Funding Archives - Page 64 of 86

Jumio Raises $15 Million from its New Owner, Centana Growth Partners

By Julie Muhn (@julieschicktanz) Posted on August 31, 2016
Categories: Funding, Jumio

Credentials-management company Jumio pulled in $15 million this week. The funding comes from Millennium Technology Value Partners and Centana Growth Partners, the private equity firm that purchased Jumio for $850,000 in May of this year after Jumio declared bankruptcy two months prior.

The funding brings Jumio’s total raised to almost $52 million. The company expects the funding will “extend its leadership position in the digital ID verification space, aggressively expand its sales and marketing efforts, and accelerate product development and international expansion.” The Palo Alto-based company offers three solutions that speed the online checkout process:

Fastfill, an ID-scanning app that automatically fills in information on forms
BAM Checkout, which integrates credit card and driver-license scanning into mobile checkout in order to eliminate friction
Netverify, which remotely scans documents to verify a consumer’s identity.

Jumio experienced a record-breaking second quarter this year. The company saw 65% growth in recurring YOY revenue, experienced a more than 50% increase in deals YOY, and closed more deals than any other time in its six-year history. Since launching in 2010 Jumio has facilitated 30 million transactions. Additionally, the company’s customer base has continued to expand.

In July of this year, Spanish crypto-currency company Krypto Commerce tapped Jumio for its AML and KYC services. At FinovateEurope 2015, the company won Best of Show for demoing how NetVerify simplifies the account-opening process.

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Behalf Raises $27 Million

By David Penn Posted on August 30, 2016
Categories: Behalf, Funding, Fundings

In a round led by new investor Viola Growth, small business financing innovator Behalf has raised $27 million in Series C funding. The investment will support the company’s increased investment in business development as well as further innovation in its purchase-financing platform.

Calling small businesses the “unsung heroes of the U.S. economy,” Behalf CEO and co-founder Benjy Feinberg pointed to his company’s platform as a solution to help them get the necessary financing to grow. “Behalf has a simple solution, driven by data and technology, that allows us to provide well-priced and flexible credit tools to help SMBs and their suppliers grow profitably,” he said. Also participating in the round were previous investors Sequoia Capital, Spark Capital, MissionOG, and Vintage. The Series C takes Behalf’s total capital to $156 million.

CEO Benjy Feinberg presented Behalf’s Vendor Platform at FinovateFall 2014.

Behalf pays vendors directly on their small client’s behalf—hence, the name. This approach, which relies on Behalf’s proprietary credit scoring technology, helps bring short-term purchase financing to small businesses faster and more efficiently: Small businesses can buy up to $50,000 in inventory on the Behalf platform, with terms ranging from $10 to $30 for every $1,000 per month borrowed.

Founded in 2011 and headquartered in New York City, Behalf demonstrated its Vendor Platform at FinovateFall 2014. The company has doubled revenues every six months since inception, and recently added Jorgen Bocklage as CFO. Bocklage founded 118 118 Money and is a former VP of finance at Dashlane, a fellow Finovate alum.

Harel Beit-On, Viola Growth founder and general partner who will be joining the Behalf board of directors, praised the company’s team and its growth, saying the company had targeted a “fast growing market” that was “valued by analysts in the trillions, that is underserved by banks.” Behalf says over the next twelve months it will be adding talent in a variety of roles ranging from marketing to engineering.

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ID.me Lands $3.7 Million Grant

By Julie Muhn (@julieschicktanz) Posted on August 29, 2016
Categories: Funding, ID.me

Last week, digital identity network ID.me received a grant from the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST). ID.me was awarded $3.75 million through NIST’s program called the National Strategy for Trusted Identities in Cyberspace, which focuses on researching new forms of identity management.

ID.me, a Virginia-based company, is one of six grant recipients that received a cut of the total $15 million, which was divided into amounts from a little under $1 million to $3.75 million. ID.me will use the funds to pilot what’s known as federated credentials, a single set of credentials that works on multiple websites.

Mike Garcia, director of the National Strategy for Trusted Identities in Cyberspace, says the goal of the program is to “foster innovation that can make critical services more convenient and trustworthy for consumers while strengthening online security.”

ID.me’s Blake Hall, CEO and co-founder, and Ryan Fox, VP of product strategy, presented at FinovateSpring 2014

Founded in 2010, ID.me offers a way for people to prove their special group affiliations online—whether military, student, paramedic—to receive special promotions offered to their group. At FinovateSpring 2014 the company’s CEO and co-founder Blake Hall demonstrated how ID.me captures identity attributes without creating additional friction at checkout.

ID.me has received more than $17 million in funding from investors such as Silicon Valley Bank, USAA, and Scout VC. In 2014 the company acquired student discount platform Perkla.

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Meniga’s $8.2 Million to Boost Personalized Digital Banking

By Julie Muhn (@julieschicktanz) Posted on August 25, 2016
Categories: Funding, Meniga

This week digital banking solutions provider Meniga announced an $8.2 million (€7.3 million) round of funding it had secured earlier this year. The round was led by existing investors Velocity Capital and Frumtak Ventures, based in the Netherlands and Iceland, respectively.

The U.K.-based company has assigned the funds to bolster its personalized digital banking platform, an offering already in use by Santander, Intesa Sanpaolo, mBank, and ING Direct. Meniga’s platform, which reaches 35 million end users in 20 countries, does double-duty. It not only offers PFM capabilities, but also helps banks with PSD2 compliance by aggregating consumers’ spending data. As the company’s CEO and cofounder Georg Ludviksson said, “Now, in addition to supporting banks in helping their customers better understand and manage their finances, we can further help banks engage with merchants and be compliant with upcoming regulations, such as PSD2.”

Willem Willemstein, Velocity Capital chairman and CEO, has joined Meniga’s board of directors.

Founded in 2009 and originally based in Reykjavík, Iceland, Meniga debuted its Personalization Platform at FinovateEurope 2016. The new platform leverages PFM data to facilitate timely, targeted, and relevant communication between a bank and their client. The tool helps banks segment customers based on spending and behavioral factors to more efficiently and effectively deliver campaigns.

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SelfScore Raises $7 Million to Bring Credit to International Students

By David Penn Posted on August 25, 2016
Categories: Funding, Fundings, SelfScore

Palo Alto-based SelfScore has raised $7.1 million in additional Series A funding. The round, led by Pelion Venture Partners and including existing investors, Accel Partners and Aspect Ventures, brings the data-analytics startup’s total capital to more than $15 million.

“Some of the most successful companies in this country were started and are run by international students,” SelfScore CEO and co-founder Kalpesh Kapadia said. “Our goal is to use this new round of funding to further educate current and future international students about why they should care about credit, and empower them to build it.” In addition to education, SelfScore plans to use the capital to expand its credit card portfolio and speed up new product development. As part of the investment, Blake Modersitzki, managing partner at Pelion, will join SelfScore’s board of directors.

SelfScore CEO and co-founder Kalpesh Kapadia demonstrated his technology at FinovateFall 2014.

SelfScore has leveraged its expertise in data analytics and machine learning to create a proprietary algorithm that provides insights into consumer behavior, including creditworthiness. From its inception as a “scoring as a service” supplement to FICO scores, the consumer analytics company launched its dedicated MasterCard credit card geared specifically for international students this spring, and has since seen 3x growth in the number of signups month-over-month. Pointing out that the SelfScore has managed its growth “with very little capital deployed,” Modersitzki added, “SelfScore’s unique data analytics and machine-learning approach is a game-changer for unleashing financial freedom with today’s generation of international students.”

Founded in 2014, SelfScore demonstrated its technology at FinovateFall 2014. The company was profiled by Tech in Asia and CardRates.com in June, and hired a new CMO, Venkat Bala, in April. Bala was formerly VP, head of early-stage consumer cards at Wells Fargo.

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Fintech Fundings: 106 Companies Raise $2.0 Billion in July

By Jim Bruene Posted on August 23, 2016
Categories: Funding

Total funding worldwide in July was $1.95 billion from 106 deals compared to June with $1.6 billion across 186 deals. Due to our weekly tracking methodology, an additional week in June was added, so average weekly deal flow was 37 in June compared to 27 in July. While that is a 30% decline month-over-month, July’s total was in line with the average of 28 deals per week YTD.

The weekly details can be found through the following links:

21 companies raised $681 million the last week of July (see below)
26 companies raised $530 million week ending July 22
32 companies raised $210 million week ending July 15
23 companies raised $530 million week ending July 8

July closed with 21 deals announced in the final week. That makes it 29 weeks out of 30 this year surpassing 20. And for the first time in many years, not a single company was based in Northern California (and there was just one $100k Seed deal in Los Angeles). The total amount raised was $681 million across 16 fundings with announced amounts (5 deals had undisclosed amounts). Of the total, $545 million was a massive debt infusion for alt-lender Elevate.

Two Finovate alums raised new rounds:

Nextmarkets raised “7 figures” including $3.5 million from PayPal founder Peter Thiel
Quantopian raised $2 million for its quant playground

The total number of deals YTD stands at 839, about 400 more than last year’s 446. Total dollars raised YTD is $19.3 billion, double the $9.8 billion raised during the same period a year ago.

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Fintech deals by size from 23 July to 29 July 2016:

Elevate
Alt-lender
Latest round: $545 million Debt
Total raised: $615 million Debt (Unknown equity)
HQ: Fort Worth, Texas
Tags: Consumer, credit, loans, underwriting, person-to-person, P2P, investing
Source: Crunchbase

FINO PayTech
Marketplace lender
Latest round: $37.6 million ($200 million valuation)
Total raised: $37.6 million
HQ: Mumbai, India
Tags: Consumer, credit, loans, underwriting, person-to-person, P2P, investing
Source: Crunchbase

Gongzi Qianbao
Wallet and wealth management
Latest round: $30 million
Total raised: $30 million
HQ: Shanghai, China
Tags: Consumer, advisers, investing, wealth management, personal financial management, mobile, payroll
Source: Crunchbase

Exchange Corporation
Online exchange (AQUSH) for consumer loans
Latest round: $15 million Series B
Total raised: $27.8 million
HQ: Tokyo, Japan
Tags: Consumer, advisers, traders, investing, wealth management, trading
Source: Crunchbase

Paidy
Alt-payment system
Latest round: $15 million Series B
Total raised: $23.3 million
HQ: Tokyo, Japan
Tags: Consumer, SMB, merchants, payments, POS, point of sale, acquiring
Source: FT Partners

Qwikcilver
Stored value technology
Latest round: $10 million
Total raised: $20 million
HQ: Bangalore, India
Tags: Institutions, debit/prepaid cards, payments, loyalty
Source: Crunchbase

Hepan Finance
Crowdfunding marketplace for small business capital
Latest round: $9.9 million Series A
Total raised: $9.9 million
HQ: Shanghai, China
Tags: SMB, commercial credit, loans, underwriting, person-to-person, P2P, investing
Source: Crunchbase

Zeek
Giftcard exchange
Latest round: $9.5 million Series B
Total raised: $12.5 million
HQ: Tel Aviv, Israel
Tags: Consumer, payments, gift cards, prepaid cards, platform
Source: Crunchbase

Nextmarkets
Investing platform
Latest round: “7 figures” including $3.5 million from Peter Thiel
Total raised: Unknown
HQ: Koln, Germany
Tags: Consumer, advisers, traders, investing, wealth management, trading, Finovate alum
Source: Finovate

Quantopian
Platform for building and testing trading algorithms
Latest round: $2 million
Total raised: $23.7 million
HQ: Boston, Massachusetts
Tags: Consumer, advisers, traders, investing, wealth management, trading, quants, Finovate alum
Source: FT Partners, Finovate

Tide
Small business debit and current account
Latest round: $2 million Seed
Total raised: $2 million
HQ: London, England, United Kingdom
Tags: SMB, debit card, deposits, checking/current account, accounting, spending tracking
Source: Crunchbase

Toborrow
Crowdfunding marketplace for small business capital
Latest round: $750,000
Total raised: $3.5 million
HQ: Stockholm, Sweden
Tags: SMB, commercial credit, loans, underwriting, person-to-person, P2P, investing
Source: Crunchbase

Coinigy
Crypto-currency trading tools
Latest round: $400,000
Total raised: $500,000
HQ: Milwaukee, Wisconsin
Tags: Consumer, traders, investing, bitcoin, blockchain
Source: Crunchbase

Wrebit
Mobile accounting
Latest round: $235,000 Seed
Total raised: $235,000
HQ: Ulricehamn, Sweden
Tags: SMB, accounting, VAT, bookkeeping, invoicing, billpay, accounts receivables
Source: Crunchbase

Freetrade
Zero commission stock-trading app
Latest round: $225,000 Equity Crowdfunding
Total raised: $225,000
HQ: London, England, United Kingdom
Tags: Consumer, investing, trading, mobile, stocks
Source: Crunchbase

Drizzle
Micropayments
Latest round: $100,000 Convertible Note
Total raised: $100,000
HQ: Los Angeles, California
Tags: Consumer, payments, merchants, acquiring, content, WordPress
Source: Crunchbase

Jechange.fr
Financial services price-comparison site
Latest round: Not disclosed
Total raised: Unknown
HQ: Agen, France
Tags: SMB, consumer, credit, insurance, price comparison, discovery, lead gen
Source: Crunchbase

Korea Credit Data
Small business risk scores
Latest round: Not disclosed
Total raised: Unknown
HQ: Seoul, South Korea
Tags: Institutions, lenders, SMB, commercial credit, underwriting
Source: Crunchbase

MakeLeaps
Online invoicing platform
Latest round: Not disclosed
Total raised in prior rounds: $600,000
HQ: Tokyo, Japan
Tags: SMB, accounting, billing
Source: Crunchbase

Smart Pension
Pension enrollment platform
Latest round: Not disclosed
Total raised: $4.8 million prior to latest round
HQ: London, England, United Kingdom
Tags: SMB, investing, pension, HR, employee benefits
Source: FT Partners

Xenomorph
Data-storage solutions for financial markets
Latest round: Undisclosed debt
Total raised: Unkown
HQ: London, England, United Kingdom
Tags: Institutions, developers, storage, IT, security, compliance, HSBC (investor)
Source: FT Partners

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LendUp Gets a Leg Up with $47 Million

By Julie Muhn (@julieschicktanz) Posted on August 23, 2016
Categories: Funding, LendUp

Payday lender-alternative LendUp landed $47 million in series C funding this week. Y Combinator’s growth fund, Y Combinator Continuity, led the round. Google Ventures, Thomvest Ventures, QED Investors, Data Collective, Susa Ventures, Radicle Impact, Bronze Investments, SV Angel and other angels also contributed.

The $47 million brings the company’s total funding to just over $110 million. LendUp will use the funds to build LCard, a credit card with a companion mobile app designed to help users build credit.

Founded in 2011, LendUp aims to help consumers rejected by banks find a safe alternative to payday lenders. The San Francisco-based company offers three main products:

LendUp Loans, a payday loan alternative that lets users borrow up to $250 for 30 days
LCard, a credit card made for those who have historically struggled with credit
Educational materials, free online courses to give cardholders the information they need to make decisions about their financial future

The company’s CEO Sasha Orloff told TechCrunch that the new round brings LendUp’s valuation “substantially higher than the last time.”

Cofounders CEO Sasha Orloff and CTO Jacob Rosenberg debuted the company’s API at FinovateSpring 2014. The API exposes LendUp’s core to allow partners to leverage its platform. The company won Best of Show at FinovateSpring 2013 for debuting its product that helps the underbanked build credit.

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NYMBUS Raises $12 Million in Round Led by Vensure Enterprises

By David Penn Posted on August 15, 2016
Categories: Funding, Fundings, NYMBUS

Core-processing platform-developer NYMBUS has raised $12 million in financing in a round led by Vensure Enterprises. The investment will help the company speed product deployment as well as provide greater infrastructure support for its SmartCore platform.

According to NYMBUS, the funding could not have been better timed. Pointing to “already high demand” for its cloud-based SmartCore technology, NYMBUS Executive Chairman Scott Killoh said, “These banks and credit unions have a strained business model as they face increasing operational costs, severe regulatory pressures, while also being forced to utilize technology that is putting them at risk for survival.” Killoh said technology like NYMBUS was vital to help these FIs “survive, grow, and support their local communities.”

Chief Experience Officer Mario Garcia demonstrates the NYMBUS platform at FinovateSpring 2016 in San Jose, California.

“We are thrilled that the funding will allow us to quickly scale our user base, as well as our service and support teams, to drive growth and innovation that this market so desperately needs,” said David Mitchell, NYMBUS president and CRO. The company’s SmartCore technology was launched last year to help smaller FIs transition away from older core systems that are often lacking in innovation and heavy in cost. NYMBUS, which aspires to be the “Tesla of banking,” instead provides a full-stack, API-driven platform, one that is HTML5, browser-based, built in Java and fully-hosted.

The new funding for NYMBUS comes after the company spent most of the summer making a variety of strategic acquisitions. NYMBUS acquired core data-processing, solutions-provider R.C. Olmsted for an undisclosed sum in June, the same month it bought credit union software technology company, KMR and core processing vendor, Sharp BancSystems. NYMBUS says that the trio of acquisitions has resulted in a company with $200 million in intellectual property powering real banking software in publicly traded banks and credit unions. The company launched its credit union service organization (CUSO) in March, and in February, partnered with fellow Finovate alum and PFM innovator, Geezeo.

Founded in 2015 and headquartered in Miami Beach, Florida, NYMBUS demonstrated its technology at FinovateSpring 2016. The company also participated in our developer’s conference, FinDEVr New York 2016, earlier this year, presenting its advanced core-processing platform for FIs.

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FinDEVr Alum UpGuard Raises $17 Million Series B

By David Penn Posted on August 12, 2016
Categories: Funding, Fundings, ScriptRock, UpGuard

Cybersecurity specialist UpGuard has raised $17 million in new funding from a group of investors that included a “strategic investment” from Australian insurance giant, IAG. The company, which made its FinDEVr debut last fall in San Francisco as ScriptRock, will use the capital to help grow its CSTAR cybersecurity preparedness-assessment solution, as well as double staff to 120 by early next year. UpGuard co-CEO and cofounder Mike Baukes said that “by providing the tools needed to build resilient information systems, make strategic decisions with real data in real time, as well as obtain cyber insurance should the worst case scenario occur, we equip businesses to start fighting fire with fire.”

Alan Sharp-Paul, cofounder and co-CEO of UpGuard, during his presentation, “Integrity in the Age of DevOps,” at FinDEVr San Francisco 2015.

The Series B was led by new investor Pelion Venture Partners and existing investor Square Peg Capital. All of UpGuard’s other current investors participated in the round as well, which takes the company’s total capital to $27 million. Speaking about the investment, Pelion Ventures Partner Chris Cooper said, “UpGuard’s ability to assess both external and internal risk factors is a huge step forward in understanding the complete security posture of a business.” He also praised CSTAR’s “technical rigor and simplicity” when it comes to helping companies to better manage data-breach risks.

CSTAR provides enterprises with a comprehensive and actionable cybersecurity preparedness score. Similar to the way financial risk is aggregated into credit scores for consumers, CSTAR gives businesses such as ADP, Citrix, and Rackspace a single, wholistic risk metric that still enables them to drill down to the server or device level to spot and remedy potential vulnerabilities. UpGuard believes CSTAR can serve as the basis for a cyber-risk benchmark for businesses and consumers alike, and will explore new opportunities with insurance companies, such as with IAG, to help them better assess their customer’s cyber risks. The company also provides a free external assessment tool for websites.

Founded in Australia and headquartered in San Francisco, UpGuard presented “Integrity in the Age of DevOps” at FinDEVr San Francisco 2015.

Looking to make your own splash in the world of DevOps? Join us for FinDEVr Silicon Valley 2016, on October 18 & 19, as we dedicate two days to the people who put the “tech” in fintech. Visit our registration page and save your spot today.

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Fintech Fundings: 26 Companies Raised $530 Million Third Week of July

By Jim Bruene Posted on August 11, 2016
Categories: Funding

As July drew to a close, fundings continued at a brisk pace with 26 new fundings during the week ending July 22. However, it was slightly less than the average of 28 fintech deals per week this year.

The total amount raised this week was $532 million. More than half ($325 million) were debt commitments to two alt-lenders, CommonBond ($300 million) and West Creek Financial ($25 million). Total equity raised this week was $207 million, including $23 million to Finovate alum Capriza (F15) in a round led by Andreessen Horowitz

The total number of deals YTD stands at 818, nearly double last year’s 429. Total dollars raised YTD is $18.6 billion, double the $9.3 billion raised during the same period a year ago.

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Fintech deals by size from 16 July to 22 July 2016:

CommonBond
Student loan marketplace lender
Latest round: $330 million ($30 million Series C + $300 million Debt)
Total raised: $754 million ($78.6 million Equity, $675 million Debt)
HQ: New York City, New York
Tags: Consumer, credit, loans, underwriting, person-to-person, P2P, investing
Source: Crunchbase

Fantex
Building tracking stocks for professional athletes
Latest round: $60 million
Total raised: $111 million
HQ: San Francisco, California
Tags: Consumer, investing, wealth management, alt-investments
Source: Crunchbase

West Creek Financial
Consumer point-of-purchase financing
Latest round: $25 million Debt
Total raised: $28.5 million ($3.5 million Equity)
HQ: Chicago, Illinois
Tags: SMB, B2B2C, credit, loan, underwriting, POS, point of sale
Source: Crunchbase

Capriza
Mobile development tools
Latest round: $23 million Series C
Total raised: $73.5 million
HQ: Palo Alto, California
Tags: Institutions, mobile, developers, Finovate alum
Source: Finovate

Omise
Payment gateway
Latest round: $17.5 million Series B
Total raised: $20.4 million
HQ: Bangkok, Thailand
Tags: SMB, merchants, credit/debit cards, API, developers
Source: Crunchbase

Deposit Solutions
Retail deposits platform
Latest round: $16.5 million Series B
Total raised: $23.6 million
HQ: Hamburg, Germany
Tags: Institutions, consumers, deposits, banking, CDs, savings accounts, Peter Thiel (investor)
Source: Crunchbase

Deal4Loans
Financial services comparison portal
Latest round: $15 million
Total raised: $15 million
HQ: Uttar Pradesh, India
Tags: Consumer, credit, loans, mortgage, credit card, discovery, insurance, price quotes, lead gen
Source: Crunchbase

MarketInvoice
Receivables financing marketplace
Latest round: $9.5 million Series
Total raised: $29.75 million
HQ: London, England, United Kingdom
Tags: SMB, commercial credit, factoring, underwriting, person-to-person, P2P, investing
Source: Crunchbase

Guideline Technologies
401(k) investment account provider
Latest round: $7 million
Total raised: $9 million
HQ: Burlingame, California
Tags: SMB, B2B2C, employers, HR, benefits, investing, retirement savings, investing, wealth management
Source: Crunchbase

Loc8
Invoicing and quoting system for mobile workers
Latest round: $5 million Series A
Total raised: $5 million
HQ: Richmond, Australia
Tags: SMB, accounting, billing, CRM, payments, bookkeeping
Source: Crunchbase

Zlien
Lien rights platform
Latest round: $5 million Series A
Total raised: $6.75 million
HQ: New Orleans, Louisiana
Tags: SMB, institutions, construction, underwriting, mortgage, home equity loans, credit
Source: Crunchbase

Qauntifeed
Digital wealth-management platform
Latest round: $4.5 million Series A
Total raised: $4.5 million
HQ: Hong Kong
Tags: Institutions, advisers, investing, financial planning
Source: Crunchbase

Abacus Labs
Employee expense-reporting management
Latest round: $3.5 million
Total raised: $3.5 million
HQ: New York City, New York
Tags: SMB, expense reports, payments, HR, employees, bookkeeping, accounting
Source: Crunchbase

Trim
Subscription and recurring-payments monitor
Latest round: $2.2 million Seed
Total raised: $2.2 million
HQ: San Francisco, California
Tags: Consumer, mobile, personal financial management, PFM, chatbot, spending management
Source: Crunchbase

Touche
Mobile payments and personal financial management
Latest round: $2 million Seed
Total raised: $2 million
HQ: Singapore
Tags: Consumer, payments, personal financial management, PFM, biometrics, authentication, mobile
Source: Crunchbase, TechInAsia

ZipBooks
Accounting software for small businessess
Latest round: $2 million Seed
Total raised: $2 million
HQ: Lehi, Utah
Tags: SMB, accounting, bookkeeping, invoicing, billing
Source: Crunchbase

Revalu8
Real estate trading platform
Latest round: $1.5 million Seed
Total raised: $1.5 million
HQ: Sydney, Australia
Tags: Consumer, home buying, mortgage, discovery, lead gen
Source: Crunchbase

Gravie
Consumer health insurance portal
Latest round: $1 million
Total raised: $26.6 million
HQ: Minneapolis, Minnesota
Tags: Consumer, SMB, insurance management, employees, HR, benefits
Source: Crunchbase

NiYO Solutions
Payroll platform
Latest round: $1 million Seed
Total raised: $1 million
HQ: Bangalore, India
Tags: SMB, payments, employers, HR, benefits
Source: Crunchbase

Tax2Win
Tax filing portal
Latest round: $1 million Seed
Total raised: $1 million
HQ: Jaipur, India
Tags: Consumer, tax prep, payments
Source: Crunchbase

Neurensic
AI for detecting stock market manipulation
Latest round: $225,000 Convertible Note
Total raised: $225,000
HQ: Chicago, Illinois
Tags: Institutions, investing, security, fraud, traders, stocks, artificial intelligence (AI)
Source: Crunchbase

Birdly
Expense report system
Latest round: Not disclosed
Total raised: $120,000 prior to above
HQ: Paris, France
Accelerator: Y Combinator (YC)
Tags: SMB, expense reports, spending, employees
Source: Crunchbase

iServeFinancial
Financial services comparison portal
Latest round: Not disclosed
Total raised: Unknown
HQ: Pune, India
Tags: Consumer, credit, loans, credit card, discovery, insurance, price quotes, lead gen
Source: Crunchbase

Koho
Mobile banking
Latest round: Not disclosed
Total raised: $1 million
HQ: Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada
Tags: Consumer, payments, debit card, billpay, funds transfer, mobile, personal financial management, PFM
Source: Crunchbase

LQD Business Finance
Alt-lender to small businesses
Latest round: Not disclosed
Total raised: Unknown
HQ: Chicago, Illinois
Tags: SMB, commercial credit, loans, underwriting
Source: Crunchbase

ZestFinance
Consumer alt-lender
Latest round: Undisclosed Private Equity
Total raised prior to above: $262 million ($112 million Equity, $150 million Debt)
HQ: Los Angeles, California
Tags: Consumer, credit, loans, underwriting, underbanked, credit scoring
Source: Crunchbase

Image licensed from: 123RF

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Interactions Garners $56 Million in its Largest Funding Round Yet

By Julie Muhn (@julieschicktanz) Posted on August 10, 2016
Categories: Funding, Interactions

This blog may be monitored or recorded for quality assurance and training purposes.

Virtual customer-assistance company Interactions—the technology behind automated customer-service solutions for companies such as Hyatt, LifeLock, and Asurion—pulled in $56 million today. This is the company’s largest round since launching in 2004. It brings the company’s total funding to $167 million.

The funding comes from Comcast Ventures, NewSpring Capital, and Revolution Growth. Previous investors include Sigma Partners and Softbank Capital. Interactions CEO Mike Iacobucci said he plans to use the funding to meet the “widespread, growing demand” for its speech and natural language offerings and to boost sales and marketing efforts.

The Massachusetts-based company leverages AI and voice-recognition technology to help big brands offer a more friendly, automated customer experience. At FinovateSpring 2014, Interactions launched conversational solutions for banks that enable customers to access account information, change account details, and ask complex questions about their account in real time.

Interactions processes just shy of one billion customer transactions on an annual basis for large brands in seven industries. From 2014 to 2015, the company doubled its annual revenue; it expects to grow sales by 50% in 2016.

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CUneXus Closes $5 Million Series A

By Julie Muhn (@julieschicktanz) Posted on August 9, 2016
Categories: CUneXus, Funding

CUneXus, creator of sales and marketing automation solutions for lenders, quietly closed a $5 million funding round late last week. Two investors contributed to the round; both prefer to remain anonymous.

The California-based company’s total raised is now $7 million. Regarding plans for the funding, CUneXus President and CEO Dave Buerger said, “The use of funds is twofold: (1) aggressive growth and the addition of key personnel, and (2) continuous product development and improvement.”

Dave Buerger, CUneXus president and cofounder, and Darin Chong, cofounder, presented at FinovateSpring 2016.

Since launching in 2011, CUneXus has built a host of solutions for online and mobile lending and cross-selling. At FinovateSpring 2016 the company announced its recent partnership with Edmunds.com and showed off AutoXpress, a vehicle purchasing experience that takes place completely online or on mobile. Prior to that, the company demoed features of its Comprehensive Prescreened Lending (CPL) engine, cplXpress, at FinovateSpring 2014 and 2015. The product suite allows banks to extend perpetual loan-approval status across multiple products to their clients.

Buerger noted that this is just the beginning and says that CUneXus has many exciting projects lined up for release in 2017 and beyond: “As enthusiastic as we are about our current product line, our development roadmap is packed with potential and additional opportunities. We’ve really just scratched the surface.”

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