London-based Pento, which offers payroll services for SMBs, raises a $35M Series B led by Tiger Global and Avid Ventures, after raising a $15.6M Series A in May
Mary Ann Azevedo / TechCrunch :
Context & Ripple Effects
Pento's move from a May Series A to a $35M Series B inside roughly seven months puts it on the fast-track cadence that defined 2021 SMB fintech fundraising. The round also extends Tiger Global's streak of backing the category at speed — the same fund led Pomelo's $35M Series A in October and Mesh Payments' $50M Series B days before this deal.
First-order effects
- Pento gains the capital to scale its SMB payroll service out of London, with Tiger Global and Avid Ventures now on the cap table as lead investors.
- Tiger Global adds a third SMB-facing fintech position in under two months, concentrating its portfolio bets on companies serving small-business money flows.
Second-order effects
- Rivals serving the same SMB customer through adjacent products — Paysend with global accounts and business banking after its $125M Series B, or Penta in SME banking — now compete against a payroll specialist with fresh war chest and top-tier sponsorship.
- Workforce payments players like Branch, which raised a $75M Series C in the same window, signal that payroll-adjacent infrastructure is drawing capital faster than incumbents can bundle it.
Third-order effects
- If the pattern holds, SMB back-office functions — payroll, expenses, accounts — consolidate into venture-funded platforms competing on distribution rather than product silos, with a handful of fast-moving funds like Tiger Global effectively setting which startups get scale capital.
- The compressed Series A-to-B timeline points toward a market where speed of follow-on funding, not revenue milestones alone, determines which SMB fintechs survive the eventual correction.
The trend: SMB fintech is consolidating around rapid-fire, mega-fund-led rounds, with Tiger Global repeatedly anchoring the category across geographies and product lines.