the U.K. and U.S., led a $4.7 million investment in Big Data Partnership in 2015, another B2B company focused on providing businesses with training, storage and support with their data needs. In 2017, it co-led a $15.2 million investment with Intel Capital in InContext Solutions, a firm targeting retailers with shopper engagement technologies.