Invoice financing platform Previse has raised $11 million in a funding round led by Reefknot Investments and Mastercard, with participation from existing investors Bessemer Venture Partners, Hambro Perks and Augmentum Fintech.
Founded in 2016, Previse is sitting in a sweet spot as the Coronavirus crisis highlights the systemic inefficiencies in supplier payments. Previse's technology uses artificial intelligence to sift through corporate invoices, sort out those which need manual intervention, and arrange instant payouts on the rest.
The company's InstantPay platform is currently handling 100,000 invoices a day and the firm has set its sights on reaching five million businesses within the next five years.
Previse is part of Mastercard’s Start Path programme, and the card scheme has used InstantPay with a select group of its own suppliers as part of an ongoing effort to make B2B commerce more efficient and sustainable.
James Anderson, EVP, global commercial products at Mastercard, says: “The business world has accelerated, but the payments that enable it remain stuck in neutral. Effort needs to be applied to more strategic work and back-offices need tools to help streamline operations. It is solutions and innovations like those being driven by Previse and Mastercard, through banks to their corporate customers, that will help businesses support their suppliers, and liberate them from inefficient processes.”