Bill.com recently announced it has partnered with Franklin Templeton for its next phase of growth. The asset manager, Franklin Templeton is backing a leader of the SMB payments space noticing that while consumer payments is being addressed by a myriad of companies, the B2B payments space has been lagging behind. Bill.com is one of the clear leaders given its broad adoption by over 3 million members and the deep volume of $60 billion in payments annually which pass through its platform.
The Company has raised more than $275 million to date. In its most recent $88 million funding round, Franklin Templeton was the lead investor accompanied by Mastercard and certain funds managed by Fidelity Investments Canada, Kayne Anderson Rudnick, Temasek, Cross Creek and FLEETCOR. Bill.com has been supported by some of the most sophisticated financial institutions – existing investors include the likes of American Express, Bank of America, and JP Morgan Chase.
An ecosystem has been essential to the Company’s success. More than 70 of the top 100 accounting firms partner with Bill.com as well as major accounting software providers including NetSuite, Intacct, QuickBooks and Xero. It is also touted as the preferred payment solution for CPA.com
Per the Company’s press release, the small and midsized business segment represents a massive U.S. business payments market that’s ripe for disruption. While consumer payments has experienced abundant innovation, business payments have lagged behind. More than $58 trillion in B2B payments are made annually with 80% of them paper checks, which come at a high cost including potential for errors and security issues.
“Bill.com is changing how payments are made in the SMB market by defining an industry leading payment and software platform for SMBs. Businesses struggle with conventional payment processes which are complex, manual, paper-based and not always secure,” says René Lacerte, CEO and Founder of Bill.com. “Our cloud payment platform is changing all that. We automate payments and back office business processes resulting in significant efficiencies and cost savings.”
“This is the Golden Age of SMB software and B2B payments with a huge market that’s ready for adoption. Bill.com is a clear category leader with a mission to make it simple for businesses to connect and do business,” said Anthony Hardy, Franklin Templeton. “The company has the right SaaS solution, ecosystem partners, significant customer base, and team to scale and capitalize on this significant opportunity.”
