Taylor Wessing advises VC investors Illuminate and Speedinvest on $40 million Series B financing round in Pliant GmbH

European FinTech Pliant has raised a total of $40 million in its Series B financing round from lead investors Illuminate Financial and Speedinvest together with other investors and existing shareholders like PayPal Ventures and Motive Ventures completing the round. A Venture Capital team of Taylor Wessing led by M&A and VC Partner Dr Jens Wolf advised lead investors Illuminate and Speedinvest on their investment in Pliant.

Pliant is a European fintech specializing in B2B payment solutions. Pliant’s modular, API-first platform helps businesses streamline spending, improve cash flow, and integrate payments into their financial workflows. Pliant supports over 3,500 businesses in Europe. As a licensed e-money institution (EMI), Pliant issues Visa-powered credit cards in 11 currencies across more than 30 countries, helping companies streamline and simplify payments. Pliant has a strong foundation in Europe and will use the Series B capital to fuel its expansion to the U.S.

Illuminate Financial is a thesis-driven venture capital firm focused on B2B fintech and enterprise companies defining the future of financial services with offices in London, New York, and Singapore. 

Speedinvest is a leading early-stage venture capital firm with more than EUR 1 billion assets under management based in Berlin, London, Munich, Paris, and Vienna. 

Both Illuminate and Speedinvest are new clients for the Tier-1 rated Venture Capital Practice Group of Taylor Wessing.

Legal advisors Illuminate and Speedinvest:
Taylor Wessing Germany: Dr Jens Wolf (Partner), Dr. Niclas von Woedtke (Salary Partner), Philipp Seimel (Senior Associate), Felix Paul (Professional Support Lawyer) all M&A/Venture Capital, Hamburg/Berlin; Nico Jänicke (Partner), Kübra Inan (Associate), both Employment, Berlin; Dr Gregor Schmid (Partner), Caroline Bunz (Associate) both TMT, Berlin; Dr Verena Ritter-Döring (Partner), Regulatory, Frankfurt, Rudi Hasenberg (Salary Partner), Dr. Philipp Weiten (Salary Partner), both Tax (Frankfurt/Düsseldorf).