• Three credit unions – VyStar CU, BCU, and Reseda Group – have invested in credit risk management specialist AKUVO.
• Terms of the funding were not disclosed.
• The new capital will help AKUVO further develop its credit risk and delinquency management platform, Aperture.

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Credit risk and delinquency management specialist AKUVO announced a new investment not from the world of venture capital, but from the land of membership-powered credit unions. The amount of the investment was not disclosed, but the names of the credit unions involved in the funding have been: VyStar Credit Union, BCU, and Reseda Group, a wholly-owned CUSO (credit union service organization) of Michigan State University Federal Credit Union (MSUFCU).

The funding will enable AKUVO to further develop its collection and credit risk platform, Aperture. The cloud-based, API-enabled portfolio risk and delinquency management solution provides streamlined information for quick and easy research and leverages robotic processing to offer businesses a 20% improvement in collector efficiency, a 15% reduction of effort for speciality processes, a 10% reduction in collection workload, and a 10% increase in manager efficiency.

“Our goal is to empower members to discover financial freedom, and I am optimistic AKUVO’s data science solutions will help us accelerate our ability to do just that,” BCU EVP and COO Jim Block said. “We anticipate rapid growth over the next decade, and the Aperture platform has the promise to scale with our membership.”

With $5.5 billion in assets, BCU is based in Vernon Hills, Illinois, in the greater Chicago area. BCU is the smallest (by assets) of the three credit unions involved in AKUVO’s funding this week. Reseda Group is part of $6.8 billion MSUFCU and this investment represents the second time the institution has invested in AKUVO (the first being in January of this year).

“AKUVO’s Aperture platform will change the way we provide members with individual credit solutions that maximize recoveries,” MSUFCU Chief Risk Officer Jim Hunsanger said. “Aperture’s data-based decisioning also ensures we meet regulatory and legal requirements. We’re excited to be an AKUVO client and early investor.”

VyStar Credit Union, based in Jacksonville, Florida, has $12 billion in assets, and is one of the 15 largest credit unions in the country. Speaking on behalf of the firm, VyStar’s SVP of Loan Administration Eric Weatherly said that the investment in AKUVO will “allow us to be a greater force for change for our members and the credit union community.”

Courtesy of the investment, each of the three credit unions involved will have a representative on AKUVO’s board of directors. Headquartered in Pennsylvania, AKUVO was founded in 2019.

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Photo by imustbedead

• Apple is using CNote’s platform to invest $25 million in underserved communities.
• Oakland-based CNote facilitates investments in economic equality, racial justice, gender equity and climate change initiatives.
• Apple joins other companies using CNote to invest, including Mastercard, Patagonia, PayPal, and Netflix.

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CNote, a company that facilitates investments in fixed income and time deposit products that advance the social good, revealed its newest investor today. Apple is using the California-based company’s platform to invest $25 million in underserved communities.

“We’re committed to helping ensure that everyone has access to the opportunity to pursue their dreams and create our shared future,” said Apple VP of Environment, Policy, and Social Initiatives Lisa Jackson. “By working with CNote to get funds directly to historically under-resourced communities through their local financial institutions, we can support equity, entrepreneurship and access.”

Apple’s $25 million contribution is part of the company’s Racial Equity and Justice initiative, an effort to address systemic racism and expand opportunities for people of color.

CNote has already deployed some of the funds to an initial round of financial institutions, including:

• ANECA Federal Credit Union in Louisiana
• Bank of Cherokee County in Oklahoma
• Carver State Bank in Georgia
• Education Credit Union in Texas
• First Southwest Bank in Colorado
• Hope Credit Union, which serves Alabama, Arkansas, Louisiana, Mississippi, and Tennessee
• Kaua‘i Federal Credit Union in Hawai‘i
• Latino Community Credit Union in North Carolina
• Legacy Bank in Missouri
• Optus Bank in South Carolina
• Self-Help Federal Credit Union, with locations in California, Illinois, Washington, and Wisconsin
• VCC Bank in Virginia

As Bank of Cherokee County EVP Susannah Plumb Scott explained, the funds invested via the CNote platform can make a real difference in underserved communities. “Partnerships like the one we have with CNote and Apple are essential to our efforts to expand access to capital, as well as to financial products and services, in a historically underserved market,” said Scott, whose institution invests 95% of deposits back into Cherokee County.

Echoing those thoughts is Education Credit Union President and CEO Eric Jenkins, who said deposits like Apple’s “allow ECU to serve more consumers and meet a broader range of needs.”

Founded in 2016, CNote’s platform provides insured deposits to a group of vetted, mission-driven financial institutions, including community development financial institutions (CDFIs), low-income designated (LID) credit unions, and minority depository institutions (MDIs). These financial institutions use the deposits to help promote economic equality, racial justice, gender equity, and climate change initiatives.

CNote investors, a list that includes Mastercard, Patagonia, PayPal, Netflix, and now Apple, receive quarterly impact reports with details on which institutions received deposits and the populations that are benefiting.

CNote was a B Lab “Best for the World” honoree in 2019 and was named “Best Women-Owned Business” by the U.N. Women’s Empowerment Principles program in 2020. The company has raised $43 million.

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• Cryptocurrency accounting firm Tactic raised $2.6 million in funding.
• Leading the investment round were Founders Fund and finance automation company Ramp.
• The new capital will help the company add talent and continue to build out its platform.

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With more and more companies seeking to diversify their finances with cryptocurrencies, a new U.S.-based startup has arrived to help these businesses better manage their cryptocurrency holdings.

The company, Tactic, announced today that it has raised $2.3 million in seed funding. The investment was co-led by Founders Fund and Ramp, a finance automation company. Also participating in the funding were individual investors Elad Gil and Dylan Field, co-founder of Figma. Tactic said that, among other needs, the new capital will help the company hire additional talent.

Tactic helps businesses account for their cryptocurrency holdings by aggregating data across disparate sources – often multiple wallets across multiple blockchains – to provide a full treasury view of all balances and account activity. Tactic enables companies to automatically categorize their transactions and apply basic accounting logic and rules to calculate gain/loss and identify taxable events. Accounting teams can also use the platform to reconcile the cryptocurrency subledger to traditional accounting systems such as QuickBooks.

“Tactic solves a real pain point for businesses managing cryptocurrency finances and the product is already saving crypto accounting teams days each month,” Founders Fund Principal Leigh Marie Braswell said. “We believe Tactic has the potential to become a massive player as more companies move into web3.”

Founded by CEO Ann Jaskiw and launched in 2021, Tactic has since reeled in “dozens” of customers, from early stage startup companies to billion-dollar businesses. Jaskiw started Tactic after learning that many companies involved in web3 were using spreadsheets for their accounting because there were no other solutions available for them. By contrast, Tactic has developed its solution in part by teaming up with leading accounting firms to help them apply accounting guidelines to activities common in the DeFi world such as staking, NFT, minting, and airdrops.

Tactic VP of Strategy and Ops John Dempsey put Tactic’s platform in the context of other fintech solutions that leverage automation and other enabling technologies to make operations more efficient. “Businesses have come to expect back-office solutions that help them get started quickly and automate their manual tasks,” Dempsey said. “Tactic makes it easy for businesses to transact in cryptocurrency, knowing they can manage their financial activity in a clean, compliant way.”

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• Canada’s Neo Financial closed $145 million ($185 million CAD) in funding.
• The round brings the three-year-old company’s total funding to almost $240 million ($299 CAD) and boosts its valuation past $785 million ($1 billion CAD).
• Neo is now one of only a few Alberta-based tech companies to become a unicorn.

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Canada-based Neo Financial’s newest funding round has boosted the company up to unicorn status in Canadian dollars. The $145 million ($185 million CAD) investment was led by Valar Ventures and saw participation from Tribe Capital, Altos Ventures, Blank Ventures, Gaingels, Maple VC, and Knollwood Advisory.

Today’s investment boosts Alberta-based Neo Financial’s total funding to almost $240 million ($299 CAD). It also marks the company as one of just a few tech companies in the region to become a unicorn.

Founded in 2019, Neo Financial differentiates itself with its user-friendly banking technology. The company boasts one million users of its four main products, which include a credit card, high-interest savings account, and investment tools. Additionally, Neo Financial is slated to launch a mortgage offering by the end of this year.

“We’re constantly challenging the status quo,” the company said in a blog post, “and asking the questions that should be asked: What if you only needed one loyalty card instead of 20? What if your financial services experience was as seamless as Netflix or Spotify? What if getting a mortgage could be a fully digital experience? What if the future of banking wasn’t a bank?”

With 650 employees under its roof, a number that has doubled in the past year, Neo Financial is growing. The company has added more than 11 products and features in the past year alone. To fuel this growth, the company adding 100 people to its workforce in Calgary and Winnipeg.

“The pace at which this team releases new products and grows its customer base is among the fastest we have seen in our careers,” said Valar Ventures Founding Partner Andrew McCormack.

Maple VC’s Andre Charoo echoed those thoughts. In an interview with TechCrunch, he said, “Neo is the fastest growing company I have seen in Canada… I believe Neo has a shot at owning at least 10% of the aggregated $550 billion banking sector in Canada (ie. $50 billion) due to the network effects it has created with its unique merchant loyalty program.”

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Photo by Andre Furtado