BREAKING: C2FO closes $200M investment led by backer of WeWork, Uber, Slack
August 7, 2019 | Startland News Staff
Startup giant C2FO continues its climb to the top, having secured a new $200 million investment — and doubling the amount of its once-record funding raise in fewer than two years.
“We are very fortunate to have a team who, for years, has delivered industry-leading unit economics, extraordinary customer satisfaction, and strong global growth,” Sandy Kemper, C2FO founder and CEO, said in a release Wednesday.
Updated: Click here to read more of Kemper’s thoughts on the massive funding round, including C2FO’s big challenge: proving it’s worth of Kansas City’s biggest investments.
The chart smashing round — believed to be the largest yet for a venture capital-backed startup in Kansas City — was led by the $108 billion SoftBank Vision Fund, which also has stakes in WeWork, Uber, Slack and DoorDash. The investment places Nahoko Hoshino, vice president of investment at SoftBank Investment Advisers, on the C2FO board of directors.
Click here to read about C2FO’s previous record setting, $100 million funding round.
Investment firms Temasek and Union Square Ventures returned to the table and placed new bets on C2FO, the company said of the round’s additional participants.
“This infusion of capital from the Vision Fund and existing investors will be used to further our expansion as we strive to build a new world wherein the increased liquidity provided by the C2FO platform helps companies and in turn, entire economies, grow more rapidly,” Kemper said.
Streamlining the world of working capital, C2FO’s online marketplace has amassed over 300,000 clients in 173 countries — helping them control their cash flow and manage more than $1 billion in funding on a weekly basis, the company explained.
Such reach and the ability to shake the industry helped attract SoftBank to the energy-rich startup, said Ashkay Naheta, managing partner.
“We invested in C2FO because we think their disruptive innovation offers a solution to an industry that has traditionally lacked cost-efficient alternatives for businesses of all sizes looking to free up cash quickly,” Naheta said.
Cash injections and the ability to rapidly scale wouldn’t be possible without the C2FO team, Kemper noted.
“Due to their work, we have now grown to match over $1.2 trillion of accounts receivable and accounts payable,” he said.
SoftBank believes C2FO and its leaders are equipped with vision that could help the company — which is expected to reach a $1 billion valuation — become the global exchange for working capital, Naheta said.
Startland will have more on this story as it develops.
Featured Business

2019 Startups to Watch
stats here
Related Posts on Startland News
Atlanta-based Opportunity Hub announces plans for KC minority accelerator
Opportunity Hub is about building strength in numbers, said Rodney Sampson, a feat that can only be accomplished in Kansas City through inclusive and intentional ecosystem building. “The bottom line is that it takes everybody to be a stakeholder at some level,” said Sampson executive chairman and CEO of Atlanta-based OHUB. “The thesis of a…
Can KC build the next billion-dollar company? ‘We have the internet here too’
Ambitious startups need to believe they can become Kansas City’s next billion-dollar company, said John Thomson, urging confidence — and the ability to roll with the punches — in the face of risk. “Accomplished entrepreneurs who I’ve met … they just did it. Of course it was risky, and it might fail, but they went and…
KC’s MixTape Monkey curates 11 million users through hip hop streaming service
Taking a long sigh, an underground mixtape mogul logs off from a live Q&A session with customers. Inside his two-bedroom downtown Kansas City apartment, Mark Serrano stares out a window overlooking the corner of 12th and Walnut streets. “Online I have this huge community, itʼs overwhelming,” said Serrano, referencing his staggering global user base of…
New home for Back2KC: Kansas City Startup Foundation expands talent pipeline efforts
It’s the Kansas City Startup Foundation’s turn to drive the tour bus, said Darcy Howe, announcing Monday the transfer of the Back2KC talent pipeline initiative to KCSF, the nonprofit ecosystem-building organization that also powers Startland News. The move means KCSF will take ownership of the program for its Oct. 3-4 return, adding a full-time team…

