In a round led by Group 11, banking app Lili has secured $55 million in Series B funding. The capital will help the New York-based fintech grow its product range over the next few months. This will include the addition of new features for invoice and payment management and a new loans product.

“We’ve created the tools you need to spend more time building your venture and less time on things that historically your employer would handle: sorting expenses, managing financials, and filing taxes,” Lili CEO and co-founder Lilac Bar David explained.

The Series B took the two-year old company’s total capital to $80 million. Also participating in the investment were Target Global and AltaIR.

Having doubled its account base over the past six months and currently boasting 200,000 users, Lili offers real-time expense management, tax preparation, and no-fee accounts designed for freelancers and gig economy workers. Lili also provides direct deposit and a Visa business debit card with free ATM withdrawals at more than 32,000 locations.

Named to the Forbes Next 1000 list for 2021, Bar David co-founded Lili having spent three years as CEO of Israeli challenger bank, Pepper. Along with current Lili CTO and co-founder Liran Zelkha, Bar David’s goal was to build a solution for workers in the freelance economy that combined banking and business management services into a single platform. She estimated that Lili has saved its users 60 hours on administrative tasks and $1,700 a year in fees, costs, and tax savings.

The 60 million freelancers in the U.S. – more than a third of the workforce – often struggle to secure timely payment for services rendered, accurately meet tax obligations, and manage their overall financial work/life balance. With the expectation that this relatively young cohort will only grow in size over time, investors like Group 11 see Lili as well-positioned to take advantage of this evolution in the “future of work.”

“Lilac and Liran’s forward-looking vision is changing how modern workers manage their finances, while saving them valuable time and money,” Group 11 founding partner Dovi Frances said during the company’s seed funding round announcement just under a year ago. “Lili is redefining banking for freelancers and we’re thrilled to be partnering with the team.”

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Self-proclaimed “financial super-app” Curve announced it will soon go live with a crowdfunding campaign.

The campaign, which will launch “sometime in May,” will be held on Crowdcube and will enable Curve’s more than two million customers to invest and be part of its journey. Curve will use the funds to fuel its launch into the U.S. market and help it to expand further into Europe.

“We know many new customers missed out on our 2019 crowdfunding, and we’ve fielded constant requests to open a new round,” said Curve Founder and CEO Shachar Bialick. “Since we place our customers at the heart of everything we do, we wanted to offer another chance for them to be involved in our success, enabling them to be part of our journey.”

Funds raised from the campaign will add to the $169 million Curve has raised since it was founded in 2015. This includes the company’s recent $103 million (£72.5 million) Series C round it closed in January which received contributions from Fuel Venture Capital.

“With increasing fragmentation in financial services, and growing demand from consumers for a simpler way to control and manage their finances, the scene is set for Curve to seize a global opportunity,” said Bialick. “We are investing in our people and the business to make that happen.”

This news follows Curve’s 2019 crowdfunding round, which raised $5.7 million (£4 million) in 42 minutes. The move tripled the company’s valuation. The announcement also comes after a year of growth during which Curve hired over 100 new employees, doubled its customer base to over two million, and saw its transaction volume increase to $3.7 billion (£2.6 billion).

Curve has big plans for 2021, including the launch of its crowdfunding campaign. This year, the company is also working on the rollout of its Curve Credit product and will increase its workforce by 60%, hiring 200 additional employees.

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Railz, an API developer that helps connect financial institutions and fintechs with their customers’ accounting information in real-time, has secured an investment of $12 million. The Series A round, led by Nyca Partners, takes the Toronto, Ontario, Canada-based company’s total funding to more than $15 million.

“While there are many players who focus on collecting data across various accounting packages, the challenge of understanding what the data actually means, and how to categorize it, continues to be a major hurdle for the users of this information,” Railz CEO Sohaib Zahid said. “Railz’s data normalization solution, coupled with our insights and analytics engine, is the secret sauce that can address this challenge – and tackle it more accurately and quickly than any other service offering in market.”

Also participating in the Series A were Vestigo Ventures, Susa Ventures, Plug and Play, N49P, Hack VC, Global Founders Capital, and Entrée Capital. The company plans to use the new capital to add more talent to its sales and engineering teams.

Railz offers a single API that integrates with all major, SME-oriented accounting platforms to enable on-demand access to financial transactions, analytics, and insights. The fast, low-cost, accounting-data-as-a-service solution gives small businesses the ability to be better served by financial institutions by giving them an easier, less cumbersome way to share their critical financial information.

“Businesses use accounting software as a single source of truth to record the financial health of their company,” Nyca Partner Jeremy Solomon said. “Sharing this data with another party is currently a manual process that is slow, expensive, and error-prone.”

With just a few lines of code, Railz claims that it can get customers up and running with its technology in less than a day. The company’s real-time financial analytics and insights offer risk scoring and fraud identification, in addition to standardized accounting entries that use a universal format for easier modeling and reporting. Founded in the summer of 2020, Railz says its customers have benefitted from up to a 53% reduction in costs and a 75% reduction in fraud.

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In a round led by Meritech and Greylock, Canada-based fintech Wealthsimple has secured $610 million (C$750 million) in funding. The investment takes the online brokerage’s total capital to more than $1 billion, more than triples the company’s most recent valuation to $4 billion, and represents one of the largest financings for a Canadian technology company to date.

“Seven years ago, we launched Wealthsimple with just four people and a mission that many thought was naive: use technology and innovation to revolutionize the finance industry so every Canadian could achieve financial freedom, no matter who they are or how much money they have,” Wealthsimple co-founder and CEO Mike Katchen wrote on the company’s blog this morning. “I’m happy to say that our mission doesn’t seem quite so naive anymore.”

Also participating in the round were DST Global, Sagard, Iconiq, Dragoneer, TCV, iNovia, Allianz X, Base 10, Redpoint, STEADFAST, Alkeon, TSV, and Plus Capital. A host of Canadian celebrities were also involved in the funding, including actors Ryan Reynolds and Michael J. Fox; athletes Kelly Olynyk, Dwight Powell, and Patrick Marleau; and singer Drake.

Since its inception in 2014, Wealthsimple has grown into a firm with more than two million users who enjoy commission-free stock trading, automated investing, as well as access to cryptocurrencies and tax services. This spring, the company introduced its cash app, which enables Canadians to send and receive cash “in seconds.” Free and requiring no minimum balance to use, Wealthsimple Cash has been likened to Venmo, a popular cash app in the U.S. The app currently has daily spending limits of $5,000 a day and $20,000 a month; Wealthsimple said that this is significantly more generous than what is available through the big banks.

Wealthsimple’s investment news comes as the Toronto, Ontario-based fintech pivots to pursue new opportunities in the Canadian market (the company sold its U.S. investment advisory business to Betterment in March). During the investing mini-mania surrounding Robinhood and shares of Gamestop earlier this year, investors in Canada were weighing in by making Wealthsimple’s trading app the number one app on Canada’s Apple App Store and on Google Play. This ratings boost was accompanied by a 50% gain in sign-ups and a 2x increase in trading volume. The environment created by the global pandemic, according to Wealthsimple’s Katchen, played a significant role in the company’s growth; 18% of the country’s new brokerage accounts in the first half of 2020 were opened on Wealthsimple’s platform.

Like a growing number of fintechs, Wealthsimple also plans to extend its offerings to include cash, checking, insurance, and mortgage products with the goal of becoming the customer’s “primary financial institution“. The company initially earned its unicorn status in October, after securing an investment of $93 million (C$114 million). Power Corporation of Canada is the company’s majority shareholder, with a 43% of the company post-financing.

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Just a few days after Till Financial picked up a $5 million investment for its “kids-focused” spending management app and Greenlight raised a whopping $260 million for its technology that helps parents raise “financially smart kids,” teen banking app Step announced that it had scored $100 million in Series C funding for its financial wellness solution dedicated toward helping young people develop sound financial habits.

“Our mission is to help improve the financial futures of the next generation and we’re thrilled to have such a massive vote of confidence from investors, especially during Financial Literacy Month,” Step CEO and founder CJ MacDonald said. “Thirty-eight percent of teens say they lack the financial resources needed to achieve financial independence and this is a problem Step is well positioned to help solve as we educate millions of households every day.”

The round was led by General Catalyst and featured participation from an exceptionally diverse group of existing investors. This roster included Coatue, Stripe, Charli D’Amelio, The Chainsmokers’ Mantis VC, Will Smith’s Dreamers VC, Jeffrey Katzenberg’s firm WndrCo, actor Jared Leto, Franklin Templeton and NBA All-Star Stephen Curry. The investment takes Step’s total funding to more than $175 million.

In the time since Step launched in September of 2020, the company has amassed more than 1.5 million users of its financial wellness app. Step gives users a free, FDIC insured bank account, a secured spending card, and access to a P2P payments platform that enables users to send and receive money instantly. With 88% of the company’s users saying that Step is their first bank account, the platform claims that it is the only banking platform that enables youth to build a positive credit history before they reach 18 years old.

“For too long, conversations about money –– specifically how to manage it –– have been avoided despite what a critical role they play in shaping the future of the next generation,” actor, musician, and serial tech investor Jared Leto said. “Over twenty years ago, I set out to tackle this problem by starting a company in the space, so I’m excited to see Step addressing the financial literacy crisis head on with game-changing technology built to help young people learn about money in their digitally native environments.”

Step is headquartered in San Francisco, California, and was co-founded by MacDonald and Alexey Kalinichenko. The company’s financial solutions are backed by bank partner Evolve Bank & Trust.

Greenlight, a company that provides financial services technology for kids, announced today it has landed $260 million in funding. Today’s investment nearly doubles the Georgia-based company’s valuation, boosting it up to $260 million.

The Series D round, which brings Greenlight’s total funding to more than $550 million, was led by Andreessen Horowitz with participation from existing investors TTV Capital, Canapi Ventures, Wells Fargo Strategic Capital, BOND, Fin VC, Goodwater Capital. New investors Wellington Management, Owl Ventures, and LionTree Partners also participated. Andreessen Horowitz General Partner David George will join Greenlight’s board of directors.

As for Greenlight’s valuation, the company saw an increase from $1.2 billion to $2.3 billion over the course of six months.

Greenlight will use today’s funds to add more services to its platform, increase its distribution partnerships, and expand to more geographies to ultimately reach more families. Additionally, the company will use the investment to increase its human resources, with a plan to add 300 employees over the next two years.

“Our vision at Greenlight is to create a world where every child grows up to be financially healthy and happy,” said Greenlight Co-founder and CEO Tim Sheehan. “Today’s financing will enable us to bring even more value to families as we continue to introduce new innovative products that shine a light on the world of money.”

Founded in 2014, Greenlight offers a money management platform for families that helps three 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.

Greenlight has struck a chord with its family-based finances approach. In the past year, the company has more than tripled its year-over-year revenue, more than doubled its users, and doubled its workforce. Earlier this year, Greenlight launched a new products, Greenlight Max, which helps kids research and invest in stocks with parental approval.

“The demand for Greenlight’s family finance solution continues to grow,” said Greenlight Co-founder and President Johnson Cook. “With the support of our investors, we look forward to empowering even more parents to raise financially-smart kids.”

In a round led by Tiger Global, financial services and technology company Brex has raised $425 million, boosting its valuation to more than $7.4 billion.

“Our investors – new and existing – believe in our team, our business model, our product vision, our customers, and the future of Brex,” company co-CEO Henrique Dubugras said. “We are delighted to have them on board for the next phase of our journey.”

Speaking of the next phase, today’s investment comes as the company, which began with a corporate credit card product for venture-backed startups four years ago, announced the launch of a new all-in-one finance platform. The new offering combines spend management technology with billpay in a single dashboard and will be available for $49 a month. The platform facilitates responsible employee spending via corporate and vendor cards, eliminating the need for expense reports and personal reimbursements. Business owners can also easily track spending across business divisions to better understand spending trends by department, merchant, account, as well as by individual employees.

“Growing and maintaining a business should not depend on how good a small business owner is at managing their finances,” Brex CTO Cosmin Nicolaescu said. “Our all-in-one finance solution gives business owners peace of mind, and the time back to do more of what they love and remember why they started their business.”

In addition to this news, the fact that Brex applied to establish a “Brex Bank” earlier this year suggests that the company also could be en route to offering FDIC insured products to small businesses without requiring an intermediary bank as a partner.

“Brex Bank will expand upon its existing suite of financial products and business software, offering credit solutions and FDIC insured deposit products to small and medium-sized businesses (SMBs),” the company noted in February. “Brex and Brex Bank will work in tandem to help SMBs grow to realize their full potential.”

Located in San Francisco, California, Brex includes ecommerce platforms like Cheers and Dr. Squatch, accounting companies like Pilot and Kruze, and startups like Hourly and Bounce among its customers. Founded in 2017, Brex enables companies in a variety of industries to better manage their finances via a combination of payment and cash management solutions. In the first quarter of this year, Brex reported customer growth of 80% and total monthly customer addition gains of 5x. The company said that 45% of its customers are currently small and medium-sized businesses.

“Brex is building the future of finance for the next generation of businesses,” Tiger Global partner Scott Shleifer said. “We are excited to partner with them as they continue growing rapidly, innovating their product offerings, expanding their customer base and leading an industry that is dominated by incumbents.”

Also participating in this week’s Series D round were new investors TCV, GIC, Baillie Gifford, Mardrone Capital Partners, Durable Capital Partners LP, Valiant Capital Management, and Base10. Existing investors Y Combinator Continuity, Ribbit Capital, DST Global, Greenoaks Capital, Lone Pine Capital, and IVP were also involved in the investment.

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Small business financial services platform Hatch unveiled its funding total today. The California-based company has pulled in $20 million in two funding rounds since it was founded in 2018.

The first investment, a Seed round that closed in January 2019, totaled $5 million. The company’s Series A round closed in February of last year, totaling $14 million.

Hatch’s investors include Kleiner Perkins, Foundation Capital, and SVB.

Hatch offers small businesses a line of credit and a business checking account which it launched this January. The checking accounts come with a Mastercard debit card and allow Hatch’s 4,000 business users to send money through ACH, billpay, or via digital checks from the Hatch dashboard. Additional features include overdraft protection and cashback rewards.

Because Hatch uses machine learning to complete KYC, KYB, and OFAC compliance checks, businesses can get approved for a checking account in under five minutes. Accounts cost $10 per month and feature a transparent fee structure.

Founded by Thomson Nguyen, Hatch has a team of 48 people, 40 of which were brought on in the past year during the pandemic.

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