Berlin-based Pliant, a B2B credit card platform, has raised $28M in a Series A round of funding, which was headed by Japanese fintech investor SBI Investment.
Together with new investor MS&AD Ventures, the round also included existing investors Alstin Capital, Motive Ventures, and Commerzbank’s early-stage fund neosfer.
The German business claims that it plans to use the cash to broaden the geographic reach of its go-to-market strategy as well as to deepen and enhance the technical capabilities of its B2B credit card platform.
Malte Rau, the co-founder of Pliant, adds that having SBI Investment, a seasoned fintech investor, lead the round “is a wonderful endorsement of our approach.”
Pliant, established in 2020 by Malte Rau and Fabian Terner, provides cutting-edge business credit cards.
The business’s card management platform enables adjustable card limit setting, real-time reporting, and integration with already-installed accounting and travel expenditure management tools and processes.
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The German business provides both digital and physical Visa credit cards.
Customers can select between Blue (Visa Platinum Business) and Black physical cards while using them (Visa Infinite Business credit cards).
According to Pliant, because it is neither a prepaid card nor a debit card, it is independent of bank accounts and does not require an upfront charge.
According to the business, over 40 million offline and online merchants in more than 200 countries accept Visa cards.
Japanese-based SBI Investment is a venture capital business. 190 of the 1,120 companies in which the VC has invested, both domestically and internationally, have successfully gone public through initial public offerings or have been purchased by other companies through mergers and acquisitions.
“Pliant’s vision and distinctive go-to-market have convinced us that Pliant has the potential to become a major B2B card issuer,” says Yoshitaka Kitao, Representative Director, Chairman, and President of SBI Investment.
According to Ramin Niroumand, Partner at Motive Partners, “Pliant was able to raise such a big series A round, despite the present market scenario, due to the robust growth throughout the year paired with the high level of modularity of the product suite.”
According to Noel Zeh of Alstin, “From our first ticket in August 2021, Pliant has consistently astounded us with its tremendous development.”
Noel Zeh added, “We are certain that Fabian, Malte, and their team are on the correct path to being the best B2B card provider, and this is supported by the great customer retention they have.”
