Another monster week in fintech. Depending on how much Stripe received in its round (at a $5 billion valuation), something north of $600 million flowed to 17 fintech companies worldwide. That closes out the month at just under $2 billion raised ($1.65 billion equity; $250 million debt), more than double the $900 million raised a year ago ($675 million equity; $225 million debt).
About 80% of the money this week ($479 million) flowed to Finovate and FinDEVr alums, our biggest week ever (not including the Lending Club IPO which raised $865 million). To put that in perspective, during all of 2014 our alums raised just over $1 billion (excludes IPOs (Yodlee, OnDeck, and Lending Club). An even more startling number: In July 2014, we had one alum funded to the tune of $27 million. During July 2015, 17 alums raised more than $750 million.
Will fintech funding go higher? It’s hard to look at the year-over-year trend and think that it will get much higher. The bigger question for startups, and their backers, is what happens after “peak fintech?” Is there a gradual decline to a sustainable level of investment, or are we witnessing a bubble, which by definition is the precursor to a bath. Given the enormous size of the financial services industry and the pent-up demand for digital services, as well as infrastructure modernization, we firmly believe in fintech’s sustainability.
Finovate and FinDEVr alums raising money this week:
- Kabbage $120 million (of rumored $150 million at $875 million valuation)*
- Twilio $130 million (at a rumored $1.1 billion valuation)*
- Behalf $119 million
- Shopkeep $60 million
- Radius $50 million
- Expensify $17.5 million
——
* Presenting at our upcoming developer event, FinDEVr 2015
Here are the 17 companies by deal size from 25 July to 31 July:
Kabbage
Alt-lender to small businesses
HQ: Atlanta, Georgia
Latest round: $120 million Series E (of rumored $150 million at $875 million valuation)
Total raised: $585 million ($357 million debt, $228 million equity)
Tags: Lending, credit, underwriting, SMB
Source: Finovate
Twilio
Cloud communications
HQ: San Francisco, California
Latest round: $130 million ($1.1 billion valuation)
Total raised: $234 million
Tags: Messaging, SMS, text messaging, marketing, VoIP, API, developers, FinDEVr presenter 2015
Source: Crunchbase
Behalf
Small-business short-term alt-lender
HQ: New York City, New York
Latest round: $119 million Series B
Total raised: $129 million
Tags: Credit, lending, underwriting, SMB, financing, factoring, receivables financing, Finovate alum
Source: Finovate
Shopkeep
iPad point of sale system
HQ: San Francisco, California
Latest round: $60 million Series D
Total raised: $97.2 million
Tags: Credit, debit cards, merchants, SMB, online, acquiring, POS
Source: Finovate
Radius
Predictive marketing technology
HQ: San Francisco, California
Latest round: $50 million Series D
Total raised: $129 million
Tags: Finovate alum
Source: Finovate
China Rapid Finance
Consumer credit marketplace in China
HQ: Shanghai, China
Latest round: $35 million Series C (at $1 billion valuation)
Total raised: $56 million
Tags: Lending, credit, underwriting, consumer loans
Source: Crunchbase
iwoca
Short-term small-biz financing
HQ: London, United Kingdom
Latest round: $20 million
Total raised: $31.5 million
Tags: Credit, alt-lending, SMB, financing, loans
Source: Crunchbase
Expensify
Expense report management
HQ: San Francisco, California
Latest round: $17.5 million
Total raised: $27.8 million
Tags: Expense reports, SMB, accounting, enterprise, strategic investor
Source: Finovate
Seedrs
Equity crowdfunding marketplace
HQ: London, United Kingdom
Latest round: $15.6 million Series A
Total raised: $22.8 million
Tags: Investing, P2P, SMB, peer-to-peer
Source: Crunchbase
Crowdcube
Debt and equity crowdfunding marketplace
HQ: Exeter, England, United Kingdom
Latest round: $9.4 million
Total raised: $13.1 million
Tags: Lending, investing, SMB, equity, loans
Source: Crunchbase
OneVest
Platform for investing in startups
HQ: New York City, New York
Latest round: $3 million Series A
Total raised: $5.3 million
Tags: Investing, SMB, wealth management
Source: Crunchbase
Cryptocurrency Research Group
Card processing
HQ: San Francisco, California
Latest round: $3 million grant
Total raised: $3 million
Tags: Bitcoin, crypto, blockchain, R&D
Source: Crunchbase
Stockal
Automated stock-trading adviser
HQ: Bangalore, India
Latest round: $160,000
Total raised: $160,000
Tags: Investing, mobile, trading
Source: Crunchbase
Buyatab
Digital giftcard solutions
HQ: Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada
Latest round: Undisclosed
Total raised: Unknown
Tags: eGift cards, SMB, prepaid card, gifting, fee income
Source: FT Partners
realbest
Online real estate platform
HQ: Berlin, Germany
Latest round: Undisclosed
Total raised: Unknown
Tags: Homeowners, mortgage, house buying
Source: FT Partners
Stripe
Online payment processing and management
HQ: San Francisco, California
Latest round: Undisclosed (less than $100 million at $5 billion valuation)
Total raised: $190+ million
Tags: Payments, credit, debit cards, API, merchants, SMB, online, acquiring, Visa (investor), American Express (investor)
Source: Crunchbase
Cognia
Payment processing for telephone-based transactions
HQ: London, England, United Kingdom
Latest round: Undisclosed
Total raised: $4.6+ million
Tags: Payments
Source: FT Partners