• Digital bank for creatives, Nerve, is partnering with London-based Talenthouse, a firm that helps artists find work with global brands.
• Talenthouse’s money management platform, TalentPlus, will leverage Nerve’s embedded banking technology to expand into the U.S.
• To facilitate TalentPlus’ U.S. launch, Talenthouse will invest up to $7 million in cash and shares in Nerve.

Digital bank Nerve is furthering its reach this month via a partnership with Talenthouse, a London-based firm that helps creatives find work with global brands. Under the agreement, Talenthouse will leverage Nerve to launch a business banking solution for TalentPlus, its in-house financial app built for creators.

As part of the deal, Talenthouse will invest up to $7 million in cash and shares in Nerve. This partnership and investment will help Talenthouse launch TalentPlus in the U.S. next month and expand into the U.K. and Latin America in 2023.

“This is a significant step into the U.S. market for Talenthouse,” said Talenthouse CEO Clare McKeeve. “We plan to recreate this financial services model across several markets in the near future including the UK and Latin America. We have been incredibly impressed by and have huge confidence in the Nerve team, underlined by our significant strategic investment.”

Money management platform TalentPlus was launched in 2021 from a pilot program called ElloU. The platform seeks to offer participants in the creator economy banking tools that support their needs in ways that banks fall short. The company’s partnership with Nerve will enable it to add personal banking tools to its product lineup.

This aligns closely with Nerve’s offerings. The digital bank was launched in 2020 to serve the unique financial needs of musicians, artists, and other creatives. The Texas-based company’s mission is to help creators build sustainable businesses by lowering the cost for organizations to pay creators. Nerve’s partnership with Talenthouse marks the first time its embedded banking tools will be used on a private-label basis.

“We are super excited about collaborating with Talenthouse and the TalentPlus team to drive innovation for creative businesses and delivering financial services to an underserved community,” said Nerve CEO John Waupsh. “This partnership will expand our payments and banking services to Talenthouse’s U.S.-based creators, dramatically improving the financial services available to the creator economy.”

Photo by Brett Sayles

• Small business banking tools company NorthOne pulled in $67 million in funding this week.
• The Series B round increases the company’s total raised to more than $90 million.
• NorthOne has big ambitions, and is seeking to be “the digital finance department powering every small business in America.”

Small business banking tools company NorthOne landed $67 million in a Series B funding round this week. The investment boosts the New York-based company’s total funds to more than $90 million.

New and existing investors, including Battery Ventures, Don Griffith, Drew Brees, Ferst Capital Partners, FinTLV, Next Play Capital, Operator Stack, Redpoint Ventures, Tencent, and Tom Williams, participated in the round.

NorthOne was founded in 2016 to offer small businesses an approachable digital banking experience. The company said that the funds will enable it to raise the standard of products and services that business owners should expect from their banking partners.

“Through an obsessive focus on our customers’ needs, we’ve been able to predictably build a business banking experience that unlocks an incredibly strong product-market fit,” said NorthOne CoFounder and CEO Eytan Bensoussan. “As our customers grow, their problems evolve beyond the bank account. By connecting the data layer between accounting, receivables, payables, lending, payroll—all the financial operations—and the bank account ledger, we can provide a transformative offering that’s always felt out of reach for our customers: a world-class finance department built for their business.”

NorthOne, whose services are powered by The Bancorp Bank, has big ambitions. The fintech is aiming to be “the digital finance department powering every small business in America.” To reach this goal, the company is currently working on building new capital and credit products, faster payment solutions, and more integrations.

Photo by RODNAE Productions

• Cross border payments company Airwallex raised $100 million on a valuation of $5.5 billion.
• The funding round was an extension of the company’s Series E round. Airwallex has raised a total of $900 million in funding.
• Headquartered in Melbourne, Australia, Airwallex was founded in 2015. Co-founder Jack Zhang is CEO.

Cross-border payments company Airwallex has emerged from its extension Series E round with an additional $100 million in capital and its $5.5 billion valuation intact.

“The valuation underscores investors’ confidence in Airwallex’s core business value and fundamentals,” Airwallex CEO and co-founder Jack Zhang said. He added that the market environment going forward remained “challenging in the foreseeable future,” but said the investment would help fuel the company’s objectives with regards to growth, product expansion, and talent acquisition. “By strengthening the breadth of our global reach and product offering, we can better empower our customers to unlock new market opportunities,” Zhang said.

The investment takes Airwallex’s total capital to $900 million. Participating in this week’s funding were existing investors Square Peg, Salesforce Ventures, Sequoia Capital China, Lone Pine Capital, Hermitage Capital, 1835i Ventures, and Tencent. Other investors included Australian superannuation fund, HostPlus, and a pension fund based in North America.

Airwallex’s payments and banking platform helps businesses accept payments, move money around the world, and enhance their financial operations. The company also offers a business account that features global accounts, borderless cards, transfers and foreign exchange, payment links, business expense reconciliation, and integration with accounting platform Xero. Founded in 2015 and headquartered in Melbourne, Australia, Airwallex has enjoyed revenue growth of 184% in the past year and is currently processing nearly $50 billion in annualized transactions.

Named Startup of the Year in the U.S. FinTech Awards and FinTech of the Year at the Asia FinTech Awards, Airwallex announced in August that it was committing an additional HK$2.25 million ($286,650 USD) into its Hong Kong SMEs Initiative. Launched in April, the effort is designed to help small businesses recover from the economic fallout from the COVID pandemic. This latest commitment brings Airwallex’s total support of the initiative to HK$4.5 million ($573,300 USD).

Photo by Harry Shum

• Cash management innovator Jiko raised $40 million in Series B funding today.
• The company’s technology enables businesses of all sizes to store their cash in higher yielding “spendable T-bills.”
• Jiko also announced the launch of its Jiko Money Storage solution, which will soon enable 34/7 money movement on the Jiko Network.

Among the more interesting fintechs innovating in the cash management space, Jiko raised $40 million in Series B funding today. Jiko enables companies of all sizes to move cash into and out of short-term U.S. Treasury bills (known as T-bills).

Jiko “spendable T-bills” provide transparent pricing and near instant liquidity, blending the safety and yield of T-bills with the flexibility of cash. The Oakland, California-based fintech leverages its status as a broker-dealer, as well as its technology stack and bank charter, to operate more cost-efficiently than other cash storage options.

“Today’s CEOs, CFOs, and corporate treasurers must be increasingly nimble in the face of factors such as inflation, supply chain disruption, and geopolitical conflict, while still managing their company’s risk exposure – making it paramount that cash deliver yield through safe and secure strategies,” CEO and co-founder of Jiko Stephane Lintner said.

“That need is at the heart of why we created Jiko, and with this additional funding, we look forward to continuing our work to transform how money can be moved and stored – exemplified by our milestone launch of Jiko Money Storage.”

Jiko Money Storage, also announced today, enables businesses to store cash securely in the form of T-bills with on-demand liquidity at leading custody bank BNY Mellon. Jiko will soon make the holdings movable 24/7 on the Jiko network.

The company’s Series B round was led by Red River West. Trousdale Ventures, Owen Van Natta, Temaris & Associates, La Maison Partners, BPI France, Airbus Ventures, Anthem Ventures, Upfront Ventures, and Radicle Impact also participated. The investment adds to the $47.7 million the company has raised to date via its Series A and seed funding rounds.

“It’s rare to come across a fintech team quite as ambitious as Jiko’s,” Airbus Ventures Partner Claas Kohl said. “Jiko’s network presents uncompromised safety combined with the efficiency of a modern tech stack and is equipped to soon support multi-currency financial activity.” Former U.S. Treasury Secretary and Jiko advisor Larry Summers said, “In today’s macro environment, cash should be put to work – not sit idly in bank accounts. I don’t endorse any products or platforms, but I am excited by the innovation that Stephane and his team are delivering for money storage and look forward to continuing to advise them.”

Photo by Pixabay

• Embedded finance player Railsr closed a $46 million Series C round comprised of $26 million in equity and $20 million in debt.
• Company CEO and Co-founder Nigel Verdon is calling the investment “a significant step” in the company’s route to profitability.
• The new capital brings Railsr’s total funding to $187 million.

Four months after rebranding from Railsbank, embedded finance platform Railsr closed $46 million in funding today. Company CEO and Co-founder Nigel Verdon is calling the investment “a significant step” in the company’s route to profitability.

The Series C round consists of $26 million of equity, which was led by Anthos Capita and included existing investors Ventura, Outrun Ventures, CreditEase, and Moneta. The rest of the round was comprised of $20 million in debt, which was led by Mars Capital.

Railsr said that the new capital, which brings its total funding to $187 million, will empower the company to continue to invest in its platform and help it enable its customers to offer embedded finance experiences to their end users.

“We set out to challenge old finance and this is what we will continue to do. Our strategy and success to date has come from the way we prioritize customers, invest in technology, empower teams and execute relentlessly to continue our journey,” said Verdon.

With more than 300 customers– including HelloCash, Sodexo, and Payine– Railsr offers a range of embedded finance offerings. The company believes that customers want to focus on frictionless and fun experiences, not finance. Railsr offers banking-as-a-service, along with embedded payment cards, mobile wallets, credit tools, and rewards tools.

Railsr has been keeping busy as of late. Along with its rebrand, the company recently appointed Rick Haythornthwaite as its first Chairman, promoted Chief Product Officer Stuart Gregory to Chief Operating Officer, and promoted Jane Thorburn to serve as Chief of Staff.

Headquartered in the U.K. and founded in 2016, Railsr declined to disclose its current valuation but referred to it as a “fair value.”

Photo by Mike Enerio on Unsplash

• HSBC has tapped Nova Credit to integrate the company’s Credit Passport, a cross-border credit data product.
• As part of the partnership, Nova Credit received a $10 million investment, bringing its total funding to more than $79 million.
• HSBC deployed Nova Credit’s Credit Passport at HSBC Singapore in May and plans to expand its use of the solution later this year to cover more country bureaus.

Consumer-permissioned credit bureau Nova Credit received $10 million in funding this week. The investment, which boosts the California-based company’s total funds to over $79 million, came from HSBC Ventures.

Under the strategic partnership, Nova Credit will provide HSBC with access to Credit Passport, its cross-border credit data product. Credit Passport essentially translates consumer credit across geographical borders, providing residents who are new to a country with access to financial products that require credit, such as loans or mortgages.

By leveraging Credit Passport, HSBC will have access to a customer’s translated credit history, after receiving permission from the customer. This not only increases HSBC’s potential client base, but it also increases the speed of the bank’s decisions.

“Accessing credit in a new market can be a challenge and is something we’ve been helping customers with for years,” said HSBC Group Head of Retail Banking and Strategy, Wealth and Personal Banking Taylan Turan. “We’re excited to be partnering with Nova Credit, to improve our ability to do this even more, with its innovative digital Credit Passport. We’re proud to be the first organization to offer this to customers in Singapore.”

HSBC Singapore integrated Credit Passport in May, enabling its applicants to offer the bank permission to access their global credit record and credit score. HSBC Singapore’s implementation of the tool also marked the first use of Credit Passport outside of the U.S.

HSBC elected to launch the use of the product in Singapore because thousands of its Singapore-based clients have recently moved to the country from India, where they have credit history. The bank plans to expand its use of the solution later this year to include customers with a credit history in Australia, the U.K., and the Philippines, and plans to cover more country bureaus in 2023.

Nova Credit launched in 2016 and has since built relationships with credit bureaus in more than 20 countries. Partnering with the credit bureaus has given the company consumer-permissioned access to over one billion credit profiles. Nova Credit also has partnerships with lenders including American Express, SoFi, Yardi, and Verizon.

Photo by Engin Akyurt

• CNote closed $7.25 million in Series A funding.
• The round was led by American Family Insurance Institute for Corporate and Social Impact.
• The investment brings CNote’s total funding to almost $15.5 million.

Investment platform CNote raised $7.25 million today in a round that boosted the company’s total funds to almost $15.5 million.

The Series A round was led by American Family Insurance Institute for Corporate and Social Impact. Astia Fund, BankTech Ventures, Commerce Ventures, CityRock Venture Partners, and other investors also contributed. 

The company plans to use the funds to advance its technology, expand its sales team, and deepen its network of community financial institutions.

CNote was founded in 2016 to close the wealth gap by enabling investors to invest in an economy that works for all populations, especially those in underserved communities. Using the CNote platform, corporations, institutions, and individuals can invest in fixed-income and time deposit products that are vetted to help advance economic equality, racial justice, gender equity, and climate change adaptation. When an investor places funds into CNote, the company directs the money into deposit and loan products through its network of over 2,000 ESG-focused community financial institutions.

“We’re addressing a massive systemic problem with a market-friendly platform that has already been adopted by forward-thinking corporations and other institutions,” said CNote CEO and Founder Catherine Berman. “By pumping hundreds of millions of dollars into undercapitalized communities, CNote is activating corporate dollars for systemic change while minimizing risk.”

Seeing an investment in an ESG-focused company is not surprising, despite the current funding dry spell taking place across the fintech industry. End consumers are more hungry for ESG-related products than ever, and the industry has been struggling to keep up with demand in this arena. We can expect to see more funding go toward companies touting ESG missions in the latter half of this year.

Photo by David Alberto Carmona Coto