Coverage of announcement: FinSMES, Fintech Finance & News, Alleywatch, PYMNTS, Zephyrnet, and a dozen others.
Hopscotch, a community-oriented B2B payments platform that facilitates instant, fee-free payments for small businesses and startups, today announced the launch of its private beta in tandem with a $6.1M seed extension, bringing the company’s total funding to $9.95M. The round was led by Shine Capital and Stellation Capital with participation from additional investors, including NOEMIS Ventures, 3KVC, Valar Ventures, and Red & Blue Ventures.
Hopscotch is a purpose-led brand that helps businesses process their accounts payable and receivable without charging them fees. The platform enables its users to transact with their clients and vendors, even if their clients and vendors don’t have a Hopscotch account. For Hopscotch users, when their client issues a payment, the funds are instantly transferred and accessible, a distinction from traditional payment methods with standard processing periods of 2-8 days. The entire process is also completely fee-free.
“At Hopscotch, we believe businesses shouldn’t have to wait or pay to access money they’ve already earned,” said Reed Switzer, CEO and Co-Founder of Hopscotch. “Most small businesses operate on tight margins, and each day they have to wait to access funds affects their ability to operate. Hopscotch enables businesses to take back their time and money, which, for too long, has been wrongly held captive by legacy institutions and incumbent platforms.”
Today, too many business payment platforms are ubiquitous with complexity and inefficiency: feature overload, limited connectivity between users, lengthy waits to receive funds, and high transaction fees. The result is a B2B payment ecosystem that hinders growth and prevents businesses from being adaptable in highly competitive markets.
Layer in a global pandemic, remote work, and the rise of tech-native Millennials and Gen-Zers in the workforce, and you have a category-defining opportunity to rewrite the way businesses transact. A new generation of workforce talent has grown accustomed to instant payment transfers in their personal lives, and now they want those same fee-free, fast services for their businesses.
Fee-free B2B payments is just one part of the Hopscotch vision. Hopscotch's stored value accounts and consumer-like business profiles also creates an unmatched payments experience. Small businesses such as branding agencies or consultants can leverage Hopscotch to seamlessly manage their accounts payable and receivable. The platform integrates with their existing accounting systems, such as Quickbooks, so that every action on Hopscotch is automatically reconciled.
“New business formation in the U.S. has exploded over the past two years, with the vast majority of those new businesses being formed as sole proprietorships. More and more folks are choosing to work for themselves, and they need software and billing tools that make their lives easier,” said Mo Koyfman, Founder & General Partner of Shine Capital. “Hopscotch is a simple and elegant solution for small businesses to easily invoice their customers, pay their vendors, and smooth their cash flows. With Hopscotch, business owners can finally focus on doing their business rather than managing it.”
With the launch of its private beta, Hopscotch has opened its virtual doors to waitlist customers. Beginning in Q2, businesses that have been invoiced or paid by existing Hopscotch users can join by registering with the email their vendor or client used.
Hopscotch has grown quickly since the assembly of its founding team in August 2021. The seed extension will enable Hopscotch to double the team across all departments, expedite the launch of revenue-generating features, and continue to scale their growing community of Hopscotchers.
For more information on Hopscotch, please visit gohopscotch.com.