Funding

OnDeck Scores $93 Million in Two Credit Facilities

OnDeck Scores $93 Million in Two Credit Facilities
By Julie Muhn (@julieschicktanz) Posted on
Categories: Funding, On Deck Capital

Online small business lender OnDeck closed a pair of revolving credit facilities this week. The $93 million in asset-backed funds come from Credit Suisse, which contributed $55 million (AUD 75 million) to go to small businesses in Australia, and Crédit Agricole, which contributed $38 million (CAD50 million) for small business loans to Canadians.

“Securing cost-effective facilities that provide committed funding to support the loan growth of our international businesses reflects another step forward in the execution of our financing strategy,” said Ken Brause, Chief Financial Officer at OnDeck. “These two transactions provide additional capacity to support small businesses in Australia and Canada and help them to achieve their goals.”

OnDeck will use the Credit Suisse facility to refinance its loan book at a lower rate and to fund future small business loan originations. OnDeck will service the loans, which it will extend to OnDeck Australia and OnDeck Canada subsidiaries. The funds are expected to promote small business growth in Australia and Canada by burgeoning the amount of working capital available.

Both loans carry an initial weighted average interest rate of 5.6%. The Credit Suisse loan will mature in June 2020 while Crédit Agricole’s matures in June 2021. These credit facilities make a total of four funding events that the New York-based company has received this year, following a $100 million revolving credit facility and a $225 million securitization, both received in April.

Founded in 2007, OnDeck leverages its OnDeck Score that uses advanced analytics to make real-time lending decisions and deliver funds to small businesses in as little as 24 hours. Since launch, the company has deployed $8+ billion to customers in 700 different industries across the United States, Canada, and Australia. OnDeck demoed at FinovateSpring 2012 and gave a presentation at our developers conference, FinDEVr New York 2016.

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Algomi Picks Up Investment from Euroclear

Algomi Picks Up Investment from Euroclear
By David Penn Posted on
Categories: Algomi, Funding

Fixed income liquidity matching innovator Algomi is the recipient of new funding courtesy of an investment from Euroclear Information Services (EIS). Existing investors Euronext, AllianceBernstein, and S&P Global also participated. The exact amount of the funding was undisclosed; the company’s previous total capital stood at $14 million.

“Our investment in Algomi is driven by client demand to access untapped liquidity pools,” Euroclear CEO Peter Holder said. “This venture represents an opportunity to transform our data into an asset to increase transparency and provide a substantial boost for global fixed income markets.”

Algomi’s fundraising comes just a month after the company appointed a new CEO, Scott Eaton, who was formerly EMEA COO at MarketAxess. In a statement, Eaton praised Euroclear as a “partner who understands the value of information and the importance of improving liquidity in the fixed income market.”

The investment will enable EIS to improve liquidity in the global fixed income market by leveraging Algomi’s bond liquidity matching system to make information about specific bond holdings available anonymously. Counterparties can use Algomi’s data aggregation tool, ALFA, to access Euronext’s Synapse Multilateral Trading Facility to query and trade these securities.

Writing about the funding news, Algomi Head of Marketing and Communications Tim Binnington noted this would help increase both trading opportunities and transaction volume in the more illiquid fixed income products, including corporate and government bonds. Algomi acquired ALFA from AllianceBernstein last May in a deal that gave AllianceBernstein an undisclosed, minority stake in the company.

Founded in 2012, Algomi demonstrated Honeycomb, its buy-side GUI at FinovateFall 2014. This spring, the company was included in the Tech Tour Growth 50 – its third year in a row making the list of top European private technology companies with a valuation of less than $1 billion. In 2017, Algomi was named to CB Insights’ Fintech 250 roster.

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Best of Show Winner Bambu Raises $3 Million in Series A

Best of Show Winner Bambu Raises $3 Million in Series A
By David Penn Posted on
Categories: Bambu, Funding

In a round led by Franklin Templeton Investments, B2B robo advisor Bambu has raised $3 million in Series A funding. The capital will be used to fuel the Singapore-based fintech’s global expansion.

“We are incredibly grateful for the support of all our existing and new investors and customers in helping us to build a leading global Robo-advisory technology company,” Bambu CEO and founder Ned Phillips said. He noted that the company already had topped growth targets for the year, and pointed to seven new clients in Asia and the U.S. that were slated to go live soon.

“This proves our B2B business model is working, as there is real global scalability without large capital requirements,” Phillips said. “Our next ambitious goal is to get a million end users on the platform by 2019.”

Also participating in the round were Singapore family office Octava and Japanese fintech investor Mamoru Taniya. Speaking on behalf of Franklin Templeton Investments, which made its first investment in the company last year, Managing Director and Head of Retail Harshendu Bindal praised Bambu’s ability to “drive constant innovation in the digital wealth management space” and called the company “a great long-term partner for us.”

The funding takes Bambu’s total capital to more than $4 million.

Bambu won Best of Show at FinovateAsia 2017 for its demonstration of People Like Me, a machine learning model that goes beyond traditional roboadvisory to make it easier for users to identify and reach their financial goals. The previous year, the company made its Finovate debut with a demo of its Robo and Intelligent Digital Advisory platform. The platform reimagines robo advisory by providing specific solutions for different market segments: a mobile private banker for the rich, a traditional robo advisory portfolio tool for the mass affluent, and a “robo saver” for retail customers.

This spring, Bambu opened offices in London and announced a number of new additions to its team – including a new Managing Director in Europe, Nick Wakefield. The company also made a trio of new hires who will fulfill roles in AI, design, and front-end development.

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More Than $1.5 Billion Raised by 37 Alums in Q2 2018

By David Penn Posted on
Categories: Funding, Fundings

 

Best funding quarter for Finovate alums to date.

There’s no other way to put it. With more than $1.5 billion raised by 37 alums, the second quarter of 2018 is twice as large as the previous year’s Q2. Not only that, but this year’s second quarter is also the biggest quarter for equity funding in Finovate history, ranking among our “unicorn” quarters of more than $1 billion raised.

Previous Quarterly Comparisons

  • Q2 2017: More than $726 million raised by 25 alums
  • Q2 2016: More than $510 million raised by 23 alums
  • Q2 2015: More than $840 million raised by eight alums
  • Q2 2014: More than $458 million raised by eight alums

Previous Billion Dollar Quarters

  • Q1 2018: More than $1.32 billion raised by 26 alums
  • Q3 2017: More than $1 billion raised by 31 alums
  • Q3 2015: More than $1 billion raised by 40 alums

Which alums topped the funding ranks in the second quarter? There were a number of triple digit investments over the past few months, including a pair of quarter billion dollar investments picked up by digital bank Revolut and business commerce innovator Tradeshift. But the biggest alum funding in Q2 2018 was the $360 million raised by low code app development platform OutSystems, which presented its technology at our developers conference, FinDEVr, last year.

Combined, the top ten equity investments for the quarter add up to $1.3 billion, representing 86% of the total alum funding for Q2.

Top Ten Equity Investments for Q2 2018

  • OutSystems: $360 million
  • Revolut: $250 million
  • Tradeshift: $250 million
  • LendStreet: $117 million
  • Signifyd: $100 million
  • BlueVine: $60 million
  • WorkFusion: $50 million
  • Unison: $40 million
  • Tango Card: $35 million
  • Qapital: $30 million

Here is our detailed alum funding report for Q2 2018. Interestingly, the amount raised in June 2018 alone – more than $716 million – is greater than all but two previous second quarters.

April 2018: More than $370 million raised by 11 alums

May 2018: More than $434 million raised by 11 alums

June 2018: More than $716 million raised by 15 alums

f you are a Finovate alum that raised money in the second quarter of 2018, and do not see your company listed, please drop us a note at [email protected]. We would love to share the good news! Funding received prior to becoming an alum not included.

Top Image Designed by Freepik

 

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New Investment Takes ThetaRay’s Total Capital to More than $60 Million

New Investment Takes ThetaRay’s Total Capital to More than $60 Million
By David Penn Posted on
Categories: Funding, ThetaRay

Advanced cyber security solution provider ThetaRay has raised $30+ million in funding courtesy of investors including Jerusalem Venture Partners (JVP), GE, Bank Hapoalim, OurCrowd, and SVB. The investment takes the company’s total equity capital to more than $60 million.

“In this era when criminal activity and money laundering are increasing and becoming more sophisticated and also regulation is on the rise, there is a greater demand for our solutions,” ThetaRay CEO Mark Gazit explained. “As the amount of digital information grows, you just can’t protect it without artificial intelligence systems. ThetaRay offers the most advanced and mature solutions to detect threats before they happen. We thank the existing investors, especially JVP, for their confidence in ThetaRay, and welcome the new ones joining in this round.”

ThetaRay, which has doubled in size every year in its five years of operation, will use the new funding to grow its presence in Europe, Asia, and the U.S., and “significantly increase” its workforce to scale operations to meet growing demand. Founded in 2013, the company is headquartered in Israel and New York City, and has offices in the U.K. and Singapore.

Combining machine learning, artificial intelligence, and “the wisdom of the algorithm crowd,” ThetaRay enables financial institutions to detect in real-time the kind of anomalies that typically indicate fraud, while reducing the number of false positives. The company provides financial services companies with anti-money laundering, fraud detection, and ATM solutions that leverage unsupervised machine learning instead of outdated rule-based systems and pre-defined thresholds.

“Existing systems fall short of addressing the agility and innovation of rogue organizations, fraudsters and hackers,” JVP General Partner Yoav Tzruya said. “ThetaRay is uniquely positioned to address this significant market pain, through its no-rules, holistic, AI-driven solution to identify such events, while significantly reducing the operating cost for banks.” Tzruya is also a founding investor in ThetaRay.

ThetaRay demonstrated its fraud and credit risk technology at FinovateFall 2015. Last month, the company announced that it was teaming up with ABN AMRO in a five-year project to improve the AML and counter-terrorist financing capabilities of the Dutch bank. Also in June, ThetaRay was honored with the Next Generation ATM Security Award from ATMIA.

In addition to financial services, ThetaRay’s anomaly detection technology has also been deployed in Industrial Internet of Things (Industrial IoT) contexts to help protect critical assets such as turbines, sensors, aircraft engines, and more.

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ezbob Lands Undisclosed Investment from Honeycomb Investment Trust

ezbob Lands Undisclosed Investment from Honeycomb Investment Trust
By Julie Muhn (@julieschicktanz) Posted on
Categories: EZBOB, Funding

Alternative business lending company ezbob closed a round of equity funding this week. The amount of the financing was undisclosed and boosts the U.K.-based startup’s total combined debt and equity funding higher than its previous total of $136 million (£103 million). Of that amount, $50.3+ million (£38.2+ million) is equity and $81.9 million (£62.2 million) is debt.

Today’s Series C funds come from Honeycomb Investment Trust, which is managed by Pollen Street Capital, one of the leading investors focused on lending startups. Lindsey McMurray, Pollen Street founding partner, will join ezbob’s Board of Directors. ezbob will use the funds to build out a more robust automated lending portfolio and to expand into new geographical territory.

Regarding McMurray’s involvement, Tomer Guriel, founder and CEO of ezbob said, “Our initial focus is on the SME community, many of whom struggle to acquire the financial support they need to achieve their personal and professional business development goals. My vision is to create a portfolio of innovative solutions which streamline and accelerate the entire lending process for both the borrowers and loan providers. With the support of highly experienced individuals like Lindsey, together with the new funding, there is nothing to stop us from turning our shared vision into a sustainable reality.”

“We have watched ezbob develop from being a niche player into a leading lending platform provider,” said McMurray. “ezbob are pioneers in this space and I believe both the financial institutions, and the businesses they support will derive significant benefits from this new and innovative approach to lending,” she added.

In addition to lending directly to small businesses in need of capital, ezbob offers banks a lending-as-a service platform for their small business banking customers. Esme Loans and Clydesdale Yorkshire Bank are among the company’s clients.

Founded in 2011, ezbob has 70 employees across offices in London, Tel Aviv, and Bulgaria. At FinovateEurope 2014, Guriel demonstrated ezbob’s online application process. The company started this year off on the right foot with the announcement of a $21 million funding round. Late last year, ezbob won an award for “Best Technology Initiative” at the Financial Innovation Awards.

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Paysend Seals Deal on $20 Million Financing

Paysend Seals Deal on $20 Million Financing
By David Penn Posted on
Categories: Funding, PaySend

 

In a round led by MARCorp Financial, global money transfer platform Paysend has raised $20 million in new funding. The company said that the capital, which takes the company’s total to $23 million, will help it launch new services and expand globally.

“Paysend has created the first integrated B2B and B2C global payments business which is already disrupting the market,” said MARCorp Financial Chairman Michael Fazio. “Their three businesses – Global Transfers, Global Account, and Global Processing – are leaders in their respective fields. We look forward to being a part of the next stage of Paysend’s growth.”

Paysend CEO Europe Ronald Millar demonstrating the Paysend Global Account at FinovateSpring 2018.

Via its Global Transfers service, Paysend enables card-to-card money transfers from customers in more than 60 countries. With the recipient’s name and a 16-digit card number, cardholders can make fast, secure, low-cost money transfers 24/7. Paysend charges a fixed rate for international transactions regardless of the amount transferred. Recipients can withdraw cash from millions of ATMs around the world, and pay by card at any merchant that accepts Visa or Mastercard. The service is accessible via both an iOS and Android app as well as online.

Global Account, demonstrated live at FinovateSpring 2018 in May, provides a digital wallet for both fiat and crypto currencies. The solution enables fund transfer between currencies as well as sending money to other Global Accounts or crypto wallets, and making online and in-person payments. The account comes with a prepaid card, physical and virtual, that can be linked to any of the currencies in the account, enabling the user to pay with both fiat and crypto currencies. Cardholders can also withdraw cash from the account in 125 different currencies.

Paysend’s Global Processing division processes credit and debit cards, and helps boost revenue for merchants by taking what the company calls a “data-driven approach to customer shopping.”

“I am proud of what we have achieved to date, and what we have planned for the future,” Paysend CEO Europe Ronald Millar said. “We are the only global card-to-card platform, and the technological and operational expertise required to create that could only have come from an executive team with special knowledge, creativity and ambition – our team.”

London, U.K.-based Paysend announced a number of major service expansions this year including launches in Turkey in June, in Israel in May, and in both Canada and the UAE in April. Nigeria was added in February. Paysend’s partnership with China UnionPay, announced back in December, enabled card-to-card transfers to China.

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Veridium’s $16.5 Million Series B Led by Michael Spencer

By Julie Muhn (@julieschicktanz) Posted on
Categories: Funding, Veridium

Exactly one week after pocketing a $150k grant, Veridium has made headlines again after the company reported a Series B funding round totaling $16.5 million. Because Veridium’s initial funding round was unreported, the company’s total funding is unknown.

U.K. entrepreneur and philanthropist Michael Spencer led the round, contributing $14.2 million of the total financing. Other contributors include Citrix Systems, and investor Michael Powell. Both Spencer and Powell will join Veridium’s board of directors.

The company will use the capital to boost product development and to scale its sales and marketing efforts across the Americas, Europe, and Asia in order to meet demand. Veridium already boasts customers in multiple industries across the globe, having recently added several large financial services organizations. In February, the company onboarded the largest bank in the Nordic region, Nordea, and last month, it signed a deal with a multinational Swiss bank to replace passwords, tokens, and swipe cards to create a more user-friendly authentication process.

“In today’s digital age, global organizations are challenged to secure their most critical assets against advanced threats in a way that’s both convenient and secure,” said Spencer. “Veridium is unique in the industry because it provides organizations with an enterprise-ready authentication solution to address those problems with the adoption of biometrics – while increasing security and convenience.”

Veridium offers biometric authentication solutions available through a software-only biometrics platform. The identity access management technology allows users to replace passwords, tokens, and swipe cards with their own facial and fingerprint biometrics that can be read on the sensors already available on their smartphone.

At FinovateEurope 2017, Veridium showcased 4 Fingers TouchlessID, a multi-finger touchless biometric authentication that works on smartphones with a camera. Headquartered in London and Boston, Veridium was founded in 2015. James Stickland is CEO.

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Bento for Business Raises $9 Million in New Funding

Bento for Business Raises $9 Million in New Funding
By David Penn Posted on
Categories: Bento for Business, Funding

In a round led by Edison Partners and featuring participation from current investor Comcast Ventures and new investor MissionOG, Bento for Business has raised $9 million in funding. The financial management solutions provider will use the capital to bolster its marketing and engineering efforts with new hires, and to expand the Bento for Business platform across payments, spend management, and business banking.

“Time and again, research says that poorly managed business spend is the single largest threat to the profits of small and midsize businesses in the U.S.,” Bento for Business founder and CEO Farhan Ahmad explained. “We solve this problem and bring our customers an intelligent financial management solution that stops unauthorized spending before it happens.”

The funding nearly doubles Bento for Business’ total capital to $18.5 million.

Bento for Business provides SME owners with a card-based digital spending management solution that enables employers to prevent unauthorized expenditures by controlling when, where, and how much their employees spend at the point of sale. The platform stops unapproved business spend before the purchase, saving time and money on returns and cancellations. The technology also has features like receipt upload and the ability to automatically sync Bento with popular accounting systems like Quickbooks to reduce the need for expense reports.

The company’s solutions include expense cards, API virtual cards, and ghost cards. Bento’s tiered levels of service range from a free program that supports up to two cards to its enterprise level offering with unlimited cards for $149 a month. Bento does not charge a setup fee and all paid programs (Team, Professional, and Enterprise) come with free, 60-day trials.

Bento for Business demonstrated its technology at FinovateSpring 2015. Headquartered in San Francisco, California, the company was featured in Inc.com’s article 7 Cool Productivity Tools You Probably Haven’t Heard Of last month. Bento’s technology was also highlighted in CardRates.com in March, the same month the company launched its Business Fraud Risk Calculator. The calculator is a two-minute diagnostic test that identifies potential fraud risk factors at small businesses by asking questions about expense policies, receipt handling, and accounting systems.

In February, Finovate founder Jim Bruene featured Bento in his look at startup challenger banks with a small business focus. Last fall, the company unveiled a suite of new solutions, opened up its APIs, and announced a partnership with The Bancorp.

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Unison Raises $40 Million to Promote the American Dream

Unison Raises $40 Million to Promote the American Dream
By Julie Muhn (@julieschicktanz) Posted on
Categories: Funding, Unison

Homeownership and investment company Unison unveiled its latest round of funding today. The company pulled in $40 million in Series B financing led by F-Prime Capital, whose partner, David Jegen, will join Unison’s board. Additional contributions came from Citi Ventures and Royal Bank of Canada.

The California-based company will use the new investment to fuel growth, build brand awareness, expand business operations, hire new talent, and advance its platform. Unison did not disclose its total funding to-date, but the company reported in 2017 that it “has raised tens of millions in operating capital and secured investment mandates totaling several billion.”

“I built Unison with home buyers, home owners and institutional investors top of mind and to bridge two massive needs: provide a form of capital for consumers and make residential real estate an investable asset class,” said Thomas Sponholtz, CEO of Unison. He added that Unison is “liberating consumers from debt-only solutions that have saturated the marketplace.”

Founded in 2004, Unison most recently demoed its two flagship products at FinovateFall 2017. The first is Unison HomeBuyer, which provides a percentage of the down payment needed to purchase a home in exchange for a percentage of the home’s equity upon selling. The second product is Unison HomeOwner, which allows homeowners to liquidate some of the equity in their home without interest or monthly payments. The company also showcased at FinovateSpring 2017, where it won Best of Show.

Unison has reported a handful of notable achievements recently, including a 10x increase in loan originations in Q1 2018 compared to the same quarter last year. The company also expanded its availability to 22 states and appointed Cari Jacobs as CMO.

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Munnypot Picks Up Investment from Livingbridge

Munnypot Picks Up Investment from Livingbridge
By David Penn Posted on
Categories: Funding, Munnypot

Robo advisory platform Munnypot began the month announcing a new relationship with business process management specialist Capita. Now the U.K.-based FinovateMiddleEast alum is ending the month with news of a major new investment from private equity firm, Livingbridge.

The amount of the investment was not disclosed. Livingbridge typically invests equity of as much as $6.6 million (£5 million). Munnypot said it will use the funds to further develop its robo advisory solution.

“We are delighted with Livingbridge’s investment which will enable us to scale up our business and further develop our offer for consumers,” Munnypot CEO Andrew Fay said.

Munnypot CEO demonstrating the company’s robo advisor platform at FinovateMiddleEast 2018.

Munnypot provides automated financial investment services for as little as £25 a month and/or a single £250 investment. The platform leverages chatbot technology to encourage investors to maximize annual ISA allowances, and monitors fund performance against goal-based objectives. If performance is out of line, Munnypot automatically suggests alternatives for the investor to consider.

“We are excited to be supporting Munnypot in the early stages of their development,” Livingbridge investment director Steve Cordiner said. “The robo advisor sector has grown quickly in recent years and Munnypot has a strong proposition; delivering low cost and affordable advice to consumers.”

Munnypot’s funding news comes just weeks after the company announced a strategic “scaling” partnership with Capita, which took a minority stake in the robo advisor. Via this partnership, Munnypot will help Capita develop solutions for wealth management companies. Earlier this year, Munnypot reported that it would power the robo advisor platform for Jyske Bank in Denmark. The deal represented the company’s first European white label partnership.

“We know, first hand, the time and resources required to build a robust online investment advice proposition,” Fay said in a statement accompanying the partnership announcement. “For most firms, partnering is the best and most efficient route to developing an innovative, client-engaging service.”

Founded in 2015 and headquartered in Crawley, U.K., Munnypot demonstrated its goal-based, online investment advice solution at the inaugural FinovateMiddleEast conference earlier this year. Unlike many robo advisors that seek customers from among the mass affluent, Munnypot is designed for those who traditionally have not been able to access financial advice, as well as investors looking for a cost-competitive alternative to other advisory services.

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Newchip Lands $2 Million in Seed Funding

Newchip Lands $2 Million in Seed Funding
By Julie Muhn (@julieschicktanz) Posted on
Categories: Funding, Newchip

For its first round of funding, investment marketplace Newchip has closed on a $2 million Seed round this week. Participating in the round are JadeValue Fintech, Yeoman’s Capital, Spunik ATX, Youbi Capital, and Polymath.

“We’re very excited about the funding partnerships we’ve accomplished and the value those investors bring to the company. We started Newchip with a dream to open up access to investments for both entrepreneurs and investors and now, with the closing of our seed funding round, we can achieve what we set out to do,” said Ryan Rafols, founder and CEO of Newchip.

Founded in 2016, Newchip’s marketplace allows users to invest in opportunities they care about for as little as $100. The low minimum investment, combined with Newchip’s varying investment marketplace, allow investors to curate a diversified portfolio. Some of the investment types include small business, pre-IPO companies, high growth startups, blockchain, and real estate.

Since launch, the Austin-based company has built its user base to 50,000 individuals. This success is thanks in part to Newchip’s popularity in the Apple app store, where the app recently reached the top 100 list for finance. The app is currently ranked #1 for startup investing, and is in the top 10 for fundraising and stock market investing.

Newchip debuted its investment app at FinovateSpring 2017. In April, the company began offering security token-based offerings and blockchain powered companies in its marketplace.

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