Paystand, which is building a blockchain-based platform to make B2B transactions as easy as Venmo payments are for consumers, raises $20M Series B
Dean Takahashi / VentureBeat :
Context & Ripple Effects
Paystand's $20M Series B lands mid-way through a funding arc for blockchain-based business payments: Bitpay raised a $40M Series B two years earlier, and Baton Systems had already shown bank-to-bank networks processing billions daily on blockchain-like infrastructure. The bet is that consumer-grade simplicity — the Venmo experience — can be ported to B2B transactions with fees stripped out.
The move also puts an upstart directly across from the card networks: Visa had announced its B2B Connect pilot built on Chain's blockchain years before, signaling that incumbents saw the same opportunity. The follow-on $50M Series C eighteen months later suggests investors kept conviction that the zero-fee model could scale.
First-order effects
- Paystand gains the capital to finish building its Ethereum-based B2B payments platform and push its zero-fee pitch at businesses still paying per-transaction costs on legacy rails.
- Venmo-style simplicity becomes the explicit benchmark for enterprise payments UX, raising the bar for what corporate finance teams expect from AR/AP tooling.
Second-order effects
- Card networks like Visa, already piloting their own blockchain B2B rails through B2B Connect, face pressure to accelerate commercialization rather than treat it as an experiment.
- Neighboring fintech funders keep writing checks into the category — Paystone's 2021 raise for service-business payments shows adjacent verticals attracting parallel capital, tightening competition for SMB payment relationships.
Third-order effects
- If zero-fee blockchain rails prove out at scale, per-transaction pricing — the core revenue model of card networks and bank intermediaries in B2B — comes under structural pressure, shifting value toward software layers that manage workflows around settlement.
- The pattern of successive large rounds (Series B to Series C) points toward consolidation of B2B payments around a few well-capitalized platforms rather than fragmented point solutions.
The trend: B2B payments are being rebuilt on blockchain rails by venture-backed challengers racing incumbent pilots from the card networks, with zero-fee settlement as the wedge.