Funding

Anorak Raises $6.5 Million in Series A

Anorak Raises $6.5 Million in Series A
By David Penn Posted on
Categories: Anorak, Funding

In a round led by Kamet Ventures – an insurtech startup studio backed by AXA – life insurance recommendation engine Anorak Technologies has raised $6.5 million (£5 million) in new funding. The investment, which takes the U.K.-based company’s total equity financing to more than $11.6 million (£9 million), will be used to fuel further development of and applications for its technology. In a press release, Anorak specifically highlighted plans to use its life insurance recommendation engine as the basis for an advisor platform.

“The life insurance sector is on the verge of transformation and Anorak is leading the way,” Anorak co-founder and CEO David Vanek said. “Kamet’s investment enables us to deliver on our vision. We are committed to using cutting-edge technology to bring (the) life insurance sector into the digital age and make protection advice accessible to the millions unprotected in the U.K.”

Anorak leverages AI, and advanced data science, and actuarial science to build a fully automated advice platform for life insurance consumers. Designed to serve the nine million families in the U.K. that Anorak estimates are underserved, Anorak’s technology and APIs enable distribution partners to offer life insurance recommendations alongside other financial, investment, and e-commerce services.

Guillaume Borie, Chief Innovation for AXA, praised Anorak’s technology as “transformational” and underscored how the recommendation engine could be deployed in a variety of contexts. “(The technology) enables carriers to create a new breed of distribution partnerships from banking to gig economy platforms, whilst also reinventing the experience of existing intermediaries networks,” Borie said.

Anorak Technologies made its Finovate debut at the beginning of the year, demonstrating its platform at FinovateEurope. In September, the company announced that it would provide life insurance advice for users of money management app, Yolt. Also that month, Anorak teamed up with Starling Bank to provide insurance advice for customers of the U.K. mobile-only bank. The company was founded in 2016 and is headquartered in London.

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Zopa Seals Series G Investment En Route to Bank Launch

Zopa Seals Series G Investment En Route to Bank Launch
By David Penn Posted on
Categories: Funding, Zopa

U.K.-based P2P lender Zopa added another $20.7 million (£16 million) to its latest Series G investment round this week. The company has built upon its $57 million (£ 44 million) August fundraising and now has more than $77 million (£60 million) in new capital to pursue its current objective: building a bank.

“This new funding takes us a step closer to realising our vision of being the best place for money in the U.K.,” Zopa CEO Jaidev Janardana said. “Having served half a million customers to date, Zopa is set to redefine the finance industry once again through our next generation bank to meet a broader set of U.K. customers’ financial needs.”

Participating in the Series G were Bessemer Venture Partners, Northzone, Augmentum Capital, and Wadhawan Global Capital. Zopa’s total funding is $190.2 million (£152.9 million).

The round was the largest yet for the innovative peer-to-peer lender, which applied for a banking license in 2016. The company noted at the time that the application process can take between 15 months and two years – making this week’s investment and the company’s return to profitability for the first time since 2012 timely news for Zopa.

“2017 was a landmark for us,” Janardana said in a statement this summer, reporting the company’s good financial fortunes. In addition to revenue gains of 40% and a 43% increase in funds loaned, Zopa earned full FCA authorization last year – the first major P2P lender to do so. This enabled the company to launch its Innovative Finance ISA, bringing the tax efficiency of ISAs to P2P investments.

Zopa’s digital bank, which the company says it expects to launch “soon,” will initially offer FSCS-backed savings accounts and P2P investments such as ISAs, as well as credit cards, personal loans, and auto financing. Janardana told the Independent in October that he hoped to reduce the stress for people trying to manage their finances and “extend the ethos of peer-to-peer into retail banking.”

One of Finovate’s earliest alums, Zopa demonstrated its technology at FinovateSpring 2008. Janardana, along with the company’s board chairwoman, Christine Farnish, was named to the Peer2Peer Finance News Power 50’s Top 10 earlier this month. Zopa has lent more than £3.78 billion to customers in the U.K., with more than 60,000 active individual investors and more than 311,000 borrowers approved via the company’s platform.

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Thought Machine Announces Strategic Partnership with Lloyds Banking Group

Thought Machine Announces Strategic Partnership with Lloyds Banking Group
By David Penn Posted on
Categories: Funding, Thought Machine

Lloyds Banking Group has taken a 10% stake in core banking technology provider Thought Machine. The investment of $14.4 million (£11 million) represents the lion’s share of the company’s $23.6 million Series A round (£18 million) and is part of a strategic partnership that will help Lloyds reach its digital transformation goals.

Lloyds will leverage Thought Machine’s Vault solution, a cloud-based, next generation core banking platform to provide its customers with more personalized solutions, as well as accelerating the development cycles for additional digital banking additions. Lloyds noted in a press release that not only has it “completed extensive testing and proofs of concept” with Thought Machine, but also that the firm plans to continue helping develop Vault’s capabilities.

Thought Machine CEO and founder Paul Taylor and Chief of Sales & Marketing Travers Clarke-Walker demonstrating Vault at FinovateEurope 2018.

“A key part of our recently launched three-year strategic plan is applying technology innovation to meet our customers’ evolving needs,” Lloyds Group Director for Transformation Zak Mian explained. “I’m really excited to work with the Thought Machine team to explore ways to simplify and enhance our IT architecture and (help) on our journey to make banking easy and simple for customers.”

Founded in 2014 and headquartered in London, U.K., Thought Machine demonstrated Vault at FinovateEurope earlier this year. The flexible, end-to-end, cloud-based platform comes with a full suite of banking solutions including current accounts, loans, savings, mortgages, and credit cards – all delivered via Vault’s system of smart contracts. Driven by what Thought Machine founder and CEO Paul Taylor called a reaction to “the horror of the legacy IT systems” used by banks, Thought Machine and its team of 60 are dedicated to helping banks provide their customers with the “quality and richness of service they deserve.”

“We are delighted to announce this partnership with Lloyds,” Taylor said. “Lloyds has shown a deep commitment to embrace the opportunities that new technologies can bring in improving customers’ banking experience and it is a pleasure to take this partnership forward.”

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Meniga Lands $3.4 Million from Íslandsbanki

Meniga Lands $3.4 Million from Íslandsbanki
By Julie Muhn (@julieschicktanz) Posted on
Categories: Funding, Meniga

In its third round of funding this year, digital banking and marketing startup Meniga has taken in $3.4 million (€3 million) from Íslandsbanki. The financial backing, which follows Swedbank’s $3.7 million investment in April and UniCredit’s $3.6 million strategic funding in June, brings Meniga’s total funding to just over $34 million.

Íslandsbanki is Meniga’s first and longest-standing client. The two have been collaborating since 2009 when they launched a PFM solution in Europe. Furthering their ties, Íslandsbanki and Meniga teamed up to deploy a new card-linked offer platform in June of last year.

Meniga will use the funds to enhance research and development efforts to further build out its products. Íslandsbanki CEO Birna Einarsdóttir noted that the investment not only deepens the bank’s relationship with Meniga, but that it is also aimed at, “investing in the future development of innovation in digital banking and personal financial management solutions.”

“The banking landscape is evolving faster than ever and is driven by new competitors, regulatory changes and rising customer expectations,” said Georg Ludviksson, CEO and co-founder of Meniga. “Therefore, it is vital for banks and fintech companies to work even closer together to thrive in the new digital ecosystem.”

Headquartered in London and with offices also in Reykjavik, Stockholm, and Warsaw, Meniga offers white-label digital banking solutions for 65 million digital banking users in 30 countries for banks such as Santander, Intesa, ING Direct, Commerzbank and mBank. The company has taken home five Finovate Best of Show awards, most recently for its demo at FinovateFall 2018, where Meniga showed off its if this, then that spending challenges that allow users to tie their savings to random external events, such as the weather, sports team wins, and exercise and music listening habits.

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Coinbase Raises $300 Million, Becomes Unicorn 8x Over

Coinbase Raises $300 Million, Becomes Unicorn 8x Over
By Julie Muhn (@julieschicktanz) Posted on
Categories: Coinbase, Funding

In its largest round of funding to-date, digital currency wallet Coinbase closed a $300 million investment today. The Series E equity round, which brings the company’s total funding to just over $525 million, was led by Tiger Global Management. Y Combinator Continuity, Wellington Management, Andreessen Horowitz, Polychain, and others also participated.

In a blog post announcement, the company said it plans to use the funds ” to accelerate the adoption of cryptocurrencies and digital assets.” Specifically, Coinbase will expand globally, offer more crypto assets, focus on utility applications for cryptocurrencies, and bring institutional funds into the cryptocurrency space.

Asiff Hirji, Coinbase president and COO, commented on the optimism for the future of crypto. “We see Coinbase’s growth as validation that the ecosystem will only continue to grow in size, influence and impact — ultimately ushering in a more open financial system for the world,” Hirji said. The funding brings with it a spike in Coinbase’s valuation.

The company became a unicorn valued at $1.6 billion after its previous funding round in August of last year and announced today that it is now worth over $8 billion. And that valuation is not unfounded– Coinbase has done a lot over the course of the past year to earn its 8x boost in valuation. Among its news-making accomplishments, the company launched Coinbase Custody to help institutional investors store digital assets, acquired Memo.AI and Earn.com, launched Coinbase Commerce, was granted an e-money license from the FCA, launched its own venture fund, and launched institutional grade solutions for cryptocurrency trading.

Founded in 2012, Coinbase demoed Instant Exchange at FinovateSpring 2014. The company was founded in 2012. Brian Armstrong is CEO.

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Quid Lands $37.5 Million Round Led by Lexis Nexis Parent

Quid Lands $37.5 Million Round Led by Lexis Nexis Parent
By Julie Muhn (@julieschicktanz) Posted on
Categories: Funding, Quid

Data insights and visualization startup Quid has been putting AI and machine learning to work since it was founded in 2010. Today, the California-based company landed a generous amount of funding to continue that work.

The $37.5 million round was led by REV Ventures, the investment arm of Lexis Nexis, and bumps Quid’s total funding up to just over $108 million. Also participating in the round are Julian Roberson, Henry Kravis, Lixil Group, Artis Ventures, Salesforce Ventures, and Peter Thiel’s Founders Fund. In addition to the investment, Quid also took out $8 million in debt; its valuation remains undisclosed.

Quid told Bloomberg that the fundraising process for this round began over a year and a half ago. The company’s founder, Bob Goodson, decided to keep the round open to other investors and ended up receiving buy-in from REV Ventures, among others, to buoy the round up to the current amount. In a discussion with Bloomberg, one of REV Ventures’ founding partners, Kevin Brown, commented on the problem Quid is working to solve. “There’s an explosion of unstructured data and no one knows how to handle it,” Brown said.

At FinovateSpring 2016, Quid won Best of Show honors for its demo of Opus, a product that enables users to upload their own data into Quid and receive an interactive, visual map to help interpret raw data from earnings reports, earnings call transcripts, customer feedback, or any other text-based dataset. The company also offers solutions for consulting, healthcare, and marketing sectors, that provide insights on competitive intelligence, brand perception, and market landscape. Among its clients are Cisco, IBM, KPMG, UBS, and Visa.

While powerful, Quid’s software isn’t cheap. The company, which brought in $28 million in sales over the past year, charges $25,000 per user per year. Among Quid’s accomplishments in the past year are assisting the Wall Street Journal in spoting fraudulent entries on FCC’s website during net neutrality debate and helping Walmart build the American Family Today report.

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Finn AI Closes $11 Million Series A

Finn AI Closes $11 Million Series A
By David Penn Posted on
Categories: Finn.ai, Funding

One of the big stars of last year’s FinovateAsia, Finn AI, continues to make big headlines. The company, whose AI-powered virtual assistant technology has earned it two Finovate Best of Show awards, has picked up $11 million in new funding (CAD $14 million). The Series A round was led by Yaletown Partners and Flying Fish Partners, and featured participation from BDC Capital’s Women in Technology Fund, 1843 Capital, and angel investors.

“We’ve seen great progress in our business over the last twelve months, doubling our team to over 50 across North America and acquiring a number of major new customers and partners,” co-founder and CEO of Finn AI Jake Tyler said. “As the market moves beyond early experiments into scale production deployments we are seeing greater demand for our proven enterprise-grade Conversational AI platform.”

Tyler added that the funding would support the company’s growth in North America and Europe. The investment will also enable Finn AI to innovate on its enterprise technology and extend its core solution to support additional banking and personal finance capabilities for its current customers.

As part of the investment, Eric Bukovinsky of Yaletown Partners and Frank Chang of Flying Fish Partners will join Finn AI’s board of directors.

At FinovateFall 2017 last September, Finn AI demonstrated how its virtual banking assistant, integrated with Facebook Messenger and Google Assistant, could be used to complete everyday banking and personal finance tasks. Leveraging bot technology and artificial intelligence, Finn AI’s solution supports payments, budgeting, and savings. And while the virtual assistant is capable of answering a wide range of support queries without any human intervention, the technology is also able to bring in human agents to respond to more complex requests.

“Banks around the world are rapidly adopting Conversational AI to deepen relationships with customers, drive sales, and migrate routine, high volume tasks and queries to digital self-serve channels,” Bukovinsky said. “Finn AI has proven it can deliver with major banks across North America, Europe, Africa, and Latin America. We’re excited to support them in this next stage of their growth.”

Finn AI was founded in 2014 and is headquartered in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. Earlier this year, the company announced a partnership with Visa Canada, leveraging the Visa Development Platform APIs to enhance its conversational AI technology. This spring, Finn AI teamed up with Bank of Montreal (BMO) to power the bank’s personal banking chatbot, BMO Bolt. The company also collaborated with Nicaragua’s biggest bank, Banpro, in March, to offer the company’s first Spanish-speaking virtual banking assistant.

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Ondot Lands Strategic Investment from Citi Ventures

Ondot Lands Strategic Investment from Citi Ventures
By David Penn Posted on
Categories: Funding, Ondot, Ondot Systems

A strategic investment from Citi Ventures announced today will help power international growth for mobile payment services specialist Ondot.

“As we steadily march toward high-frequency, invisible and autonomous payments, consumers increasingly expect detailed information about their transactions,” Ondot CEO Vaduvur Bharghavan said. “Bringing together details such as real-time transaction authorizations, proximity controls, merchant specifications, and applying machine learning on historical data helps consumers have more control over their cards and delivers a premium cardholder experience.”

The amount of the funding was not disclosed. Prior to today’s news, the company reportedly had raised $51 million in equity financing.

Ondot offers banks and credit unions technology that enables them to provide their customers with solutions to better manage and control their card payments. The company’s real-time, API-based platform and mobile app provide an end-to-end digital payment card services experience that ranges from bot-assisted digital acquisition and instant activation to geolocation-based contextual alerts and messaging. Ondot’s technology gives payment cards a “digital voice,” supported by a three-way interaction between the card issuer, the card holder, and the merchant.

“Consumers want to be able to manage their financial lives anywhere and at any time, and their expectations for a seamless experience will continue to evolve,” Citi Ventures’ co-head of venture investing Ramneek Gupta said. “Ondot meets this demand by providing innovative solutions that enable increased access and control of financial information, so we are thrilled to invest.”

Ondot’s strategic investment comes as the company announced a partnership with Mexico’s INVEX. The collaboration will enable INVEX to leverage Ondot’s digital acquisition and instant issuance technology to provide the country’s first “Instant Card.” Integrated with Ondot’s technology, INVEX’s Digital Card Services solution will also feature mobile product presentment and selection, as well as built-in card controls and alerts.

“Nowadays, credit card customers and digitally savvy generations, seek simplicity and immediate financial solutions through 100% digital channels,” Jean Marc Mercier, INVEX’s Managing Director for Consumer Banking and Payments, said. He added that INVEX was “committed to consolidate our position as a player at the forefront of the Mexican consumer and payments market, providing solutions that meet these expectations.”

Santa Clara, California-based Ondot Systems demonstrated its Digital Card mobile app at FinovateSpring 2018. The company also participated in our inaugural FinovateMiddleEast conference earlier this year, winning Best of Show honors for a live demo of its card control technology. More than 3,000 banks and credit unions around the world use Ondot’s white label apps, including the premier credit union services organization in the U.S., PSCU, which announced a partnership with Ondot in August.

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Zenmonics Lands Funding from FIS

Zenmonics Lands Funding from FIS
By Julie Muhn (@julieschicktanz) Posted on
Categories: FIS, Funding, Zenmonics

Core banking specialist Zenmonics landed funding from its long-time partner FIS this week. The amount of the minority investment, along with other terms of the agreement remain undisclosed. This marks Zenmonics’ first round of funding; prior to the closing of this week’s investment Zenmonics was 100% company-owned.

The North Carolina-based company will use the funds to further its growth and burgeon capabilities of its channelUNITED platform. Riaz Syed, founder and CEO of Zenmonics said that the investment enables the company “to grow innovation and delivery capacity for our current clients, while also extending our reach in the market.”

Aimed to offer a consistent user experience across multiple channels, Zenmonics’ channelUNITED is an omni-channel solution that adapts and expands to each individual banks’ pace. The system places clients and associates on a common system to unify digital, sales, service, origination, and teller platforms.

Founded in 2007, Zenmonics has more than 200 employees. At FinovateFall 2016, the company debuted channelUnited. Earlier this week, Zenmonics earned a spot on the 2018 IDC FinTech Rankings for the second year in a row.

FIS most recently demoed at FinovateFall 2016. The company debuted its Cardless Cash solution that provides a fast, secure option for sending and picking up cash at any ATM. Headquartered in Florida, FIS serves more than 20,000 clients in more than 130 countries.

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PayActiv More than Doubles its Funding with Fresh $20 Million

PayActiv More than Doubles its Funding with Fresh $20 Million
By Julie Muhn (@julieschicktanz) Posted on
Categories: Funding, PayActiv

Employer-provided financial wellness platform PayActiv is receiving some wellness of its own this week in the form of $20 million. The Series B financing round was led by Generation Partners, with contributions from existing investors  Ziegler Link•Age Fund II and affiliate funds of Softbank Capital.

Combined with its previous investments totaling $13.5 million, today’s round more than doubles PayActiv’s total funding, which now adds up to $33.5 million. PayActiv will use today’s investment to expand its platform, accelerate growth, and develop more financial solutions for workers across the globe.

Mark Jennings, Managing Partner at Generation Partners, said that his firm chose to invest because it believes PayActiv has “the potential to positively change the lives of millions of workers, while also growing a profitable and successful business.”

The California-based company has experienced significant growth since its launch in 2012, expanding six-fold in the past year alone. Contributing to that growth was a large-scale contract signed with Walmart in December of 2017 and an agreement with ADP in July of 2018, which makes PayActiv’s services available to more than 600,000 businesses across the U.S.

Commenting on the growth, John Hawkins, Managing Partner at Generation Partners, said, “PayActiv has created a massive positive impact on the relationship between employees and employers. Already, they are settling more than $100 million in earned wage access transactions each month, and the company estimates that employees are avoiding an estimated $10 million each month in eliminated late charges, overdraft fees, and interest charges.”

As part of the deal, Hawkins will join the PayActiv Board of Directors.

At FinovateSpring 2016, PayActiv CEO and Founder Safwan Shah demonstrated how the PayActiv app encourages saving by helping users approach saving in units of time vs. percent of income. Earlier this fall, NPR featured PayActiv as Walmart’s payday loan alternative and in May the company was highlighted in the Wall Street Journal as a better alternative to payday loans.

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Klarna Rakes in $20 Million in Fall Funding Round

Klarna Rakes in $20 Million in Fall Funding Round
By Julie Muhn (@julieschicktanz) Posted on
Categories: Funding, Klarna

Online payments innovator Klarna landed a strategic partnership along with a new round of funding this week. The Sweden-based company has partnered with fashion retailer H&M, which has invested $20 million in Klarna, bringing its total funding to almost $682 million.

Klarna, which is already partnering with retailers such as Ikea and ASOS, will work together with H&M to offer omni-channel payments, provide an in-app post-purchase service, and power payments for H&M’s digital loyalty program, H&M Club. As a result, millions of H&M customers across 14 countries will benefit from a simplified and more personalized payment experience. The retailer will go live with the U.K. and Sweden markets in 2019.

In the press release, Sebastian Siemiatkowski, CEO and co-founder of Klarna said, “Customers will no longer be forgiving of unnecessary complexity or when their retail experience does not leverage the insight available to make their engagement smart, personal and easy. This partnership is rooted in a shared obsession about just how good that shopping experience should be. Together we have worked hard on developing a unique solution for instore and online that will delight customers, drive economic value, and build loyalty.”

According to TechCrunch, today’s round values Klarna “north of $2.5 billion.” The publication also seeded a rumor that Klarna has been considering going public to gain liquidity.

Founded in 2005, Klarna offers shoppers a range of options– pay at the point of sale, pay over time, or pay later. In addition to offering consumers more options, the payment variety helps businesses improve sales and Klarna’s online merchant portal helps them manage all of their payment and marketing tools from a single platform.

At FinovateSpring 2012, the company demonstrated its online payment-processing service. Klarna has formed a variety of merchant partnerships this year, and the company began 2018 with a partnership with ACI, in which the electronic payment solutions provider will enable online businesses to integrate Klarna’s payment products.

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Finovate First-Timer Nordigen Hauls in $800,000 in New Funding

Finovate First-Timer Nordigen Hauls in $800,000 in New Funding
By David Penn Posted on
Categories: Funding, Nordigen

Latvia-based lending start-up Nordigen has received $800,000 funding from Seedcamp and Finnish venture capital firm Inventure, reports Antony Peyton of Fintech Futures (Finovate’s sister publication).

Nordigen said it aims to disrupt credit bureaus (and has a dig at them) and help creditworthy people get access to loans.

“It’s hard to love credit bureaus at the moment. What they do was necessary, but with the rise of open banking, we’re now able to build technologies that are much faster, more reliable and more customer-friendly than traditional credit checks,” said Rolands Mesters, co-founder of Nordigen.

According to the firm, banks across the world reject up to 90% of all loan applications daily. “This is because banks base their decisions on credit history reports from credit bureaus, but not many people have a formal credit history,” Mesters added.

To back up its plans more, the company also cited a World Bank private credit bureau coverage report, which stated that around 30% of the global population have a record at a credit bureau.

Nordigen’s core product allows a lender to verify a customer’s real income and spending habits to make the first assessment of their creditworthiness.

The firm said its “secret sauce” is the ability to identify risk-critical behaviours in customer account data.

With the new funds, Nordigen explained that it will be hiring across the board with a focus on sales and business development. A big part of the investment will also be directed towards entering new markets, such as Brazil, South Africa, the U.S. and U.K.

The start-up was established in 2016 in Riga, Latvia, by two Google Demo Day graduates, Mesters and Roberts Bernans.

The company works with banks and alternative lenders in 12 countries, including the Baltic states, Spain, Finland, Poland, Denmark, Sweden, Germany, Czech Republic, Australia and New Zealand.

Nordigen makes its Finovate debut this week at FinovateFall in New York.

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