Beacon and Crezco Pick Up Funding

Digital supply chain & freight platform Beacon and B2B payment processor Crezco move in the right direction.

There’s no denying that funding is good news, and Beacon and Crezco are the latest tech firms to enjoy a welcome boost to their fortunes.

Digital supply chain and freight platform Beacon raised $50 million (£36.7 million) in its Series B round – with some big names involved; while B2B payment processor Crezco enjoyed a £3 million seed fundraise.

A Beacon of Hope

Beacon is based in London and its latest round was led by Northstar.vc. Upper90 also participated as a new investor.

Existing investors also participated in the Series B round, including Jeff Bezos, the space-loving founder and executive chair of Amazon; Marc Benioff, founder, chairman and CEO of Salesforce, as well as US venture capital firms 8VC and Expa.

The fresh capital will be used for recruitment and development of Beacon’s technology.

Since completing its Series A in early 2020, Beacon says its revenue has grown 12x in the last 12 months, while the team has increased from 24 to 180, including expansion into Asia with a new office in Hong Kong.

Beacon co-founder and CEO Fraser Robinson comments: “We established Beacon to transform how businesses manage their supply chain and logistics operations. Since then, the COVID-19 pandemic has brought into the spotlight the importance of resilient, reliable, and transparent global supply chains, which has only served to reinforce the need for our technology and service.”

The company offers a range of services, including global ocean, air and road freight, customs clearance, insurance, reporting, data insights and supply chain finance, all accessed and managed in a single platform. This includes bookings, order management and live tracking via Beacon’s cloud-based software.

Beacon was founded in 2018 by Robinson and COO Dmitri Izmailov, both former Uber executives.

Crazy about Crezco

Fintech firm Crezco is also based in London. It provides a UK open banking payment solution designed to make B2B invoice payments “as convenient as B2C card payments without the costs collected by companies like Visa and Mastercard”.

Founded in 2020 by Ralph Rogge and Igor Pikovsky of Rogge Global Partners, Crezco has established partnerships with Xero, QuickBooks and other B2B platforms for invoice payments for “millions of SMEs” across the UK and Europe.

Rogge explains: “We provide a free online payment solution in the same manner WhatsApp provides free online messaging to replace cellular SMS messages.”

Crezco says it received financial support from individuals and companies in the fintech space. Notable individuals who invested in the business include Charles Delingpole, founder and CEO of Comply Advantage; and Chris Adelsbach, fintech investor and managing partner at Outrun Ventures. Crezco also received investment from UFP Fintech.

The proceeds will be used for recruitment, unspecified international expansion, and to build out its products to complement its free payment solution for domestic payments.

Antony Peyton
Antony Peyton
Antony Peyton is the Editor of eWeek UK. He has 18 years' journalism and writing experience. His career has taken him to China, Japan and the UK - covering tech, fintech and business. Follow on Twitter @TonyFintech.
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