Andreessen Horowitz backs British payment firm Sequence in $19m seed round

Silicon Valley venture capital giant bets big on British fintech firm.

Business payment provider Sequence has raised $19m in a seed round led by US venture capital giant Andreessen Horowitz, marking another big European fintech funding round. 

Andreessen Horowitz (a16z), known for its early investments into firms like Airbnb, Facebook and Instagram was accompanied by SalesForce Ventures, Passion Capital, Firstminute Capital, FIN Capital, and Dig Ventures – among others – in the round. 

The investment into Sequence is a16z's 11th European investment this year. 

London-based Sequence was founded by CEO Riya Grover, who previously co-founded and led food delivery platform Feedr and chairman Eamon Jubbawy, ex-founder of Oxford University spinout Onfido, the digital ID firm. 

Sequence aims to tackle the lethargic and clunky world of business billing and payments. 

By developing a 'dynamic' B2B billing and collections solution, Sequence is offering automated and more streamlined pricing and invoicing process – and plans to leverage APIs, data and analytics to do so. 

Sequence estimate that the total size of the global market for B2B payments is $100tn. 

Having listed with the UK's Companies House in August 2021, reports of the seed round and a16z's involvement surfaced a year ago. 

According to Business Insider, the competition for Sequence's initial funding round was intense – with a16z winning the $15m round at a $50 to $60m pre-money valuation. 

The $19m seed round has now raised Sequence’s post-money valuation to $75m. 

Despite having yet to launch, 30 employees are currently working at Sequence.