Funding Archives - Page 57 of 88

Truphone Raises $339 Million to Fuel Global Expansion

By Julie Muhn (@julieschicktanz) Posted on October 3, 2017
Categories: Funding, Truphone

What would you do with $339 million? London-based mobile operator Truphone gets to answer that question today, as the company closes its $339 million (£255 million) private equity round. This brings Truphone’s total funding to more than $430 million.

The company will use the funds to retire its debt, help it “disrupt the trillion-dollar mobile industry and power the world’s connected devices,” and fuel its global expansion. Aside from its London headquarters, Truphone currently has offices in Australia, Germany, Hong Kong, the Netherlands, Poland, Portugal, Spain, and in three cities across the U.S. in New York, North Carolina, and Ohio.

Truphone CEO Ralph Steffens said that the funding will empower the company to “offer highly differentiated Enterprise products and are the enabler of choice for disruptive IoT and eSIM solutions.” Steffens adds, “It is an important step in achieving our long-term goal to power billions of connected devices around the world.”

Founded in 2006, Truphone leverages eSims (software-based SIMs) to enable mobile customers to use their voice and data allowances across 40 countries without incurring roaming charges. In addition to SIM-based data plans, Truphone also offers mobile plans for businesses and a mobile recording solution, which it showcased at FinovateEurope 2014. Truphone Mobile Recording enables businesses and banks to record, encrypt, and store mobile communications securely and without disrupting the user experience.

The company has 350 employees across 10 countries. In July, Truphone formed a strategic partnership with Apple to allow iPad users to stay connected across 50 countries. Earlier this fall, the company earned its spot on the Inc. 5000 Europe list, which ranks private companies based on three-year revenue growth.

Share this:

Send Post Twitter LinkedIn Facebook

Stockpile Raises $30 Million to Boost Millennial Stock Ownership

By Julie Muhn (@julieschicktanz) Posted on September 28, 2017
Categories: Funding, Stockpile

Millennial-focused brokerage firm Stockpile has pulled in $30 million this week in a Series B funding round led by Fidelity. Mayfield, Arbor Ventures, Hanna Ventures, Wang Ventures, and others also participated.

This investment boosts the California-based company’s total raised to $45 million. Avi Lele, Stockpile’s founder and CEO said the company will use the funds to “bring stock investing to more millennial customers and expand its unique features.”

David Milstein of Eight Roads, who is joining Stockpile’s board as a part of the investment said, “Stockpile has had tremendous success in attracting the next generation of investors.” He adds, “Their innovative approach takes the mystery out of stock investing and opens up access to all. They have put the stock market on a gift card.”

Stockpile launched in 2015 and sells its gift cards directly to consumers online and on store shelves via a partnership with Blackhawk Network. The company has also partnered with a number of Fortune 500 companies, including Verizon and FIS, who offer Stockpile gift cards as employee and/or customer incentives.

“We’re on a mission to make it simple for everyone – especially young, first-time investors – to save and invest for their future,” said Lele. “Fractional shares make market investing fun, easy, and personal. Even someone with only a few dollars can buy a piece of a favorite brand like Amazon or Alphabet, which are currently trading close to $1000 a share.”

Earlier this year Stockpile made a move to boost its client base with former Loyal3 customers and in 2016 the company acquired SparkGift, transferring SparkGift’s customer base to its own brokerage platform for free. Founded in 2010, by Avi Lele and Sanj Kulkarni, Stockpile launched at FinovateSpring 2014 in a demo that won Best of Show.

Share this:

Send Post Twitter LinkedIn Facebook

Swych Seals Series A Funding

By David Penn Posted on September 25, 2017
Categories: Funding, Swych

Digital gifting platform Swych has closed its Series A round with a “major strategic capital investment” from UAE Exchange Group. The amount of the investment was undisclosed.

“Swych’s global gifting technology and vision fits well with our strategy to foster purpose-based money transfers,” UAE Exchange Group CEO Promoth Manghat said. “As a group, we are always on the lookout for opportunities to partner with organizations that drive innovation, provide differential services and promote digital initiatives,” he added. “In Swych, we see a unique value proposition that checks all these boxes.”

Swych’s platform gives users the ability to send “swychable” digital gifts from their mobile device that are redeemable for electronic gift cards from more than 120 retail partners. Users can also upload their plastic gift cards to the Swych mobile app and checkout using their smartphone to scan the bar code at the register. They can also earn rewards points that can be used to buy “swychable” gift cards. Businesses can use the company’s GiftBot platform or its “Gifting-as-a-Service” APIs to produce their own customized digital gift cards.

UAE Exchange and Swych will work together to develop digital gifting services for international markets, with a U.S.-to-India service under consideration as an initial launch. Swych founder and CEO Deepak Jain underscored the opportunity of leveraging UAE’s international reach, saying it would “greatly accelerate Swych in its mission to become the leader in digital cross-border gifting services globally.” A money transfer, foreign exchange, and payments solutions provider, UAE Exchange has in excess of 200,000 agent locations in more than 160 countries and 15+ million customers worldwide. UAE Exchange was established in 1980 and is headquartered in Abu Dhabi, UAE.

Plano, Texas-based Swych won Best of Show for its demonstration of the Swych Mobile Gifting Platform at FinovateFall 2016. The mobile app is available for free at both the Apple App Store and Google Play.

Share this:

Send Post Twitter LinkedIn Facebook

With New Funding, Prosper’s Valuation Stands at $550 Million

By Julie Muhn (@julieschicktanz) Posted on September 22, 2017
Categories: Funding, Prosper

U.S. peer-to-peer lending giant, Prosper has landed $50 million in a Series G funding round. The capital come from Hong Kong-based FinEx Asia and LPG Capital and raises the San Francisco-based company’s total equity funding to $410 million.

Prosper will use the financing to make strategic investments in the company’s platform and products. “This investment is a strong signal of confidence in our business fundamentals and the momentum we are seeing right now,” said David Kimball, CEO of Prosper Marketplace. “Over the past year, we’ve shown that we can build a sustainable business that continues to redefine the online lending experience for our borrowers and investors. We believe this partnership will open up additional opportunities for our business as we continue to grow.”

According to Lend Academy, Prosper’s valuation is now $550 million; a 70% drop from the company’s estimated 2015 valuation of $1.87 billion. However, Lend Academy also noted that Prosper’s decline aligns with competitor Lending Club’s valuation, which experienced a share price drop of 68% since April of 2015.

Marketplace lending as a whole has experienced a downturn in the past couple of years, and Prosper had to endure a stumbling block of its own in July of this year when it shuttered its Prosper Daily app. Aimed at prospective borrowers, the app was built from Prosper’s purchase of BillGuard in 2015 for $30 million.

Despite the setbacks, Prosper reported relatively strong second quarter performance this year, with $775 million in loan originations. This represents a 32% quarter-over-quarter increase and 74% year-over-year increase. Overall, the company has facilitated more than $10 billion in consumer loans over its platform since launching in 2006.

Prosper presented at FinovateSpring 2009 as well as the inaugural Finovate in 2007. Earlier this year, the company appointed Usama Ashraf as Chief Financial Officer and in November of 2016, selected David Kimball to succeed Aaron Vermut as CEO. Forbes interviewed Kimball in a feature this spring.

Share this:

Send Post Twitter LinkedIn Facebook

Cloud Lending Solutions Picks Up Investment from ABN Amro’s Digital Impact Fund

By David Penn Posted on September 8, 2017
Categories: Cloud Lending Solutions, Funding

ABN AMRO’s venture capital fund, the Digital Impact Fund (DIF) has made an investment in Cloud Lending Solutions this week. The amount of the funding was not disclosed. “We are excited for the long-term support of ABN AMRO’s Digital Impact Fund with this investment,” Cloud Lending Solutions CEO Snehal Fulzele said in a statement. “We look forward to working with DIF to deepen out global footprint and broaden our lending impact.”

This week’s funding adds to the more than $8 million in capital already raised by Cloud Lending Solutions, which also completed a Series B round in February (amount undisclosed). ABN AMRO joins SF Capital Group and Cota Capital as investors in the company.

Pictured: Cloud Lending Solutions co-founder and CEO Snehal Fulzele demonstrating CL Exchange at FinovateSpring 2015.

Director of DIF, Hugo Bongers, praised the company’s management team, its “broad and innovative product portfolio,” and its track record. “With Cloud Lending Solutions’ robust worldwide growth, they will be able to utilize our investment to further their global expansion,” Bongers said. Headquartered in San Mateo, California, Cloud Lending Solutions also currently has offices in London, Sydney, and Bangalore.

Cloud Lending Solutions provides end-to-end loan and leasing technology that digitizes every aspect of the lending process including origination, underwriting, servicing, and collections. Built natively on Salesforce.com, the company’s solutions enable FIs to leverage the cloud to provide alternative financing to unbanked and underbanked communities worldwide. Founded in 2012, Cloud Lending Solutions demonstrated its CL Exchange platform at FinovateSpring 2015. CL Exchange gives participating online marketplaces and lenders the ability to exchange both consumer and business loan applications to source the most appropriate loans for each company’s lending portfolio. Last month, the company introduced new enhancements to its CL Lease solution in an upgrade that included more than 45 specific product changes and “hundreds of smaller updates.”

Share this:

Send Post Twitter LinkedIn Facebook

Bambu Wins Strategic Investment from Franklin Templeton

By David Penn Posted on August 31, 2017
Categories: Bambu, Funding

Singapore-based B2B roboadvisor Bambu has completed a funding round that featured a strategic investment from Franklin Templeton Investments and venture capital funding from Wavemaker Partners, part of the Draper Venture Network. Also participating in the round was fintech and global robo advisor investor and advocate, Robby Hilkowitz.

“Bambu is now a growth stage company in the rapidly changing world of digital wealth,” Bambu CEO and co-founder Ned Phillips said. “To gain support from leading industry players brings great momentum towards our goal of becoming the market leader in the space.” He added that the company would use the new capital to speed business development and sales efforts, as well as bolster research and development.

Although the amount of this week’s investment was not made public, TechinAsia reports that the company’s total funding is more than $1 million, including a $400,000 seed round in the spring of 2016.

Pictured (left to right): Bambu CEO Ned Phillips and COO Aki Ranin demonstrating the Robo and Intelligent Digital Advisory platform at FinovateAsia 2016.

Bambu’s strategy as a robo advisory platform is to de-commoditize the industry by offering solutions that are tailored to specific markets. The company offers an Intelligent Advisor solution that is geared toward private banks and wealth managers working with high net worth clients. Bambu also has a white-label, robo advisory platform for affluent and retail investors that enables banks and asset managers to offer clients the ability to build personalized, goal-based portfolios.

Wavemaker Partners managing partner Paul Santos credited the experience of Bambu co-founders Ned Phillips and Aki Ranin in support of the firm’s investment. Praising the pair’s “deep domain expertise building scalable, sustainable businesses,” Santos added, “Ned and Aki have gone from strength to strength to find customers that love their product and have built up a promising pipeline.”

Bambu demonstrated its Robo and Intelligent Digital Advisory platform at its Finovate debut in Hong Kong in November 2016. In January, Bambu won Best Early Startup at the Next Money Fintech Finals in Hong Kong. Finovate research analyst Julie Muhn highlighted the company in her look at “Top Business-to-Business Wealth Tech Players” earlier this year. Bambu is a veteran of Hong Kong’s SuperCharger FinTech Accelerator 2.0, sponsored by Standard Chartered Bank and Fidelity International. The company was founded in 2016.

Interested in fintech in Asia? FinovateAsia returns to Hong Kong this November. Visit our FinovateAsia 2017 page for more information. Reserve your ticket by September 29th to take advantage of early-registration savings.

Share this:

Send Post Twitter LinkedIn Facebook

Mortgagetech Innovator Blend Picks Up $100 Million Investment

By David Penn Posted on August 25, 2017
Categories: Blend, Funding

Earlier this year, Finovate Senior Research Analyst Julie Muhn predicted that the continued rise of mortgagetech would be one of the biggest fintech success stories of 2017.

Today, with news of a $100 million investment in Blend, a startup that specializes in making the mortgage process easier for bother lenders and borrowers, it looks like her prediction is right on track.

“We’ve found a great partner in Greylock,” Blend CEO and founder Nima Ghamsari wrote at the company blog this week, “not only because they’re one of the top venture capital firms in Silicon Valley, but also because of their history of success in helping take technology companies to the next level.” Joining Greylock in Blend’s Series D round were Emergence Capital, Lightspeed Ventures, Nyca Partners, and 8VC. The funding brings the company’s total capital to more than $160 million and gives Blend an estimated valuation of $500 million.

Blend plans to use the additional funding to grow its staff, expand beyond the United States, and explore opportunities to bring its technology to other lending products. “The opportunity for our technology in the $40 trillion consumer lending market is huge, but the industry won’t change overnight,” Ghamsari wrote. “To realize our goals, we need to continue scaling and bringing together the best talent, partners, and backers to get us to the next level.”

Blend’s dramatic funding announcement comes with news that the company has partnered with Wells Fargo and U.S. Bancorp. Both banks will use Blend’s technology to speed the mortgage application process and better compete with rivals like Quicken Loans. U.S. Bancorp believes Blend will enable them to reduce the mortgage application process by as many as five days and that the timeline will eventually be “sliced in half.” Wells Fargo, which began working with Blend “late last year,” expects to introduce its new, Blend-supported, mortgage product nationwide in 2018.

Founded in 2012 and based in San Francisco, California, Blend demonstrated its Data-Driven Mortgage solution at FinovateSpring 2016. The company has tripled its user base since January 2016 and processed more than $30 billion in mortgage applications this year alone. Last month, the company launched its native mobile app, making it easier for loan officers to manage requests and applications from their mobile devices. A member of CB Insights’ Fintech 250 list, Blend was featured in our look at tech trends driving mortgagetech earlier this year, “Digitization, Data, and Automation.” For more about the company, also check out our interview with Blend CTO Eugene Marinelli.

Share this:

Send Post Twitter LinkedIn Facebook

Emailage Raises $10 Million in Round Led by Anthos Capital

By David Penn Posted on August 24, 2017
Categories: Emailage, Funding

Fraud prevention and identity verification innovator Emailage has raised $10 million in new funding. The round was led by Anthos Capital, and featured the participation of Mucker Capital, Radian Capital, Tallwave Capital, and Wipro Ventures. “This investment will allow us to continue our rapid growth, enhance our leadership position in the online fraud detection market and deliver significant fraud prevention capabilities to businesses around the world,” Emailage CEO Rei Carvalho said. The funding takes Emailage’s total capital to more than $15 million.

Emailage’s innovation is to leverage email addresses as unique global identifiers. The company’s real-time risk intelligence technology uses email transaction history, machine learning algorithms, and “positive and negative data” to produce a predictive risk score for any transaction involving an email address.

Pictured: Emailage Chief Product Officer Amador Testa demonstrating the Emailage Browser Extension at FinovateSpring 2015.

Emailage’s technology can be used to provide verification for online transactions, account signups, marketplace listings, and more. In addition to the top three PC manufacturers and the top four money transfer providers, Emailage’s customers include:

five of the top 10 global retailers
three of the top five largest global airlines
three of the top six credit card issuers
three of the top five marketplace lenders
three of the top five travel websites

In 2017 alone, Emailage has analyzed $100 billion in transaction volume, identifying more than 17 million high-risk transactions. “Emailage has developed a powerful solution that is critical for any company doing business online,” Anthos Capital’s Paul Farr said, crediting the company for “making online transactions safer for businesses and consumers.”

Founded in 2012 and headquartered in Chandler, Arizona, Emailage demonstrated its Browser Extension at FinovateSpring 2015. The company recently revealed that fellow Finovate alum Experian was using its technology among others to help lower fraud on its CrossCore platform. Emailage CEO Carvalho was interviewed by Silicon Review at the beginning of the year, discussing strategies for staying ahead of the fraudsters.

Share this:

Send Post Twitter LinkedIn Facebook

Socure Raises $14 Million in New Funding

By David Penn Posted on August 9, 2017
Categories: Funding, Socure

In a Series B round led by Commerce Ventures, digital identity verification specialist Socure raised $13.9 million in new funding. The investment, which also featured the participation of Flint Capital, Santander InnoVentures, Synchrony Financial, Two Sigma Ventures, and Workbench, takes Socure’s total funding to $27.5 million.

“The funding will help us meet the increasing demand by accelerating market penetration in current and new markets, while maintaining our leadership position in the digital identity verification market,” Socure co-founder and CEO Sunil Madhu said. The capital will also go toward growing the company’s sales and support operations, as well as building out its infrastructure.

Pictured: Socure CEO and co-founder Sunil Madhu demonstrating Perceive at FinovateFall 2015.

Socure’s Predictive Analytics Platform helps companies in a number of verticals improve onboarding of new customers and reduce identity fraud. The company’s technology leverages online and offline data, including data from social networks to discern whether or not a given person has been accurately identified. Socure says its technology has improved customer acceptance rates by more than 35% in new account openings. The company’s solutions have also reduced manual review by 90%, producing low historical false positives and eliminating the reliance on knowledge-based authentication. Socure also supports KYC and AML compliance requirements, providing increased fraud capture of 50%.

Calling identity verification “critical to the success of the next-generation financial services and commerce eco-systems,” Commerce Ventures partner Dan Rosen highlighted Socure’s ability to leverage data to determine identity. “Socure has become a leader in digital identity verification by applying state of the art machine learning technologies to 300-plus identity-relevant data sources,” Rosen said. Mariano Belinky, Santander InnoVentures managing partner, added that Socure’s technology was especially useful for providing financing to thin credit file individuals and those from underbanked communities. “There is enormous potential for tackling the issue of financial inclusion, with the help of Socure,” Belinky said.

Founded in 2012 and headquartered in New York City, Socure unveiled its remote facial biometrics solution, Perceive, at FinovateFall 2015. Named to CB Insights’ Fintech 250 list in June and Planet Compliance’s RegTech Top 100 Power roster in March, the company offered the first SOC2 2 compliant digital identity verification solution late last year. Socure includes a top five U.S. bank, a top five global money transfer provider and a top ten U.S. card issuer among its customers. The company will demonstrate its latest technology – as well as announce a new partnership – at FinovateFall in September. To see Socure, and the rest of our FinovateFall lineup, register today and save your spot.

Share this:

Send Post Twitter LinkedIn Facebook

$726 Million Raised by 25 Alums in Q2 2017

By David Penn Posted on August 9, 2017
Categories: Funding, Fundings

Designed by Freepik

Updated (4/18/18): Finovate alums raised more than $726 million in the second quarter of 2017. The funding total, which does not include a pair of undisclosed investments for Bitbond and Symbiont, represents one of the highest Q2 fundings for Finovate alums to date (Q2 2015 produced more than $840 million). The second quarter total is more than triple the total funding for alums in the previous quarter, reinforcing the notion that pause in fintech investment over the first few months 2017 has likely passed.

Previous Quarterly Comparisons

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

The biggest equity deal of the second quarter by far was the $225 million equity investment Klarna received from new strategic investor, Brightfolk in June. The capital infusion made Brightfolk a qualified owner of the company (i.e., owned more than 10%) and gave Klarna an estimated valuation of more than $2.25 billion.

Also impressive was the $120 million raised by Kreditech, which represents the largest equity investment in a German fintech so far. The top 10 investments in the second quarter of 2017 totaled $610 million or more than 80% of the quarter’s total alum funding.

Top 10 Equity Investments (equity only)

Klarna: $225 million
Kreditech: $120 million
Signifyd: $56 million
Zopa: $41 million
Blockchain: $40 million
Scalable Capital: $33 million
Fintonic: $28 million
Additiv: $25.5 million
savedroid: $22 million
Crowdflower: $20 million

Here is our detailed alum funding report for Q2 2017.

April 2017: More than $41 million raised by four alums

Meniga: $8 million – post
Moneytree: $9 million – post
Narrative Science: $11 million – post
SwipeStox: $13 million – post

May 2017: More than $253 million raised by nine alums

Additiv: $25.5 million – post
Bitbond: undisclosed – post
Kreditech: $120 million – post
NetGuardians: $8 million – post
Quovo: $10 million – post
Signifyd: $56 million – post
Symbiont: undisclosed – post
Token: $18.5 million – post
Vera: $15 million – post

June 2017: More than $432 million raised by 11 alums

Blockchain: $40 million – post
Cardlytics: $12 million – post
Crowdflower: $20 million – post
Fintonic: $28 million – post
Klarna: $225 million – post
Scalable Capital: $33 million – post
StockViews: $640,000 – post
Stratumn: $7.8 million – post
Trusona: $10 million – post
Yoyo Wallet: $15 million – post
Zopa: $41 million – post

If you are a Finovate alum that raised money in the second quarter of 2017, and do not see your company listed, please drop us a note at research@finovate.com. We would love to share the good news! Funding received prior to becoming an alum not included.

Share this:

Send Post Twitter LinkedIn Facebook

StreetShares Raises $10.3 Million for “Shark Tank Meets eBay” Approach to P2P Lending

By Julie Muhn (@julieschicktanz) Posted on August 8, 2017
Categories: Funding, StreetShares

Alternative lending platform StreetShares raised $10.3 million in a venture round this week. The funds come from an undisclosed investor and bring the Virginia-based company’s total funding to almost $20 million since it was founded in 2013.

StreetShares describes itself as “Shark Tank meets eBay” because it serves as a platform where small business owners pitch their loan requests to the community of StreetShares investor members. Founded by military veterans, StreetShares is focused on offering financing for small businesses run by military veterans and their families, but serves non-veteran- run small businesses, as well. The company offers loans with terms ranging from three to 36 months and lines of credit ranging from $2,000 to $100,000. Investors can lend from $25 to $100,000 in Veteran Business Bonds and earn 5% interest.

Mark Rockefeller (CEO & Co-Founder), Mickey Konson (COO & Co-Founder) demo at FinovateEurope 2015

At FinovateEurope 2015, the company’s CEO and co-founder Mark Rockefeller and COO and co-founder Mickey Konson showcased the StreetShares platform. Last year, the company began leveraging Title IV (Regulation A+) of the JOBS act to allow unaccredited investors to lend to small businesses. It is now one of only a handful of P2P lending platforms open to unaccredited investors.

Share this:

Send Post Twitter LinkedIn Facebook

Kantox Pulls in $6 Million from Existing Investors

By Julie Muhn (@julieschicktanz) Posted on August 7, 2017
Categories: Funding, Kantox

Currency and risk management solutions company Kantox recently reeled in $6 million in funding. Business Insider reported on Friday that the U.K.-based company’s CEO and founder Philippe Gelis confirmed the round, which closed at the end of July. This brings Kantox’s total funding to just over $27 million since it was founded in 2011.

Contributing to the round are existing investors Partech Ventures, IDinvest Partners, and Mundi Ventures. In a statement, Gelis told Business Insider, “We have great traction so we did not want to look for new investors (something which is always very time consuming) but wanted to stay focused on the business and product development. We are getting close to becoming profitable.” He added, “We are progressing well and focusing on building sophisticated software solutions for our clients.”

“We built Kantox because we consider that foreign exchange is one of the few financial services for which you do not know how much you pay,” Gelis began the company’s FinovateEurope 2013 demo. The company serves as a marketplace where businesses can buy and sell foreign currencies; offering a low-cost foreign exchange solution that aims to undercut the interbank exchange rate. Since launching in 2011, Kantox has exchanged $4.5 billion for 2,000+ clients in 124 countries working in 35 currencies.. The company, which has offices in London and Barcelona, was recently highlighted in FinTechCity’s FinTech50 list of top European fintechs. Last year, Kantox launched Dynamic Hedging to help companies monitor currency risk in real time and expanded its API out of beta.

Share this:

Send Post Twitter LinkedIn Facebook