• Unit received $100 million in Series C funding this week.
• The funding boosts the company’s total investment to $170 million and brings its valuation to $1.2 billion.
• The company, which will unveil its business credit card in the next few months, will use the investment to accelerate its product development and expand into credit offerings.

Banking-as-a-Service company Unit has reached unicorn status this week after a $100 million Series C round. The investment brings the California-based company’s valuation to $1.2 billion and boosts its total funding to $170 million.

Insight Partners led today’s round and existing investors Accel, Better Tomorrow Ventures, and Flourish Ventures also contributed, along with new investors Moving Capital and Stepstone.

“Unit has established itself as the leader in the banking-as-a-service space, backed by the overwhelming positive customer feedback and traction they have shown over the last year,” said Insight Partners Co-Founder and Managing Director Jeff Horing. “The company has been able to onboard high-growth tech companies of all sizes, from startups to publicly listed enterprises, with their superior technology, speed, and reliability. We are bullish on the future of embedded finance and see Unit as the platform of choice for companies big and small.”

Unit was founded in 2019 to help companies build banking products such as bank accounts, cards, payment products, and lending tools into their existing offering. The company will use today’s funding to accelerate product development and expand into credit offerings. Unit will launch its first business credit card product in the next few months and aims to add more credit products in the future.

“Credit is the clear next step of growth and we believe it will be the most important wave in financial services in the coming years,” said Unit CEO and Co-Founder Itai Damti. “With this new round of funding, Unit will be able to empower the companies best suited to offer credit with the technology and infrastructure to make that a reality.”

Unit has experienced impressive growth over the past year, riding the banking-as-a-service wave that has been sweeping fintech. The company added more than 140 customers over the past year and, over the last six months, Unit’s transaction value has grown 7x to $2.6 billion. Among the company’s clients are AngelList, HoneyBook, Homebase, Veryable, Roofstock, Hearth, and Benepass.

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• Challenger bank Greenlight launched a credit card, the Family Cash Card.
• The card offers up to 3% cash back and allows users to automatically invest the rewards into a mutual funds or ETFs.
• This is Greenlight’s first credit card and first product marketed to parents.

Family-focused fintech Greenlight revealed plans this week to launch a credit card called the Family Cash Card. This is the Georgia-based company’s first credit card as well as its first card marketed at parents.

Launching in partnership with Mastercard and issued by First National Bank of Omaha, the credit card offers up to 3% cash back when users spend more than $4,000 per month. While parents can opt to have the rewards deposited into their bank account, they can also automatically invest their rewards into a set of recommended mutual funds and ETFs. If they want more options, users can invest the rewards via the Greenlight app.

“Families today have an increasing amount of expenses, making it difficult for many to save for the long-term,” said Greenlight Co-founder and CEO Tim Sheehan. “At Greenlight, we’re focused on helping families build healthy financial futures. With the new Family Cash Card, parents can get the most out of everyday spending and invest towards big life events like their children’s college education.”

Sheehan told TechCrunch that, while Greenlight liked the idea of the rewards accruing into a 529 plan that would help parents pay for their childrens’ education, the company decided that more users would appreciate traditional investment vehicles. “We looked at the 529, and we just decided, after talking to really a lot of parents, that they basically valued flexibility over the small tax benefit of the 529. Essentially, they said, I would rather have the flexibility and not be penalized to use the money for anything my family needs,” said Sheehan.

Founded in 2014, Greenlight offers a money management platform for families that helps five million parents and kids gain skills to manage their earnings, savings, spending, giving, and learn to invest via a debit card, companion app, and educational resources. Last April, the company raised $260 million in a round that valued the company at $2.3 billion.

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• Checkout.com is acquiring online identity verification provider ubble.
• The move will enable Checkout.com to help its clients ensure compliance and stay ahead of changing regulations.
• Terms of the deal were not disclosed.

Global payments solutions provider Checkout.com is boosting its digital identity expertise with the acquisition of online identity verification service provider ubble.

ubble was founded in 2018 to reinvent remote identity verification through video. The France-based company’s flagship solution offers clients automated verification of their users’ identity for over 2,000 types of documents from 214 countries and territories worldwide.

“ubble was founded with a mission to provide people with the convenience and security of using their personal identity in the digital world,” said Checkout.com Chief Product Officer Meron Colbeci, “and that is clearly becoming a growing need for e-commerce and crypto merchants, digital wallets, and other fintechs we serve.”

The move will allow Checkout.com to add identity verification services to its existing payments services, creating a holistic payments experience. The addition of digital identity tools will help Checkout.com not only ensure global compliance for its merchant and fintech clients, but also stay ahead of changing regulation.

“We always put the needs of our merchants first,” said Colbeci. “By expanding our security and fraud detection capabilities, we can reduce the time, cost and friction those merchants experience with existing IDV solutions. And they can offer their end consumers a simple and compelling experience, which lends itself to increased conversion rates and faster growth.”

Terms of the deal, which is expected to close later this year, were not disclosed.

This news comes on the heels of Checkout.com’s recent $1 billion Series D investment round, which valued the company at $40 billion. Today’s buy is the U.K.-based company’s fourth acquisition since it was founded in 2012. Guillaume Pousaz is founder and CEO.

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• Banco Santander is launching a new tool to help retail customers track the carbon footprints of their transactions.
• The bank is partnering with ClimateTrade and the Mastercard donation platform to enable users to offset their impact.
• The app is currently available to customers in Spain and will soon go live in Poland, Portugal, and the U.K.

Banco Santander is out with a new ESG initiative today. The Spain-based bank unveiled a new feature that enables its retail banking customers in Spain and Chile to track and offset their carbon footprints.

Developed in-house and available on Santander’s website and app, the tool will help customers measure the carbon footprint of the purchases they make with their Santander accounts and payment cards. Customers can see their monthly carbon footprint reported in kg CO₂-eq in a range of categories, including supermarkets, transport, health, and education.

To help users take action against their carbon output, Santander’s tool will show eco-friendly tips for each category, as well as facts on how users can reduce their footprint and transition to a more sustainable economy.

Santander is partnering with ClimateTrade to enable customers to voluntarily use the tracker to offset their carbon footprint. ClimateTrade connects sustainable project developers with users looking to offset their carbon footprint. Because the company’s marketplace leverages the blockchain, all transactions, which are processed through the Mastercard donation platform, are traceable.

Santander has been fighting climate change since 2011 by measuring and reporting on its own carbon footprint. The bank became carbon neutral in 2020 and pledges to reach net zero emissions by 2025 in its financing, advisory, and investment services, as well as across all operations.

The app will go live in Poland, Portugal, and the U.K. in the coming months. 

Photo by Kit Ishimatsu on Unsplash