JP Morgan Invests in B2B Payments Platform Slope

JP Morgan invests in B2B payments platform Slope

JP Morgan Payments is being joined by Y Combinator, Jack Altman, and Max Altman's new fund, Saga, in the $65 million equity and debt round. Founded in 2021, Slope offers enterprise companies order-to-cash automation using AI tools that power checkout, customer and vendor risk assessment, embedded short-term financing, and payment reconciliation. JP Morgan Payments has chosen Slope to help provide clients access to short-term financing that offers an extension of payment terms to such clients' business customers. Slope will join the JP Morgan Payments Partner Network, which delivers end-to-end payment experiences through an ecosystem of third-party applications. James Fraser, global head, trade and working capital, JP Morgan Payments, says: "Working with Slope, our team at JP Morgan Payments can help meet client demand by providing access to a financing solution that integrates directly into the point-of-sale, translating into higher conversion rates. "By combining JP Morgan's fortress balance sheet and depth of client relationships with Slope's strengths in underwriting and credit risk monitoring as well as platform flexibility, we are a well-positioned partner to meet our clients' needs in a rapidly evolving market."

J.P. Morgan Payments Backs B2B Payments Platform Slope

Slope has secured $65 million in strategic equity and debt funding to scale its B2B payments platform for enterprise companies. The funding was provided by J.P. Morgan Payments, Y Combinator, Jack Altman and Max Altman's new fund, Saga, Slope said in a Wednesday (July 17) press release. The company was not looking to raise more funding, but had an opportunity to work closely with J.P. Morgan, Lawrence Lin Murata, CEO and co-founder of Slope, said in the release. "We are excited to join the J.P. Morgan Payments Partner Network, with the equity investment and debt facility helping to support future growth," Lin Murata said. "Working with J.P. Morgan will help us advance our technology so we can better serve more members of the Fortune 500." Slope's B2B payments platform provides order-to-cash automation enabled by artificial intelligence (AI)-powered tools for checkout, customer and vendor risk assessment, embedded short-term financing and payment reconciliation, according to the release. The company was founded in late 2021 by Lin Murata and Alice Deng and recently launched Slope AI, which gives financial institutions and wholesalers access to Slope's AI underwriting platform, the release said. Slope's platform is being used by J.P. Morgan Payments to help its clients offer their own business customers a short-term financing solution, per the release. Many corporates are looking to implement solutions that "reduce friction, streamline processes and support origination," James Fraser, global head of trade and working capital at J.P. Morgan Payments, said in the release. "Working with Slope, our team at J.P. Morgan Payments can help meet client demand by providing access to a financing solution that integrates directly into the point-of-sale, translating into higher conversion rates," Fraser said. One key benefit of leveraging AI to streamline the background workflows powering commercial payments is its ability to enhance, even prioritize, dynamic and flexible user-friendliness across traditionally static and immobile transaction touchpoints, Lin Murata told PYMNTS CEO Karen Webster in an interview posted in October. "We offer flexible payment methods that are typically more talked about for consumers, and that gives businesses a lot of flexibility and a really easy experience," Lin Murata said.