Tilta today announced it raised €4 million as it focuses on making business-to-business (B2B) commerce as seamless and efficient as shopping for sneakers online.
Dreamcraft Ventures and 10x Founders invest in German fintech Tilta
Tilta launched its infrastructure for credit-backed B2B payment flows in Q1
B2B marketplaces are thriving because they are efficiently linking companies and suppliers, yet even more growth is held back by a lack of financial infrastructure capable of carrying the massive working-capital strain of B2B transactions
Tilta’s white-label solution is aimed at solving the B2B liquidity problem, raising transaction efficiencies in the process
Copenhagen-based Dreamcraft Ventures and 10x Founders out of Munich invested in the German fintech, with ff Venture Capital and AngelInvest also participating alongside angel Marko Wenthin, founder of SolarisBank. They are doubling down on Tilta’s credit-backed payments solution, which the Berlin-based startup introduced earlier this year.
E-commerce has upended the way private consumers shop, with groceries or a new shirt just a few mouse clicks away. But Europe’s €1.1 trillion B2B market remains painfully analog. Around half of the transactions are still done via telephone, fax, or meetings with sales representatives, costing companies time and money .
“The B2B sector is stuck in the dark ages when it comes to communicating around procurement,” says Tilta co-founder Ingmar Stupp. “Our credit-backed payments infrastructure is the missing link to move more B2B spend online and empower businesses in their purchasing activities.”
Tilta aims to bolster transactions on B2B online marketplaces, which are outgrowing the overall market by 40% because they seamlessly link supply and demand . Experts agree that B2B commerce will become increasingly digital, a shift that’s accelerated by the pandemic and millennials taking over purchasing decisions . Still, B2B transactions tend to be much more complex than those in B2C. Markets are highly fragmented, and companies often are forced to order from previously unknown suppliers at significant strain to their working capital.
Historically, the offline world has come up with remedies such as letter of credit, trade credit, credit insurance or purchasing facilities – all providing a centralised financial support system to create trust and solve liquidity issues. Building and scaling such solutions is exactly where Tilta’s founding team gained their experience. Unfortunately, those solutions have not extended to the digital point of sale. Small businesses often have no way to finance purchases other than reaching out to a bank for a credit line – a process that at best time-consuming and at worst can fail.
“With 1 in 4 businesses having to close because of liquidity constraints , this problem goes way further than simply a lacking digital payment experience,” says Tilta co-founder Christoph Nicola.
Tilta’s credit-backed payments infrastructure is aimed at solving this problem. It enables B2B merchants and marketplaces to offer their customers in-context purchase financing. The white-label solution works via a single API integration that covers all aspects of a transaction, including seamlessly working technology, the proper regulatory framework, access to capital and the hedging of risk.
Businesses ordering on a marketplace get an individual line of credit that can be used seamlessly and transparently, with the option to pay via instalments or after 30, 60 or 90 days. Businesses selling on the marketplace receive their sales proceeds immediately and risk-free. The marketplaces themselves benefit from a major value-add for their customers while being able to monetize a financial service, introducing a new revenue stream to bolster their usually tight margins.
“We're thrilled to partner with Tilta, an exceptional team committed to solving the financing challenges for online business transactions” says Kenneth Dambo, investor at Dreamcraft. “Enno, Ingmar and Christoph are reshaping how sellers can establish trust and drive revenue growth, which is more critical than ever in an uncertain economic environment”.
About Tilta
Tilta is a German Fintech providing the embedded purchase finance solution for digital B2B transactions. Launched in 2022, Tilta offers marketplaces and e-commerce platforms the end-to-end infrastructure for building credit-backed payment flows and closing the financial gap for their customers. Tilta was founded by experienced fintech entrepreneurs Enno Einfeld, Christoph Nicola, Ingmar Stupp, and is home to 15 more industry experts – all on the common mission to change how businesses do business. www.tilta.io
