PastPay, a Hungarian startup that offers businesses buy-now, pay-later services for invoices, has raised $13.3 million in Series A funding.
Based in Budapest, PastPay says it provides merchants with flexible payment terms through factoring, a process in which a company sells its accounts receivable to improve liquidity and free up cash flow.
Companies typically provide invoices for services, but payment timelines can be tricky, with windows of 15 to 90 days for transfers. Once merchants are approved, PastPay says it provides cash to businesses awaiting invoice payments within 24 hours — minus charges.
The market for B2B BNPL has been growing as part of a wider push to digitize payments, with small and medium-sized businesses being particularly underserved, Benjamin Berényi, PastPay’s CEO, told Business Insider.
“We wanted to bring an embedded finance solution to invoicing and accounting systems but found the sales cycle was long, but in the B2B e-commerce market, things are growing fast,” he added.
The company operates across central and eastern Europe, taking in online and offline transactions for users via its tech platform. According to PastPay’s pitch deck, shared with BI, its service is supported in 22 countries. Startups in the BNPL space have often seen their models compared to Swedish payments giant Klarna, but the B2B market is entirely different.
The Series A funding round was led by Platina Capital, alongside backing from MBH Bank, Advance Global Capital, Quantic Financial Solutions, STRT, and BNL Start Partners.
“Funding wasn’t easy. We initially went out after the war started in 2022 but had more concrete conversations in 2023, and we found that we really clicked with Platina,” Berényi said. “Our approach to digitizing financial solutions has opened up multiple sales channels for us and has helped keep fraud rates low.”
PastPay’s funding will go toward continued investment in its fraud prevention infrastructure and scaling its offering to new geographies in Western Europe.
The company has around 18 staff but expects to double this as it continues to grow, Berényi added.
Check out PastPay’s 11-slide pitch deck below:
