Pliant Closes $40m Series B Funding to Expand to the U.S.
Berlin, April 28th, 2025 – Pliant, a European fintech specializing in B2B payment solutions, today announced it has raised a $40 million Series B equity round. This brings Pliant’s total funding to over $100 million. Pliant has a strong foundation in Europe and will use the Series B capital to fuel its expansion to the U.S.
The financing round is led by Illuminate Financial and Speedinvest, with existing investors including PayPal Ventures and Motive Ventures participating. Pliant’s Series B demonstrates continued investor confidence in the company’s long-term growth and strategic vision.
"Pliant is not just building a 10x better credit card product – they’re building the future infrastructure of corporate payments. We’ve been following Malte, Fabian, and their team for some time and I can't think of another team that has consistently outperformed their ambitious plans year after year. We’re now proud to co-lead this Series B and partner with such an exceptional group on their journey to become a defining European fintech success story." — Tom Filip Lesche, Partner at Speedinvest.
“B2B payments remain one of the most underserved and inefficient areas in global finance—still hindered by manual processes, opaque infrastructure, and slow settlement cycles. Pliant’s platform brings a much-needed layer of automation, flexibility, and intelligence to corporate payments, unlocking real value for modern businesses,” said Konstantin Koenig, Principal at Illuminate Financial. “We’re backing a proven leadership team with deep domain expertise and clear product-market fit, and we’re excited to support them as they scale across new markets and categories.”
Founded in 2020, Pliant’s momentum is fueled by consecutive years of triple-digit revenue growth. Serving 3,500 businesses across Europe, Pliant’s mission is to simplify business payments through a modern payment platform that adapts to the needs of fast-growing and globally operating companies across industries.
The company has seen strong momentum in sectors like travel, cards as a service, and banking, and is now executing a clear strategy to apply its expertise in payment processes to a broader range of industries. As part of this strategy, Pliant recently acquired the Austrian Insurtech hi.health, enabling the company to apply its payment expertise to the insurance sector while gaining valuable industry-specific know-how. This step supports Pliant’s broader plan to drive innovation through targeted acquisitions and unlock new growth opportunities.
“We are proud to have reached this milestone and grateful for the continued support of our investors. We have proven that our platform delivers real value at scale. With a strong foundation in Europe, we are ready to bring our solution to the U.S. market.” — Malte Rau, CEO and co-founder of Pliant.
To scale globally, Pliant is investing in the talent and infrastructure needed to support its growth, with the team expected to exceed 200 people in the near future. The company is also expanding its network of partners. Recent collaborations such as the partnership with Commerzbank have helped Pliant reach more customers and support a wider range of payment use cases. As it expands to the U.S., Pliant plans to build the right team, partnerships, and infrastructure from day one.
About Pliant
Pliant is a European fintech specializing in B2B payment solutions. With our modular, API-first platform, we empower businesses to streamline spending, enhance cash flows, and seamlessly integrate payments into their financial workflows. Our solutions are particularly valuable for industries with complex payment needs, such as travel and fleet, helping companies achieve greater efficiency, control, and profitability.
We focus on two primary customer segments:
Businesses that want to optimize payment processes through our intuitive Apps and powerful APIs, gaining greater control, operational efficiency, and cash flow flexibility through extended credit lines.
Companies such as financial software companies, ERP providers or banks aiming to launch or enhance their credit card offerings, using our embedded finance or white-label solutions. This enables these partners to strengthen customer engagement and diversify revenue streams effectively.
Founded in 2020 and headquartered in Berlin, Pliant supports over 3,500 businesses and more than 20 partners globally. As a licensed e-money institution (EMI), we issue Visa-powered credit cards in 11 currencies across 30+ countries, ensuring that payments become simpler, smarter, and more efficient worldwide.
Learn more at www.getpliant.com
About Speedinvest
Speedinvest is a leading early-stage venture capital firm with more than €1 billion AuM and investors based in Berlin, London, Munich, Paris, and Vienna. Our dedicated sector-focused teams are the first to fund Europe's most innovative technology startups and our in-house operational experts are on hand to offer founders ongoing support with growth, HR, market expansion, and more. Bitpanda, GoStudent, Wayflyer, Open, CoachHub, Schüttflix, TourRadar, Adverity, and TWAICE are among our portfolio of 300+ companies.
Learn more at www.speedinvest.com.
About Illuminate Financial
Illuminate Financial is a thesis-driven venture capital firm focused on B2B fintech and enterprise companies defining the future of financial services with offices in London, New York, and Singapore. Illuminate’s deep networks and trusted partnerships with key industry participants provide real insight into what the industry needs and helps their portfolio companies achieve their full potential. For more information, visit www.illuminatefinancial.com.