Funding Archives - Page 62 of 88

Qapital Raises $12 Million, Adds Debit Card Functionality

By Julie Muhn (@julieschicktanz) Posted on March 7, 2017
Categories: Funding, Qapital

Personal finance app Qapital pulled in some capital of its own today– $12 million worth, to be exact. This Series A investment brings the Sweden-based company’s total funding to $23 million.

Notable investors in today’s round include Industrifonden, Northzone, Rocketship VC and Anthemis Exponential Ventures, among others. Qapital has lofty goals for the new funds, planning to “strengthen [its] platform and lay the groundwork for continued reinvention in the financial services sector.”

Getting a head start on “strengthening the platform,” Qapital is launching debit accounts and payments capability. The addition of these features marks a pivot in Qapital’s strategy from a savings-only app into more of a traditional banking services provider. Offering debit card functionality will not only drive users to the app, it will also lead to a new revenue stream from interchange fees.

Qapital’s goal-focused platform uses behavioral economics to turn consumers’ everyday actions into positive financial habits. The company’s founders George Friedman and Erik Akterin plan to “rewrite the rules of retail banking” by helping millennials “translate money into happiness.” In the three years since it launched, 180,000 users have opened and funded savings accounts on the Qapital platform. The company is adding 10,000 new accounts per week.

George Friedman (CEO & Founder) and Henrik Wrangel (Chief Product Officer) demo Qapital at FinovateSpring 2014

Pär-Jörgen Pärson, New York-based Partner at Northzone said in the press release, “The fantastic user engagement speaks for itself: the team has built a product that customers really love and the app is consistently rated one of the best personal finance apps in the industry. With millennials looking for banking solutions that put user experience first, we are excited about what the future holds.”

The company debuted Qapital for iPhone at FinovateSpring 2014 and launched on Android about a year ago. Earlier this year, Qapital was listed by PC Magazine as one of the best mobile finance apps of 2017.

Share this:

Send Post Twitter LinkedIn Facebook

Euronext Invests $10 Million in Algomi; Expands Joint Venture Agreement

By David Penn Posted on March 3, 2017
Categories: Algomi, Funding

Fixed income technology innovator and FinovateFall alum Algomi raised $10 million in funding today. The capital from Euronext is the company’s most recent investment since a 2016 infusion of an undisclosed amount from former Thomson Reuters CEO and current Algomi strategic advisor, Tom Glocer. Euronext’s minority stake in the company comes with governance rights and a included a decision to globally expand a 10-year joint venture agreement between the two companies announced back in November.

“This long term commitment to Algomi by Euronext cements our position in the market,” Algomi CEO and co-founder Stu Taylor said. “We are particularly excited by the access to the Euronext network of global regulated exchange and the liquidity opportunities this will provide our clients.” Underscoring the crucial challenge of liquidity when it comes to the fixed income markets, Taylor added, “(this) will allow us to bring Algomi’s unique bond information network to new parts of the credit market, something which has been very positively received by our existing bank clients.”

Pictured: Algomi CEO Stu Taylor demonstrating Honeycomb at FinovateFall 2014.

Algomi specializes in technologies that optimize fixed income trading between sales professionals, traders, and clients. The company’s solutions collect and organize data points inside the FIs credit trading system and uses custom algorithms to drive the most appropriate fixed income trading opportunities to the most appropriate sales professional in order to facilitate the optimal, risk-free transaction. The company calls its buyside interface, Honeycomb, “smart marketing” that raises client marketing to the level of the highest quality online retailing.

Euronext sees the combination of Algomi’s technology and its own position as a leading exchange as a boon for both companies. Stephane Boujnah, Euronext CEO, cited the diversification of revenues and expansion into markets outside of Europe as upsides of a partnership he called “central to our fixed income ambitions and our wider FICC diversification plans as part of our ‘Agility for Growth’ plan.” Euronext’s Head of Fixed Income, Rates and FX, Paul Humphrey will join Algomi’s board of directors as part of the investment.

Founded in 2012 and based in London, Algomi demonstrated its technology, Honeycomb, at FinovateFall 2014. The company’s buyside GUI, Honeycomb promotes market efficiency by giving investors visibility into the ability of different dealers to move illiquid block trades without roiling the markets. The company’s co-founder and Chief Technology Officer, Usman Khan was listed as one of the “40 most exciting people in fintech in the U.K.” by Business Insider magazine last August, the same month the company introduced its SaaS, sell-side engine, Synchronicity. Last spring, Algomi teamed up with IPC Systems to support users of its Honeycomb technology. Algomi was named to FinTechCity’s FinTech50 for 2016 and was featured by Tech Tour in its 2016 Growth 50 of the fastest-growing technology companies in Europe.

Share this:

Send Post Twitter LinkedIn Facebook

Pindrop Receives Investment from Cisco’s John Chambers

By Julie Muhn (@julieschicktanz) Posted on February 24, 2017
Categories: Funding, Pindrop Security

Phone-based fraud prevention company Pindrop Security received a major endorsement yesterday. The Atlanta-based company announced this week that it has received an investment from John Chambers, Executive Chairman at Cisco. The exact amount is undisclosed, but Chambers stated, “for me it’s sizable.” This marks the company’s fifth round of funding and brings its total raised to more than $123 million.

Also of note, Chambers, along with Andreessen Horowitz General Partner, Martin Casado, have joined Pindrop’s board of directors. Marc Andreessen, co-founder and general partner at Andreessen Horowitz, has also joined as a board observer. Vijay Balasubramaniyan, CEO and co-founder of Pindrop, described how he plans to leverage the expertise of each new board member:

“John is going to help scale Pindrop to new heights, Marc is helping with our audacious vision, and Martin knows how to create and dominate a market. These three entrepreneurs have all created global ecosystems and will help accelerate our growth and expansion in the voice security and authentication market.”

Pindrop reported these 2016 milestones:

Customer base doubled, revenues increased more than 100% year-over-year
Clients include eight of the top 10 U.S. banks and two of the top five insurance carriers.
Calls protected by Pindrop increased 500% year-over-year.
More than 100 employees were added, bringing Pindrop’s total workforce to 255 employees

Founded in 2011, Pindrop debuted its Phoneprinting technology at FinovateFall 2012 in New York. The technology detects 80% of fraudulent calls into call centers and protects “hundreds of millions” of calls annually. In October of 2016, Pindrop announced a partnership with Lloyds Bank, the company’s first customer in Europe.

Share this:

Send Post Twitter LinkedIn Facebook

FinDEVr New York Alum NYMBUS Announces $16 Million in New Funding

By David Penn Posted on February 23, 2017
Categories: Funding, Fundings, NYMBUS

In a round led by Home Credit Group, core banking technology innovator NYMBUS raised $16 million in new capital. The funds build on the $12 million the FinDEVr/Finovate alum raised in the second half of last year, bringing its total capital to $28 million.

NYMBUS executive chairman Scott Killoh pointed to reliance on outmoded legacy core technology as holding back many institutions in the financial services industry. Because of this, he said “tens of thousands of banks and credit unions are not capitalizing on strategic growth opportunities.” The investment from Home Credit Group will help NYMBUS provide FIs with the modular, third-party friendly core banking technology that will enable them to keep pace with the demands of their customers. NYMBUS President David Mitchell called it “helping … implement digital-first strategies in order to drive customer growth and competitive differentiation.”

Pictured: NYMBUS President David Mitchell during his presentation “NYMBUS: The Next Evolution in Core Processing” at FinDEVr New York.

Founded in 2015 and headquartered in Miami Beach, Florida, NYMBUS presented “The Next Evolution of Core Processing” at FinDEVr New York last year, during which Mitchell explained why the company decided to focus on core processing technology. “If I asked who in this audience has a pager or a Walkman,” Mitchell told the attendees at last year’s event, “not too many people are going to raise their hands. “But community banks right now are on 30-year old, 20-year old technology,” he said. “(It’s) the oldest technology in the world. It’s been lipstick on a pig, mainframes, green screens for 20 or 30 years.”

NYMBUS, in contrast provides an advanced, core processing platform, SmartCore, with a wide variety of APIs, customizable UI, a conversion layer, and an ecosystem of banking apps. The platform keeps all critical banking functions in a single system with a single sign-on and data set. Home Credit International Group Head of Special Projects Miroslav Boublik called NYMBUS “best positioned to stand at the core” of the disruption of the traditional banking model today. “NYMBUS’ technology is both many years ahead of traditional banking system vendors and most viable among emerging (fintech) providers,” Boublik said.

Earlier this month we shared news of the company’s partnership with California’s Kaiperm Diablo FCU to deploy its core banking technology, SmartCore. Kaiperm Diablo’s announcement comes just a few months after Pennsylvania-based CHROME Federal Credit Union reported that it would use SmartCore as part of its goal of transitioning to a digital-first credit union. NYMBUS has also been an active acquirer, buying Sharp BancSystems, KMR, and R.C. Olmstead in the summer of 2016. Also a veteran of Finovate, the company demonstrated its technology at FinovateSpring 2016.

Share this:

Send Post Twitter LinkedIn Facebook

Finie Gets Funding: AI Innovator Clinc Closes $6 Million Series A

By David Penn Posted on February 22, 2017
Categories: Clinc, Funding, Fundings

Clinc, developers of the voice-based intelligent assistant app, Finie, closed a $6.3 million Series A round this week. The round was led by Drive Capital and featured participation from Cahoots Holdings, Hyde Park Venture Partners, and individual investor Stuart Porter. Clinc’s total capital now stands at $7.75 million.

Calling the opportunities for his company’s technology “truly endless,” and pointing to “overwhelming interest in Finie from financial institutions,” Clinc CEO Jason Mars sees a major role for artificial intelligence in a number of financial use cases. “We’re going to eliminate the complexity and barriers that consumers typically face when understanding their finances,” Mars said. “And we’re going to help more consumers connect with their financial data in personalized, impactful ways with minimal effort.”

Pictured: Clinc CEO and President Jason Mars demonstrating the intelligent virtual assistant banking app, Finie, at FinovateFall 2016.

The additional capital will fuel further product innovation and help expand the Clinc team, currently at 21 “and growing,” the company said in a statement. Drive Capital co-founder and partner Mark Kvamme will join Clinc’s board of directors.

Founded in 2015 and headquartered in Ann Arbor, Michigan, Clinc demonstrated its voice-based intelligence assistant app, Finie, at FinovateFall 2016, earning a Best of Show award. Finie uses advanced natural language processing and artificial intelligence to understand and respond to unstructured, conversational speech. The technology is nuanced enough to “interpret not only semantics and intent, but the underlying meaning of user queries,” as well. Designed for financial services, Finie provides personalized advice as part of its ability to handle a variety of banking tasks, giving customized answers to user questions about balances, spending patterns, and more. Clinc includes Notion AI and fellow Finovate alum, Bankjoy among its customers.

Share this:

Send Post Twitter LinkedIn Facebook

VATBox Brings in $20 Million

By Julie Muhn (@julieschicktanz) Posted on February 22, 2017
Categories: Funding, VATBox

Automated VAT recovery solution VATBox landed $20 million in funding today. The round was led by Target Global Fund. Existing investor Viola Private Capital, as well as other private investors, also participated.

Combined with the company’s first round, this brings VATBox’s total funding to $50 million since it was founded in 2012. Today’s round will accelerate the company’s international expansion and facilitate product development. VATBox’s SaaS offering is an automated, global VAT recovery service for businesses. Shmuel Chafets, Target Global partner, highlighted VATBox’s potential when he said, “We believe that within a few years VATBox’s services will become an integral part of the financial infrastructure for every international company.”

At FinovateEurope 2015, the company launched VATBox2, an automated version that leverages qualified and validated data to deliver full visibility and compliance. The company’s clients include Fortune 500 companies such as Amazon, Eli Lilly, Dell, and 3M. In May of last year, VATBox was listed among the top promising startups in Israel and one month earlier was selected as a finalist for Red Herring’s Top 100 Europe award.

February seems to be making up for the recent slump in fintech funding. This is the seventh alum funding we’ve seen this month— the 5th this week alone (and it’s only Wednesday!). Including today’s rounds, ten alums have closed on more than $100 million in funding so far this year.

Share this:

Send Post Twitter LinkedIn Facebook

Bitbond Closes on $1.2 Million in Funding

By Julie Muhn (@julieschicktanz) Posted on February 22, 2017
Categories: Bitbond, Funding

If peer-to-peer lending isn’t hip enough to pique your interest, how does bitcoin lending sound? That’s exactly what Germany-based Bitbond is doing that earned them $1.2 million in investor funding today. This boosted the online SME lender’s total funding to $2.3 million.

The round was led by mobilike founder Şekip Can Gökalp. Other contributors include Fyber founders Janis Zech and Andreas Bodczek as well as Kreditech co-founder & CEO Alexander Graubner-Müller. Founder & CEO of Bitbond Radoslav Albrecht said, “We are happy to have such experienced investors supporting us on this exciting journey.” According to Albrecht, the funds will help Bitbond to “make lending and borrowing globally accessible” by furthering product development and growing its user base in underserved markets. Currently, the company has 76,000 registered users from 120 countries.

Since launching in 2013, Bitbond has extended 1,600+ loans worth $1.2 million. The company matches investors with SME borrowers from across the globe by leveraging the blockchain for cross-border payment processing. In October of 2016, Bitbond received a regulatory license from German regulator BaFin, making it one of the first regulated blockchain-based financial services providers.

Bitbond’s Radko Albrecht (CEO & Founder) and Jarek Nowotka (CTO) on stage at FinovateFall 2016 in New York

At FinovateFall in September, the company launched automated, universal scoring for SME lending. As Albrecht said in his demo, “The main challenge about creating an international platform is credit scoring, because data is different from one country to another.” The new offering solves this with its scalable, automated scoring mechanism that offers applicants an instant loan decision.

Share this:

Send Post Twitter LinkedIn Facebook

Qumram’s Regtech Offering Lands $1.49 Million

By Julie Muhn (@julieschicktanz) Posted on February 21, 2017
Categories: Funding, Qumram

Here’s more proof that regtech is coming of age– Switzerland-based Qumram closed on $1.5 million in funding today. This brings the company’s total funding to $6.2 million.

Today’s funds come from Madrid-based Mundi Ventures, a technology-focused VC firm that also operates in Barcelona, London, and Seattle. In addition to the funding, Mundi will provide due diligence support and will offer Qumram access to corporate executives, new markets, and new customers via the Mundi Club, a global network of 500+ Spanish business leaders.

Regarding the purpose of the new round, Qumram CEO Patrick Barnert said, “These funds are continuously applied to international expansion, with strong focus on the financial services markets of Europe, the U.K., and U.S.A. Qumram has already gained great traction in the US. Our first client win was Russell Investments, and other financial institutions followed soon after.”

Founded in 2011, Qumram offers banks technology that lets them record and replay all digital activity and interactions with clients. The movie-like playback gives banks an auditable record for compliance purposes. In addition to facilitating compliance, Qumram offers internal and external fraud detection, as well as actionable insights that inform banks how to improve the user experience. At FinovateFall 2016, the company showcased its regulatory compliance tool that facilitates client communication. In September of last year, Qumram debuted a social media recording solution that is compliant with WhatsApp and in August won Swisscom Startup Challenge 2016.

Share this:

Send Post Twitter LinkedIn Facebook

PayPal Acquires TIO Networks in $230 Million Deal

By David Penn Posted on February 21, 2017
Categories: Funding, Fundings, PayPal, TIO Networks

In a cash deal valued at $233 million ($304 million CAD), PayPal Holdings has agreed to acquire Canada’s TIO Networks. PayPal President and CEO Dan Schulman praised the way the company’s combination of digital platform and physical, in person locations made billpay “simpler, faster, and more affordable” – particularly for the underbanked. Chairman and CEO of TIO Networks, Hamed Shahbazi (pictured), emphasized this point as well. “We founded TIO to make speed and access part of the bill payment experience for the underserved, and we believe that we have created affordable products to serve the needs of all customers,” Shahbazi said.

TIO Networks will continue to operate as a service within PayPal after the acquisition, which is still pending shareholder approval. The purchase price of the Vancouver, British Columbia-based company, which made its Finovate debut in 2012, represented a premium of more than 25% of its recent share price. PayPal anticipates completing the acquisition in the second half of 2017.

Among the strategic benefits of the acquisition, according to PayPal, is the addition of 14 million consumer bill pay accounts with an estimated 60 million transactions processed as of TIO’s fiscal 2016. In addition, TIO Networks:

Processes more than $9 billion in bill payments a year
Accepts payments at more than 70,000 locations nationally
Provides access to more than 10,000 billers in network
Serves a wide variety of verticals including:
- financial services companies
- wireless carriers
- insurance companies
- app developers
- national and local retail chains
- general loan providers

TIO Networks was founded in 1997 and is headquartered in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. The company demonstrated TIO MobilePay at FinovateSpring 2012. Five-year revenue growth of 125% helped TIO Networks make Canada’s 2016 PROFIT 500 list last fall, and in May, the company rebranded its consumer-facing acquisition, Chargestmart from 2014, as TIO.com. One of the top two tech companies in the 2016 TSX Venture 50, TIO was named by the Canadian Innovation Exchange as one of Canada’s 20 “hottest most innovative” public tech companies.

Share this:

Send Post Twitter LinkedIn Facebook

AutoGravity Earns Multi-Million Euro Investment from Daimler

By David Penn Posted on February 16, 2017
Categories: AutoGravity, Funding, Fundings

AutoGravity, one of FinovateFall’s Best of Show winners, picked up a major, “double-digit million euro investment” from Daimler Financial Services. The funding adds to the $50 million AutoGravity has raised since its founding in the fall of 2015, and comes as the company’s nationwide rollout reaches 46 states in the U.S.

Bodo Uebber, member of Daimler AG’s board of management, said the investment in AutoGravity was a “strategic step” in opening digital sales channels in leasing and financing. “We believe AutoGravity and its technology have the potential to revolutionize the sector for online financing while, at the same time, offering a digital platform for other financial services providers and automotive manufacturers,” Uebber said. Daimler Financial Services board chairman Klaus Entenmann called AutoGravity “a new star rising in the digital world.”

Pictured: AutoGravity CMO Serge Vartanov demonstrating the company’s auto financing solution at FinovateFall 2016.

Quoted in AutoFinanceNews, AutoGravity Chief Marketing Officer Serge Vartanov added that the investment from Daimler was a major show of confidence in the company’s platform and potential for growth. “That Daimler has recognized the technology and sees the potential in transforming that shopping and financing experience for the consumer,” Vartanov said, “I think is a really good validation of what we’ve been building.” He added that because AutoGravity is lender-agnostic, Daimler’s investment in the technology will benefit not just its loan originations at its own Mercedez-Benz Financial Services, but will help auto lending more broadly, as well.

AutoGravity’s mobile app gives prospective new and used car buyers and leasers the ability to search for vehicles, complete credit applications, and get up to four personalized financing offers. With more than 150,000 downloads, the free app is available in iOS and Android. Read more about AutoGravity in our profile from earlier this year.

Founded in 2015 and headquartered in Irvine, California, AutoGravity won Best of Show at its Finovate debut last September at FinovateFall 2016. In November, the company announced that its technology would power the digital auto sales and finance app from Fletcher Jones Motorcars. AutoGravity’s app was listed by Forbes in September as one of the “best new personal finance apps and sites.” Andy Hinrichs is CEO.

Share this:

Send Post Twitter LinkedIn Facebook

Rippleshot Racks Up $2.6 Million in Second Seed Round

By David Penn Posted on February 13, 2017
Categories: Funding, Fundings, Rippleshot

Chicago-based anti-fraud, transaction monitoring specialist Rippleshot has raised an additional $2.6 million in seed funding. The investment, led by the venture capital arm of CUNA Mutual Group, CMFG Ventures, takes the company’s total funding to $4.6 million. Rippleshot will use the additional capital to add technical talent, specifically developers and data scientists, and will leverage its relationship with CMFG to market its solutions to 9,000 of CMFG’s affiliated credit unions.

Rippleshot co-founder and CEO Canh Tran said that the funding comes as his company finds itself “in a unique place to help bridge the fraud detection gap between issuers and merchants.” Rippleshot’s technology enables card issuers to catch card data breaches early, track trends in compromised card activity to identify future vulnerabilities, reissue new cards to customers whose cards have been compromised, and issue real-time declines to limit losses. Rippleshot’s cloud-based technology monitors millions of credit card transactions a day and the company says it can prevent “more than half of the fraudulent spend from compromised cards.”

Pictured: Rippleshot Chief Scientist and Co-Founder Randal Cox demonstrating Rippleshot’s platform at FinovateFall 2014.

In addition to the funding from CMFG, Rippleshot announced that emerging payments specialist – and former PYMNTS.com president – Gloria Colgan will join the company’s advisory board. Tran said that Colgan’s presence on Rippleshot’s board “will be invaluable as we take the next step in growing our footprint.” Colgan was managing director for Market Platform Dynamics and an SVP at both Discover Financial Services and JP Morgan Chase.

Founded in 2013 and headquartered in Chicago, Illinois, Rippleshot demonstrated its technology at FinovateFall 2014. Last fall, the company was recognized by H2 Ventures and KPMG as one of its “50 Emerging Stars.” And last June, Rippleshot’s card-compromise detection solution, Sonar, was endorsed by the American Bankers Association. A graduate of the SixThirty accelerator program, Rippleshot was a finalist in BBVA’s Open Talent Competition.

Share this:

Send Post Twitter LinkedIn Facebook

WorkFusion Closes $35 Million in Funding

By Julie Muhn (@julieschicktanz) Posted on January 26, 2017
Categories: Funding, WorkFusion

Today’s investment in WorkFusion is a reminder that AI is one of the hottest trends in fintech. With AI already proving to be one of the hottest trends in fintech this year, the news of today’s investment is not surprising. The AI automation company announced today it raised $35 million in a round led by Georgian Partners. Existing investors Mohr Davidow Ventures, iNovia, Nokia Growth Partners, Greycroft, and RTP Ventures also participated in the Series D round, bringing the company’s total funding to $71 million.

New York-based WorkFusion plans to use the funds to “accelerate customer adoption of AI-powered automation.” Justin LaFayette, Managing Partner at Georgian Partners said he invested in WorkFusion because it “has made machine learning practical and powerful for enterprise operations.”

Founded in 2010, WorkFusion leverages self-learning and automation to eliminate manual, back-office work. The company also offers AI-powered chatbots to assist with front-office operations. At FinovateFall 2014, WorkFusion debuted Active Learning Automation, a system that actively tracks human work to establish patterns and automatically trains algorithms to follow those patterns.

The company highlighted a number of its 2016 successes in today’s press release:

Named the number one solution in Everest Group’s Vision and Capability quadrant in its “Robotic Process Automation (RPA) – Technology Vendor Landscape with FIT Matrix™ Assessment – Technologies for Building a ‘Virtual Workforce'” (Dec. 2016) report
Recognized in Garner, Inc.’s “Cool Vendors in Smart Machines, 2016” report for its ability to “do (at scale) what, five years ago, either required expensive human labor or could not be done at all”
Launched the world’s first free RPA product for enterprise operations, WorkFusion RPA Express, to accelerate the digital transformation of work
Opened new office in Delhi, India, supporting its increased focus on APAC and supplementing its already robust presence in EMEA
Trained hundreds of developers at top tier partners globally

For further coverage, check out our Finovate Debuts feature on WorkFusion.

Share this:

Send Post Twitter LinkedIn Facebook