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The business-to-business payments services providers Clair and Alternative Payments each said in the past month that they had attracted new capital infusions from venture capitalists.
The payments industry startups raised money from investors despite an increasingly chilly economic climate for companies still building businesses amid turbulent U.S. bond and stock markets.
Payments firms have proliferated in the past five years, but venture capitalists have become stingier the past two years, with the hint of a potential recession causing concern. That threat rose after President Donald Trump’s tariff war touched off equity and bond market volatility.
Cross-border payments company Airwallex, another B2B player, said in a Wednesday press release that it has raised $300 million, including $150 million in secondary share transfers.
That Singapore-based company sells software to businesses that use it to manage their international spending. Airwallex said it plans to use the new capital to keep building out its global infrastructure in new markets. It currently reaches into about 150 countries.
Among U.S. payments firms, earned wage access provider Clair raised $23.2 million from Upfront Ventures as well as initial investors that included Thrive Capital for a total of $68.7 million in funding, the New York company said Wednesday in a press release.
Alternative Payments has raised $22 million to keep building its business providing accounting software that allows companies to digitize and automate their accounts receivable and payable systems, and includes payments reconciliation. The company overcame investor apprehension to raise the money as it pitches services to update outdated legacy systems with artificial intelligence.
“Generally, the economic environment is frozen,” Alternative Payments CEO Baxter Lanius said in an interview Wednesday. “People are scared to make decisions. People are scared to invest. People are scared to buy products. So, it’s totally thrown a wrench in the mix.”
Because Alternative Payments aims to create efficiencies for businesses in industries that haven’t had access to accounting software, the company’s services have had appeal, Lanius said. The company, founded in late 2021, has about 1,000 customers and targets blue-collar and IT sectors for its services, he said.
The New York-based company is focused on the U.S. market for now, but plans to expand into Canada in July, Lanius said.