Dive Brief:

• JPMorgan Chase has invested in the business-to-business payments startup Slope, alongside other investors that include the California accelerator program company Y Combinator Management, according to a Wednesday press release from Slope.
• The investors provided San Francisco-based Slope with $65 million in financial support, including $15 million in equity financing and $50 million in debt financing, a spokesperson for the startup said by email.
• JPMorgan’s investment in Slope came from its payments division, and included both equity and debt support. A spokesperson for the bank, which is the largest in the U.S., declined to say how much was invested.

Dive Insight:

Slope, which was founded in 2021, offers major companies payments automation services, specifically for what it calls “order-to-cash workflow,” tapping artificial intelligence to deliver the services, according to the release.

It’s JPMorgan’s first investment in Slope, a spokesperson for the bank said. As part of the new tie, Slope will also join the bank’s payments partners network, which delivers end-to-end payments services through “ecosystem of third-party applications,” according to the release.

JPMorgan’s payments unit has invested in a wide range of payments startups, including the embedded software technology company Dream Payments; the bill-pay firm Paymentus; and the push-pay platform Checkbook. The investments are a way for the international bank to stay current on the latest innovative payments approaches.

“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,” JPMorgan’s global head of trade and working capital for the payments unit, James Fraser, said in the release.

“By combining J.P. 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,” Fraser added.

Since its founding, Slope has raised a total of $252 million, including $77 million in equity funding and $175 million in debt financing, a spokesperson for the company said by email. Sam Altman, the CEO of OpenAI, a company that has been in the news recently because of its AI advances through the online service ChatGPT, also invested in Slope’s latest round of fundraising. 

Slope is led by CEO Lawrence Lin Murata, who founded the company along with Alice Deng, who is the startup’s chief product officer. The $125 trillion B2B economy represents a major opportunity for digitizing payments, Murata said in the release.