• Vyzer has received $6.3 million in Seed funding.
• The company will use the funds to enhance its wealth management platform and expand its reach.
• Investors include Moneta VC, iAngels, Guy Gamzu, Jonathan Kolber, and Rafi Gidro.

Wealth management platform Vyzer unveiled today it has received $6.3 million in Seed funding. The New York-based company will use the funds to enhance its platform and expand its reach.

Vyzer was founded in 2020 to offer Limited Partnership investors and family offices with complex portfolios– including alternative assets– a single, holistic view across all of their investments. The company helps users track, analyze, and optimize their investments, view and plan their cash flow, and more. Vyzer’s peer benchmarking tool leverages AI capabilities to offer clients insights into investment strategies, fund managers, and activities of similar investors.

“The funds will enable us to enhance our platform’s AI capabilities, develop new features, and broaden our market presence,” said Vyzer Co-Founder and CEO Litan Yahav. “Our ultimate goal is to simplify and streamline complex wealth processes for our customers, equipping each member with greater insights and control. This, in turn, empowers them to maximize their investment potential and foster wealth growth.”

Today’s funding round marks the company’s first investment and includes contributions from Moneta VC, iAngels, Guy Gamzu, Jonathan Kolber, and Rafi Gidro.

Vyzer’s launch comes amid what is expected to be the largest transfer of wealth in history. Analysts expect that, in coming years, baby boomers will shift $68 trillion to their heirs. This tech-savvy group is increasingly investing in alternative assets, some of which can be difficult to digitize. Vyzer’s technology seeks to fill in that visibility gap. As iAngels Founding Partner Shelly Hod Moyal explained, “Vyzer’s solution provides investors with broad and transparent visibility into their portfolios. It allows them to capitalize on the ever-growing investment landscape by making informed and timely decisions, and it enables them to effectively scale their portfolios at an affordable cost.”

Photo by Tima Miroshnichenko

• Payments-as-a-service platform Rainforest has raised $11.75 million in seed funding.
• The round was led by Accel, and included a $3.25 million venture debt facility courtesy of Silicon Valley Bank (SVB).
• Rainforest helps software companies embed financial products into their solutions.

In a round led by Accel, payments-as-a-service platform Rainforest has secured $11.75 million in seed funding. The round also featured participation from Infinity Ventures, BoxGroup, The Fintech Fund, Tech Square Ventures, and Ardent Venture Partners, as well as strategic angel investors. The funding included $3.25 million in a venture debt facility courtesy of Silicon Valley Bank (SVB), making the total equity raised in the round $8.5 million.

Rainforest founder and CEO Joshua Silver referenced his own experience as founder of a healthcare software company and as a payments consultant in explaining the “why” behind Rainforest. “I personally experienced the challenges and tradeoffs associated with embedded payments,” Silver said. “I recruited former colleagues and other all-star payments and SaaS veterans, and together we built Rainforest – the embedded payments platform we always wanted but didn’t exist.”

Rainforest offers an embedded payments solution that helps software platforms monetize their money flows. By building a platform specifically for software platforms, Rainforest believes that it has an edge over most payment providers that build solutions primarily for merchants. The company is able to help software platforms deal with both the risk management and compliance issues that accompany payments, while enabling them to take advantage of the growing opportunity to embed and monetize payments.

“Not every software company wants to become a full-fledged fintech,” Silver said, “but nearly all want to embed financial services.”

Rainforest’s embedded components enable companies to build payment rails to facilitate payments from providers such as Visa and Mastercard, as well as same-day ACH and Plaid verification. Rainforest supports next-day payouts, and the company anticipates adding same-day options like RTP and push-to-card soon. The company notes that its open ecosystem encourages integration with alternative payment networks, vertical-specific ledgers, and other financial service providers. “It’s a game changer,” Rainforest VP of Engineering Chris Church said, “and I’m thrilled to see platforms’ response to it.” The company notes that it secured client commitments representing more than $500 million in processing shortly after launch. In addition to financial services, Rainforest acknowledges interest in its technology from companies in verticals ranging from healthcare and professional services to logistics and construction.

Founded in 2022, Rainforest is headquartered in Atlanta, Georgia. The company includes RoadSync, PayGround, and QuoteMachine among its clients.

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• Goalsetter has partnered with MSU Federal Credit Union’s (MSUFCU’s) Reseda Group this week.
• As part of the partnership, Reseda Group has invested $1 million in Goalsetter, bringing its total funding to $20.5 million.
• MSUFCU will white label Goalsetter’s youth banking platform for its members and will deploy the company’s classroom curriculum across local communities.

MSU Federal Credit Union’s (MSUFCU’s) Reseda Group is taking a step toward helping members and their families create better financial futures. The group announced today it has partnered with financial literacy platform Goalsetter.

The aim of the partnership is to help members and their families build better spending, saving, and investing habits. To accomplish this, Reseda Group will offer Goalsetter’s financial education tools and resources to members and their families.

There are three significant pieces to note from today’s deal. First, Reseda Group invested $1 million in Goalsetter, boosting the New York-based company’s total funding to $20.5 million. President and CEO of Reseda Group and MSUFCU April Clobes said that Reseda Group invested in Goalsetter because it is the “best solution for credit unions that want to attract and retain the next generation of members.” She added that integrating Goalsetter’s offerings can help credit unions “increase brand affinity with Gen Z members, deposits, and overall membership numbers.”

The second big piece for Goalsetter is that MSUFCU has agreed to white label Goalsetter’s youth banking platform for its members. Thirdly, MSUFCU will deploy the Goalsetter’s classroom curriculum in local school systems and community organizations across its branch locations.

“The award-winning, proven Goalsetter platform focuses on providing financial tools, education, and innovative financial wellness content built around pop culture, memes, GIFs, and game-based learning that resonates with young consumers. It will enable MSUFCU to effectively engage with younger consumers and provide them with the personalized services they seek,” said Goalsetter CEO Tanya Van Court. “We are proud to bring these solutions to the MSUFCU member community alongside Reseda Group, an organization that has been instrumental in the growth and ongoing success of the Goalsetter platform.”

Goalsetter was founded in 2016 and helps families offer their kids a NCUA-insured savings account where they can receive allowance, a Mastercard debit card with parental controls, game-based financial education quizzes, and more.

Goalsetter fits into the same category as Greenlight, which facilitates banking services through Community Federal Savings Bank, and GoHenry, which was acquired by Acorns earlier this year.

Photo by Skitterphoto

• OneID raised $1.3 million (£1 million) in funding.
• The funds come from ACF Investors.
• OneID has a unique approach on digital identity verification. It uses consumers’ existing banking relationship to authenticate their identity.

U.K.-based OneID announced it raised $1.3 million (£1 million) in funding. The Seed round, which marks the company’s second investment round, comes from ACF Investors. OneID also counts 170 angel investors among its backers.

“The investment from ACF Investors is a coming together of similar interests and visions,” said OneID CEO Paula Sussex. “As the world increasingly becomes digital-first, we aim to minimize fraud, enhance online experiences, and make the world a safer place.”

OneID, which will use today’s investment for product development, was founded in 2020 with a unique take on digital verification. The company leverages consumers’ existing bank accounts to authenticate them. After receiving consent from the consumer, OneID contacts the bank to verify their identity.

By leveraging consumers’ existing bank relationship, OneID eliminates the need for consumers to undergo a registration process, take a selfie, provide paper documents, or travel to a physical location. It also means that OneID does not need to store any sensitive data.

Sussex sees the round as a “vote of confidence” in the company’s efforts to make digital identification accessible and available to more U.K. citizens.

“We’re constantly monitoring businesses that have the potential to enhance the lives of the British people and redefine the future of the U.K., said ACF Managing Partner Tim Mills. “OneID, with its simple, trustworthy, and effective solution to a pressing problem, could touch some 50 million U.K. citizens and make bank-verified digital identification the norm in the UK.”

• Ramp landed $300 million in Series D funding today, bringing its total funding to $1.7 billion.
• Today’s funds come from new investor Sands Capital, along with existing investors Thrive Capital, General Catalyst, and Founders Fund.
• At $5.8 billion, the company’s current valuation is 28% lower than its 2022 valuation of $8.1 billion.

Late-stage VC funding has been down in 2023, but business finance automation platform Ramp is bucking that trend today. The New York-based company has announced the closure of a $300 million round of Series D funding.

The investment boosts the company’s total funding to $1.7 billion. With the increase in capital, however, comes a decrease in valuation. The company’s current valuation now sits at $5.8 billion, 28% lower than the company’s $8.1 billion valuation reported last year.

Today’s Series D round comes from new investor Sands Capital, along with existing investors Thrive Capital, General Catalyst, and Founders Fund. Ramp will use the funds to fuel product development and accelerate its expansion into adjacent categories.

“In the last year alone, we’ve expanded Ramp’s offerings to become the only platform in the market that’s designed to save businesses time and money,” said Ramp CEO Eric Glyman. “Our mission is to help our customers build healthier businesses and this funding will help us execute against our goal to continue expanding the Ramp platform to better serve customers. At Ramp, we succeed when our customers can run their business more efficiently.”

Ramp offers its 15,000 clients access to its suite of payment cards, expense management tools, accounts payable offerings, procurement solutions, working capital, and more. Among Ramp’s recent client wins are Anduril, Poshmark, and Virgin Voyages.

Next month, Ramp plans to debut Ramp Plus, a new set of procurement tools to help finance teams with procurement-related tasks. To support this growth, the company also plans to boost its hiring efforts “significantly” and “across all functions.”

Photo by Anna Shvets

• Agora Data has landed $160 million in privately placed term financing.
• The investment marks Agora Data’s fourth privately placed term financing round.
• While there is no word on total funding, today’s financing adds to the $100 million revolving credit line Agora Data received from Credit Suisse in September 2022.

Agora Data, a company that helps buy here pay here (BHPH) car dealers offer in-house financing, secured $160 million in privately placed term financing this month. The round represents the fourth privately placed term financing the company has received since it was founded in 2017.

“Fueling Agora’s mission to enable any car dealer to be a finance company, this $160 million private term financing provides additional funding capacity and reiterates our commitment to our customers’ future growth,” said company CEO Steve Burke.

While there is no data on the amounts of the company’s previous three privately placed term financing rounds, Agora Data said that each of them performed better than projected. Today’s financing adds to the $100 million revolving credit facility the company received from Credit Suisse last September.

Founded in 2017, Agora Data’s Agora Capital helps car dealerships lend to non-prime customers. Lending to unattractive borrowers ultimately helps dealers sell more cars. To provide a competitive interest rate on these sub-prime loans, the company leverages AI to analyze over $350 billion in loan data. Agora Data also offers Agora Trade, a product that allows investors to buy a portfolio of seasoned auto loans at a lower rate of default.

Texas-based Agora Data targets the underbanked community and its strategy will likely fair well as the cost of living crisis, combined with a high interest rate environment, continues. Competitors in the auto financing space include CreditIQ, Creditas, Caribou (formerly known as MotoRefi), and others.

Photo by Jeerayut Rianwed