• Shares, a new social investment app based in Paris, has raised $40 million in Series A funding.
• The app combines fractional share investing with features that enable users to observe the investing behavior of others, as well as collaborate on investment strategies.
• The app is available to investors in the U.K. The company plans to bring the solution to investors in other European countries “in the future.”

In a round led by Valar Ventures, social investment app Shares has raised $40 million in Series A funding. The investment comes as the Paris-based fintech goes live with its app on both the Apple App Store and Google Play, and lifts the company’s total capital to $50 million.

Shares’ technology enables investors to buy and sell shares in public companies, and adds the ability for friends and colleagues to collaborate when it comes to investing and building investment strategies. The app allows for fractional share investing, users can open accounts with as little as £1.00, and there are no fees for buying and selling shares. What helps distinguish Shares from other mobile-first investment platforms is the ability to create discussion groups to facilitate information-sharing with other investors and traders on the app. Shares also features an investment activity feed that enables users to see when their friends are buying and selling shares.

The app is currently available only to investors in the U.K.; the company has provided a waitlist for interested individuals in the E.U. Shares is partnered with Alpaca Securities LLC, which is serving as the company’s execution broker.

Headquartered in Paris, France, Shares was co-founded by Benjamin Chemia (CEO), François Ruty (CTO) and Harjas Singh (CPO) and maintains offices in London and Krakow, as well. The goal of the company was to reduce barriers to investing, especially for first-time investors. With fractional share investing and a social component that makes it easy to learn, share, and collaborate, Shares seeks to counter the notion that investing is “boring and lonely” and, instead, show that investing is “something everyone can enjoy.”

“Despite having worked in finance, I know from my own experience as a retail investor how inaccessible the world of investing can be even with today’s lower barrier, commission-free apps,” Singh said last fall. “There is a real consumer demand for a social-first app like Shares designed to level the playing field so anyone can join the conversation and become an investor.”

Joining Valar Ventures in the funding round were existing investors Singular, Global Founders Capital, and Red Sea Ventures.

Photo by Burak Kebapci from Pexels

• Bulgaria-based Payhawk extended its Series B funding round by $100 million to $215 million.
• The investment values Payhawk at over $1 billion and brings its total funding to $239 million.
• The company currently serves businesses in 30 countries and will use the recent funding to pursue further global expansion.

Bulgaria may be known more for its beaches and opera singers than it is for its fintech. Business spend management platform Payhawk may soon change that, however. The Bulgarian-based fintech just extended its recent Series B round by $100 million and is now valued at over $1 billion. This new valuation makes Payhawk Bulgaria’s first unicorn.

The fresh funding brings its Series B round to $215 million and boosts its total funding to $239 million. Today’s round was led by Lightspeed Venture Partners and saw participation from Sprints Capital, Endeavor Catalyst, HubSpot Ventures, and Jigsaw VC.

Payhawk’s $1 billion valuation is a huge leap forward for the fintech. Just three months ago when the company first announced its Series B round, Payhawk was valued at $570 million. It now sits 75% higher.

Payhawk, which currently serves businesses in 30 countries, will use the investment to expand its presence in the mid-size enterprise market and pursue global expansion. The company will open offices in Paris and Amsterdam this month and will add one in New York in September.

To support this growth, Payhawk plans to ramp up its workforce by 3x. The company plans to grow from 100 to 300 employees by the end of this year. As part of this expansion, Payhawk will increase the size of its product team by adding 60 additional senior software engineers to meet customer demand for new features.

Payhawk was founded in 2018 to offer businesses a way to control company spending. In addition to payment cards, the startup offers invoicing, employee reimbursement, and billpay tools along with accounting software integration, built-in spending policies, and analytics.

“Every employee that deals with company payments feels that there should be a better way to do it, but this huge problem was never tackled by a strong product team with a hardcore engineering background,” said Payhawk Founder and CEO Hristo Borisov. “This is what Payhawk brings to the market.”