New York-based Contour Venture Partners led the Series C round. U.S. small businesses use Bench’s platform to work with bookkeepers and tax advisors. The company is also launching a bank account and debit card backed by Stripe and LendingClub. (The Logic)

Talking point: Bench, which has raised more than US$100 million in total, plans to use the new funding in part to expand its 650-person-plus staff. Shopify is increasingly taking stakes in complementary startups, particularly ones that integrate with its platform like buy-now-pay-later service Affirm, localization-software maker Global-e Online and delivery tool Swyft. Like Bench, the Ottawa-based e-commerce firm is launching small-business accounts and cards in the U.S., its largest market, built atop Stripe’s new cluster of APIs. The San Francisco firm’s banking-as-a-service model lets tech companies offer financial services without the associated regulatory paperwork, since partner institutions like Goldman Sachs and Barclays hold the money.