MineralTree, Inc., maker of the cloud-based, secure payments solution specifically designed for small and medium businesses (SMBs), has received $6.3 million of venture financing. Led by Fidelity Growth Partners India with full participation from initial investor, .406 Ventures, the funding will be used to further enhance the capabilities of the MineralTree platform and to accelerate its partnerships with banks and distribution to their SMB customers.

The MineralTree solution is a secure, cloud-based payment and cash management solution that meets the needs of companies with annual revenue of $500,000 to $50 million. Offered to SMBs as a private labeled solution by MineralTree's bank partners, the system provides unmatched security, mobility and visibility into the management of B2B (business-to-business) payments, via a secure web browser or iPad application.

Shyam Kamadolli, Director at Fidelity Growth Partners India, joins MineralTree's board of directors bringing the expertise and resources of a global financial services leader. "MineralTree offers tremendous value to small and medium businesses and the banks that serve them," said Kamadolli. "In the U.S., and around the world, B2B payments are still maturing, with SMBs representing a large, well-recognized and underserved opportunity. MineralTree fills a critical need, delights end-users and helps banks strengthen relationships with their customers. It's a big market, and we're excited to partner with this experienced team of repeat entrepreneurs."

Solving a Critical Problem for Growing Businesses Very small companies use paper checks and online bill pay systems to manage and process payments. Very large companies rely on complex and expensive treasury management solutions. However, more than 3 million SMBs are stuck in between these two extremes and are left to use a variety of poorly integrated, ad hoc, manual, paper-based and processes that make their lives unnecessarily complex, and expose them to security risks and control weaknesses. MineralTree offers a simple, streamlined solution that brings new efficiency, security and convenience to payment processes.

"We are a fast-growing company and had outgrown our bank's online bill pay system" said Mike Mozzer, Chief Financial Officer at TraceLink Inc., developer of the TraceLink Business Cloud application platform that helps businesses build collaborative, transparent global supply networks. "We needed a better way to manage payments and wanted to move away from manual, paper-intensive processes. By integrating MineralTree into our existing accounting system, we are able to streamline the entire payments process. We also appreciate the enhanced security and overall control that MineralTree provides as our financial procedures and policies become more sophisticated."

Helping Banks Build Stronger Customer Relationships Facing disintermediation from alternative payment processors, banks are seeking to maintain and strengthen relationships as their smaller business customers grow into larger organizations with more complex payment needs. MineralTree is a value-added service that enhances a bank's relationships with its SMB customers while driving additional revenue.

Securing the Payment Process from External and Internal Threats Fraud remains an ongoing and growing issue, with new threats surfacing every day, both from organized online account takeover and opportunistic employee fraud. The MineralTree system deals with both challenges through its secure, locked-down architecture, which helps protect SMBs and banks from traditional threats like check fraud as well as sophisticated online account takeover schemes. Further, MineralTree enhances internal security by ensuring that only people who are authorized to make and approve payments are doing so - and only to known and authorized accounts - eliminating the possibility of rogue employees redirecting payments for personal gain.

About MineralTree

MineralTree delivers secure, online payments solutions to banks that are specifically designed to meet the needs of their small and medium business customers. The solution provides a simple, streamlined approach that brings new efficiency, security, and convenience to payments and cash management processes - at a cost that is easy to justify - while helping to enhance the bank's customer relationships. MineralTree's leadership team has a long track record of creating innovative solutions to long-standing problems in banking and financial services.