Billtrust, which makes cloud-based software for processing B2B payments, is going public on Nasdaq through a SPAC merger in a deal valued at $1.3B
With Speed Bumps Ahead? Tweets: @strictlyvc : Billtrust, founded in 2001, is going public via a SPAC https://finledger.com/...
Context & Ripple Effects
Billtrust's SPAC listing lands in a B2B payments category that Bill.com already proved out publicly: its above-range $22 IPO pricing in December 2019 showed public markets would pay up for SMB billing automation. Rather than follow that route, Billtrust takes the faster SPAC path — the same structure FiscalNote used around the same era at an identical $1.3B valuation.
The arc closes two years later: EQT's $1.7B cash acquisition of Billtrust makes the company private again at a premium to this deal price, framing the 2020 listing as one stop in a longer ownership cycle rather than an endpoint.
First-order effects
- Billtrade's rival dynamic sharpens immediately: Bill.com holds a traditional public listing and later added Divvy via its $2.5B acquisition, while Billtrust enters Nasdaq with SPAC-sponsor backing instead of a bookbuild.
Second-order effects
- Other B2B payments players copy the shortcut — Plastiq files plans to go public through a SPAC merger at roughly $480M, a far smaller valuation that tests how much the public market discounts second-tier names using the same route.
Third-order effects
- If the pattern holds, SPAC listings become interim ownership states rather than destinations in B2B financial software: Billtrust trades public for two years before EQT pays $1.7B in cash to take it private, pointing toward PE consolidation as the category's endgame.
The trend: B2B payments software is cycling through alternative public listings toward private-equity consolidation, with Bill.com's standalone success setting the bar the SPAC-route companies are measured against.