The San Francisco-based B2B firm unlocks working capital

Fundbox, a small-business lending fintech company, raised another $176 million in funding. New investors Allianz SE and General Catalyst, according to a report from Bloomberg. In addition to the latest round of funding, the firm also established a $150 million credit facility. The firm has now raised more than $300 million.

Although the company did not disclose the valuation of Fundbox, analysts peg it between $500 million and $1 billion.

Fundbox Bets on B2B Lending

Based in San Francisco, Fundbox acts as a payment processor and lender for small businesses. The firm uses artificial intelligence to determine borrowers’ creditworthiness. The AI platform assesses data from software and services used by a company, including their bank account, writes Bloomberg.

The company will use its latest round of capital to bolster its engineering team and build new platforms. Meanwhile, the firm plans to use its new credit facility to loan money to customers, according to COO Prashant Fuloria.

Rising Competition

In an interview with FundBox, the company discussed the swarm of competition in the B2B lending space. Firms like Brex and Square have ramped up lending in the SMB space.

“There will always be competition where people flood the same customers,” said Joseph Engelhart, Allianz X’s CIO. “What we like is the underlying technology where we think they still have an edge in extending credit to the right people.”

In addition to Allianz and General Catalyst, other investors include VC firms Khosla Ventures and Spark Capital Growth. Fundbox also counts investors like Synchrony Financial, Jeff Bezos and Ashton Kutcher.

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