It says the move is extremely rare for its business-to-business market, which has traditionally invoice-based, with the attendant hassle of credit checks and bad-debt chasing.The Wellington-based startup was founded by two of Xeros original crew: Philip Fierlinger and Duncan Ritchie, plus Foxton Fizz owner Matt Wilson.The firm, founded on the eve of the pandemic, has now raised just over $13m to date including the latest money, which Fierlinger frames as a seed extension. The funds will largely go toward a push across the Tasman.Upstock originally helped the likes of cafes and bars automate the process of reordering stock - which it pitched as a streamlining and cost-saving measure as Covid hit. As such he sees it as a mechanism to help pry open the supermarket sectors wholesale market.The abrupt closure last year of supermarket alternative Supie definitely rattled both the food and beverage industry and the startup world, Fierlinger said.Many food and beverage suppliers had hoped Supie would provide a new channel to market, as an alternative to the duopoly. Fierlinger would not comment on the post-money valuation, other than that it was in the double-digit millions and higher than the 2022 round.Neither would he reveal financials, but he did offer that Upstock now has 27 staff, and had tripled growth in 2023, ending the year with more than 30,000 wholesale buyers connected to its platform, which now features 90,000 products from more than 1000 suppliers across New Zealand and Australia.The round was led by Possible Ventures, a Melbourne and Munich-based venture capital firm, which doubled its investment from the previous round, Fierlinger said. The US was the most active market, but most were either part of a much larger system, or specialised in a single product, such as alcohol.Chris Keall is an Auckland-based member of the Heralds business team.