Blockchain-based money transfer platform Circle is making double headlines today. The U.S.-based company not only landed $25 million in funding, it also partnered with Genesis, an institutional trading firm offering two-sided liquidity for digital currency, including bitcoin.

Genesis parent company Digital Currency Group is the investor behind the $25 million. The investment is Circle’s first since August of 2018 and brings the company’s total funding to $271 million.

“Circle has been a pioneer in the digital currency market, building innovative products and services, and has consistently provided our industry with leadership on technology, standards, and regulatory policy,” said Genesis CEO Michael Moro. “With the rapid rise of USDC, we are clearly seeing mainstream momentum for digital currencies, and through this partnership with Circle we believe we can materially advance our shared mission of building a new global financial system.”

Circle will use the new funding to accelerate the adoption of USDC, a digital dollar stablecoin issued by regulated FIs, backed by fully reserved assets, governed by membership-based consortium Centre, and redeemable on a 1:1 basis for U.S. dollars. USDC has been gaining traction this year; earlier this month the cryptocurrency’s market capitalization crossed the $1 billion mark.

The investment will also provide a boost for Circle’s new Business Account and API products that the company launched earlier this year. These new services offer financial services companies a suite of APIs for USDC payments, facilitating the use of USDC in e-commerce, on-demand delivery marketplaces, digital gaming, internet services, P2P digital wallets, exchanges, B2B payments, challenger banks, trade finance, and digital asset lending and yield products.

“The partnership announced today between Circle and Genesis will bring to market solutions for businesses and developers who are seeking to generate strong positive yield from their own or customer USDC holdings, and access to USDC-based credit for businesses and merchants that are using USDC for treasury operations and business payments,” said Circle’s Josh Hawkins in a blog post announcement.

Digital Currency Group, which describes itself as the “epicenter of the bitcoin and blockchain industry,” has made 180 investments since it was founded in 2011. Digital Currency Asset Manager Grayscale and crypto news organization Coindesk are also Digital Currency Group’s subsidiaries.

Photo by Timothy Paul Smith on Unsplash

Flinks, a startup based in Montreal, Quebec, Canada, that specializes in data aggregation for financial services, has secured $11 million in Series A funding. The investment was led by NAventures, the VC arm of National Bank of Canada, which also provided $5.2 million in debt financing. Also participating in the round were Intact Ventures, Luge Capital, and Panache Ventures.

Flinks CEO Yves-Gabriel Leboeuf called the investment “timely” adding that the company was “well on track” to meet the goals it has previously set and was now ready to “face new, bigger challenges.” In a Q&A announcement at the company blog, Lebouef explained that, having focused on retail banking up to this moment, the company will look to expand into what he referred to as “wealth data.”

“Flinks will enable connections to data sources in the wealth management space, through a new aggregation service,” Lebouef said. “This is something we’re going to pull off in the near future – in fact, we’re already well into the beta phase.”

Founded in 2016, Flinks helps businesses provide users with the financial services they want. The company’s technology enables companies to connect their customer’s bank accounts, and to leverage data insights to build better, more personalized financial products. Lebouef noted that “roughly 1 in 3 Canadians” have connected their bank accounts with his company, which has processed 300+ million connections.

The investment will help Flinks expand to new markets and take advantage of the opportunities of open banking. Managing Director, Venture Capital, NAventures Philippe Daoust said, “We see great alignment between Flinks’ mission and our own focus on helping our clients manage their finances by providing them with innovative and reliable digital solutions.”

Flinks, which signed its first client in the spring of 2017 and its 100th client a year later, began 2020 by adding Clayton Feick as its new Chief Revenue Officer. Feick is a veteran of Quandl and Thomson Reuters, where he was vice president and global head of sales and business development and global lead, respectively.

Business banking services provider Zeller launched earlier this year to offer businesses in Australia a new way to bank. Heading up the new company is ex-Square duo Ben Pfisterer and Dominic Yap, which just revealed a round of funding Zeller landed earlier this year.

The investment, which closed before the emergence of the coronavirus, totaled $4.4 million (AU$6.3 million). The seed round was led by Square Peg and saw contributions from Apex Capital Partners.

Taking aim at the lack of alternative business banking services in Australia, Zeller seeks to compete with traditional banks by better serving the small business banking market.

“First and foremost [businesses] need to get paid, then they need somewhere to put that money and then need a way to deploy it, to pay their bills and staff and invest further,” Pfisterer told Business Insider Australia. “What we wanted to do was create a solution that did all three for them on one system.”

Specifically, Zeller is targeting the historically underserved category of mid-market businesses, a group Pfisterer estimates at 1.5 million. While the company hasn’t yet launched its services, once it does it will offer payment acceptance technology, business financial management tools, an instant deposit account, and a fee-free debit card.

“You see neobanks popping up everywhere, but they’re all consumer-focused. There’s no sort of neobank focused on all these other business needs. It’s quite complicated but we think we have something completely unique.” said Pfisterer of the Australian market.

Worldwide, there have been a flood of new consumer-focused challenger banks in the past year. However, we’ve seen rising competition in challenger banks working in the businesses banking arena. Among the new entrants are Arival Bank, which was founded in 2018 and recently unveiled its business bank account. Digital payments company Square also announced plans to launch a small business bank next year.

Photo by Ben White on Unsplash

Slice (fka SlicePay), a millennial-focused challenger bank headquartered in India, raised $6 million in a pre-Series B financing round. The investment brings the company’s total funding to $27.7 million in combined debt and equity.

Gunosy led the round. Also participating were EMVC, Kunal Shah, Better Capital, as well as existing investor Das Capital.

According to Slice Co-founder and CEO Rajan Bajaj, the company will use the funds to acquire new users. In fact, Slice hopes to add 500,000 new customers within the next year. This is double the company’s existing active user base of 250,000.

Slice will also use the new $6 million to increase its workforce and explore banking partnerships to release co-branded cards.

Unique to Slice is its underwriting model, which is a key element in a country where customers are burdened with limited or no credit files. To help users build their credit, Slice offers a card that comes with a pre-approved credit line that offers installment loans, enabling users to buy now and pay later.

Slice is one of only a handful of challenger banks in India. Others in the subsector, including PayTM, Google Pay, and Walmart’s PhonePe, are all very large players. However, Slice seems to be fairing well. The company has been profitable since last year. And the simple fact that it raised funds in today’s economic environment where VCs are reluctant to invest speaks volumes of its potential.

“We believe Slice has a sustainable advantage as it has decoded young credit users’ demands and has built a deep understanding of credit risk and low-cost distribution using technology,” said Gunosy Director Yuki Maniwa.

Photo by Hello I’m Nik 🎞 on Unsplash