British fintech Ontik raises $3.7M for B2B trade credit automation

Ontik, a London-based fintech focused on automating trade credit for B2B wholesalers, has raised a $3.7 million Seed round.

The round was led by Firstminute Capital and supported by PT1, Illusian, FJ Labs, Seed X, Tiny VC, and angels including the founders of Slack and Affirm.

Ontik is targeting sectors where back-office processes still rely heavily on manual tasks. The company is starting with the UK building materials sector - a £100 billion market - where tight margins, high transaction volumes, and fragmented operations create ripe conditions for automation.

“B2B wholesalers are the financial engine of the real economy - but most are still managing credit with spreadsheets, phone calls and handwritten notes,” said Chris Smith, co-founder of Ontik. “We’re giving them modern, automated workflows that save hours every day and unlock serious operational efficiency.”

Ontik’s software automates the order-to-cash cycle, including issuing credit terms, following up on payments, resolving disputes, and syncing with enterprise resource planning (ERP) systems. The company says its AI-powered platform can reduce the time spent chasing payments by over 60 percent, accelerate cash collection by more than 30 percent and reduce card fees by 25 percent while also decreasing disputes.

The startup integrates with commonly used ERP systems like Merlin, Unleashed, and Intact, allowing for fast deployment across multi-branch wholesalers without disrupting existing operations. This is particularly useful in industries such as construction materials, where administrative teams are often stretched thin and digital adoption has historically lagged.

“Ontik is doing for trade credit what Stripe did for online payments,” said Sam Endacott from Firstminute Capital. “They’re giving real-world businesses the tools to operate with the speed and efficiency of modern tech companies - and the impact is already clear.”

Over the past year, Ontik has launched in 30 branches with merchants including GH Brooks, AW Lumb, FORT, and Collier & Catchpole. 

The raise highlights growing investor appetite for vertical fintech solutions that bring modern infrastructure to the offline economy.