Funding Archives - Page 65 of 88

Trunomi Closes $3 Million Seed Round

By Julie Muhn (@julieschicktanz) Posted on September 28, 2016
Categories: Funding, Trunomi

Consumer data provisioning company Trunomi pulled in its third round of funding today. The $3 million seed-round brings the company’s total funding to $8.3 million.

The round was co-led by existing investor Saturn Partners and newcomer Fintonia, whose chairman and CEO Adrian Chng has joined Trunomi’s board. Several other existing investors also contributed.

The California-based company aims to give consumers control of how their own Personal Identifiable Information (PII) is used by banks, while offering banks a way to safely create, manage, and share consumer information in a cost-efficient manner. At FinovateEurope 2015 in London, the company’s CEO and founder Stuart Lacey launched TruMobile, a customer-focused “consent engine” that creates privacy policies to allow the sharing of consumer PII data across platforms. In today’s press release Lacey said:

Consumers globally are becoming increasingly aware of the value of their own data. They are also living through a period of intense digitization in financial services. Together with our investors, we recognize that the pressure is truly on financial services providers, not only to meet these market pressures but to operate in full compliance with a raft of new, global data-privacy regulations.

Founded in 2013, Trunomi has offices in Bermuda, Dublin, and Silicon Valley. In April, Trunomi partnered with InAuth to help financial services companies manage consumer data during mobile onboarding. In June, the company took home two awards at the Benzinga Fintech Awards.

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SocietyOne Strikes Up Partnership with Beyond Bank, Reeling in $1.5 Million

By Julie Muhn (@julieschicktanz) Posted on September 26, 2016
Categories: Funding, SocietyOne

Australia-based P2P lender SocietyOne announced a new bank partner today. The company has teamed up with Beyond Bank Australia, a $4.8 billion customer-owned financial institution.

Beyond Bank Australia has contributed $1.5 million for an equity stake in SocietyOne and has increased its funding commitment in personal loans on the site to $10 million. The bank anticipates the investment will expand its footing in the fintech sector; CEO Wayne Matters describes the partnership as a “perfect example of our approach to innovation, customer service and new product opportunities.”

This isn’t the first time SocietyOne has received funding from a bank. In 2014, the company received $5 million from Reinventure, a VC management company funded by Westpac Bank. Westpac was believed to be the first bank to take an equity stake in a P2P lending organization.

SocietyOne’s online platform uses risk-based pricing to connect borrowers and investors to loans using its ClearMatch technology, which it launched at FinovateAsia 2012 (Finovate returns to Asia this year: Hong Kong on November 8). ClearMatch allows investors to bid together at different interest rates and amounts against a single loan.

In August, SocietyOne announced it had facilitated $38 million in personal loans in 2016. Since the company was founded in 2013, it has facilitated $150 million total. In April, SocietyOne announced it brought on a new CEO, Jason Yetton, and a new CFO, Anna Harper. The company has raised almost $55 million from eight investors.

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OurCrowd Pulls in $72 Million

By Julie Muhn (@julieschicktanz) Posted on September 21, 2016
Categories: Funding, OurCrowd

OurCrowd, an equity crowdfunding platform that boasts a network of 15,000 investors to fund U.S. and Israeli startups, raised $72 million. Financial institutions, family offices, and private investors from five continents participated in the Series C round, though most of the investors remain unnamed.

Singapore bank UOB Group, however, has come out as a strategic investor to help OurCrowd expand globally beyond the U.S. and Israel. Janet Young, managing director of group channels and digitalization at UOB Group, said, “We look forward to working closely with OurCrowd to further develop their platform to support the startup ecosystem both in Singapore and the broader Asian market. Our investment into this Series C funding for OurCrowd reinforces our commitment to support startups and small businesses.”

According to OurCrowd CEO Jon Medved, the company will use half of the funds to fuel global expansion and build out the product. The other half will be used to match investments made on the platform. This, as Medved explained, will “make sure that each and every company which raises funding on our platform receives participating investment from the General Partner on the same terms as the crowd.” He added the new capital will help achieve their goal of investing $1 billion annually by 2020.

OurCrowd’s funding now totals just north of $100 million. The Jerusalem-based company has facilitated $300 million in funding for the 100 companies in its portfolio. Notable client successes include nine exits, including seven sales and two IPOs.

OurCrowd’s Chief Product Officer Shai Ben-Tovim and VP of Engineering Oshrat Kfir launched the company’s mobile app at FinovateSpring 2016. The app helps investors discover new opportunities and empowers them with information to make better investment decisions.

In June the company partnered with Bayer, Dupont, and FinistereAG to launch an agriculture-focused investment fund, Radicle. That same month, OurCrowd earned a spot on the RedHerring 2016 Europe Top 100 list.

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Fintech Fundings: 26 Companies Raise $270 Million Second Week of August

By Jim Bruene Posted on September 19, 2016
Categories: Funding

money_invest_flow

The fintech sector attracted $266 million in new capital the second week of August. Half went to Finovate/FinDEVr alums including:

$56 million to customer service specialist Interactions
$52.5 million to alt-auto-title lender Finova Financial
$17 million to Upguard for its cybersecurity technology
$5.8 million went to Finovate alum Pindrop to further its phone-based fraud solutions
$5 million to CUneXus to expand its consumer lending platform

The number of deals totaled 26, slightly below the YTD average of 28 deals per week. The YTD total now stands at 895, about 400 more than last year’s 484. Total dollars raised YTD is $19.9 billion, nearly double the $10.2 billion raised during the same period a year ago.

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Fintech deals by size from 6 Aug to 12 Aug 2016:

Interactions
Virtual customer service
Latest round: $56 million
Total raised: $167 million
HQ: Franklin, Massachusetts
Tags: Institutions, customer service
Source: Finovate

Finova Financial
Alt-title loans
Latest round: $52.5 million Private Equity
Total raised: $52.5 million
HQ: Palm Beach Gardens, Florida
Tags: Consumer, credit, loans, underwriting, auto lending, vehicles, Finovate alum
Source: Finovate

Yunnex
POS solutions provider
Latest round: $45.1 million Series B
Total raised: $60.9 million
HQ: Guangzhou, China
Tags: SMB, merchants, payments, credit/debit card processing, acquiring, point of sale
Source: Crunchbase

BPS Technology
Digital currency management for small businesses
Latest round: $21.2 million
Total raised: $21.2 million
HQ: Southport, Australia
Tags: SMB, payments, accounting, bitcoin, blockchain, cryptocurrency
Source: FT Partners

Upguard
Cybersecurity
Latest round: $17 million Series B
Total raised: $27 million
HQ: San Francisco, California
Tags: Institutions, SMB, consumer, security, FinDEVr alum
Source: FinDevR

Touzhijia
Wealth management
Latest round: $12 million Series A
Total raised: $16.5 million
HQ: Shenzen, China
Tags: Consumer, advisers, trading, investing
Source: Crunchbase

ComparaOnline
Financial services price-comparison portal
Latest round: $6 million
Total raised: $20 million
HQ: Santiago, Chile
Tags: Consumer, credit, loans, deposits, price comparison, lead gen, discovery
Source: FT Partners

Pindrop Security
Phone-based fraud solutions
Latest round: $5.8 million addition to previously announced $75 million Series C
Total raised: $122.8 million
HQ: Atlanta, Georgia
Tags: SMB, institutions, security, anti-fraud, biometrics, call center, Finovate alum
Source: Crunchbase, Finovate

CUneXus
Consumer lending platform
Latest round: $5 million Series A
Total raised: $6.65 million
HQ: Santa Rosa, California
Tags: Consumer, credit, loans, underwriting, mobile, account opening, Finovate alum
Source: Finovate

DailyPay
Payment provider to employees and contractors
Latest round: $5 million Series A
Total raised: $6.5 million
HQ: New York City, New York
Tags: SMB, payments, payroll, HR, benefits
Source: Crunchbase

Bigstone Capital
SMB lending marketplace
Latest round: $3 million Seed
Total raised: $3 million
HQ: New South Wales, Australia
Tags: SMB, credit, loans, underwriting, commercial loans, crowdfunding, P2P, investing
Source: Crunchbase

Verifly
Drone insurance
Latest round: $2.7 million Seed
Total raised: $4.86 million
HQ: New York City, New York
Tags: Consumer, SMB, insurance
Source: Crunchbase

AlphaFlow
P2P real estate investment management
Latest round: $2.16 million Seed
Total raised: $2.28 million
HQ: San Francisco, California
Tags: Investors, advisers, P2P lending, investing
Source: Crunchbase

HashRabbit
Cloud hashing for blockchains
Latest round: $1.65 million Seed
Total raised: $2.34 million
HQ: San Francisco, California
Tags: SMB, institutions, blockchain, security, bitcoin, payments, crypto-currency
Source: Crunchbase

ET Index
Investor tools to manage carbon risk
Latest round: $1.5 million Seed
Total raised: $3.1 million
HQ: London, England, United Kingdom
Tags: Investors, traders, advisers, investing
Source: Crunchbase

Faircent
P2P lending platform
Latest round: $1.5 million Series B
Total raised: $5.75 million
HQ: Haryana, India
Tags: Consumer, credit, loans, underwriting, peer to peer, investing
Source: Crunchbase

Finexio
B2B payments network
Latest round: $1 million Seed
Total raised: $1 million
HQ: San Mateo, California
Tags: SMB, payments, B2B, billing, invoicing, accounts receivables management
Source: Crunchbase

PledgeMe
Equity and loan crowdfunding platform
Latest round: $860,000 Equity Crowdfunding
Total raised: $960,000
HQ: Wellington, New Zealand
Tags: Consumer, SMB, non-profits, credit, loans, underwriting, P2P, peer to peer, investing
Source: Crunchbase

First Access
Alt-credit score and risk management for financial institutions in emerging markets
Latest round: $750,000 Debt
Total raised: Unknown
HQ: New York City, New York
Tags: Consumer, credit, loans, underwriting, solar energy, home equity
Source: Crunchbase

Remitware Payments
Remittance provider, RemitR
Latest round: $590,000
Total raised: $590,000
HQ: Mumbai, India
Tags: Consumer, SMB, payments, funds transfer, FX, remittances
Source: Crunchbase

RateHub
Financial services comparison site
Latest round: $495,000
Total raised: $495,000
HQ: Toronto, Ontario
Tags: Consumer, credit, loans, mortgage, deposits, lead gen, price comparison, discovery
Source: Crunchbase

AppIDentify
Residential real estate valuation system
Latest round: Undisclosed
Total raised: Unknown
HQ: Atlanta, Georgia
Tags: Consumer, home buying, mortgage
Source: Crunchbase

Duocaitou
Real estate crowdfunding platform
Latest round: Undisclosed
Total raised: Unknown
HQ: Bejing, China
Tags: Consumer, credit, loans, underwriting, P2P, investing, rental real estate
Source: Crunchbase

FintecSystems
Data provider to financial institutions
Latest round: Undisclosed Series A
Total raised: Unknown
HQ: Munich, Germany
Tags: Institutions, metrics, analytics, information, BI, underwriting, risk management
Source: Crunchbase

Red Dot Payment
Payment processor
Latest round: Undisclosed
Total raised: Unknown
HQ: Singapore
Tags: SMB, credit/debit cards, payments, acquiring, merchants
Source: Crunchbase

Otly
Spending platform for families
Latest round: Undisclosed investment from Uber
Total raised: Unknown
HQ: Amsterdam, The Netherlands
Tags: Consumer, spending, budgeting, youth market, PFM, mobile
Source: FT Partners

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Ripple Raises $55 Million Series B; Announces New Bank Partners

By David Penn Posted on September 19, 2016
Categories: Funding, Fundings, Ripple

The news last week that Ripple raised $55 million in Series B financing is a reminder of how a growing number of financial institutions are using digital currencies to improve the cross-border payments process. The investment comes courtesy of Standard Chartered, Accenture Ventures, SCB Digital Ventures, and SBI Holdings, and also featured participation from Santander Innoventures and Venture 51.

“Our mission is to make cross-border payments truly efficient for banks and their customers, and in doing so, lay the foundation for an Internet of Value where the world moves money as easily as information,” Ripple co-founder and CEO Chris Larsen explained. Ripple will use the funding, which takes the company’s total capital to more than $93 million, to grow its customer base and its team, as well as help secure strategic partnerships.

Founded in 2012 and headquartered in San Francisco, California, Ripple demonstrated its technology as OpenCoin at FinovateSpring 2013. An innovator in using digital currencies and distributed ledger technology to help increase the efficiency and lower the costs of cross-border payments for FIs, Ripple added multi-sign functionality to its consensus ledger in July, a month after the company announced that it was working with seven banks to “accelerate and improve” their cross-border payments service. Ripple picked up the first New York BitLicense from the New York Department of Financial Services this summer, and began the year partnering with SBI Holdings in a joint venture called SBI Ripple Asia that will bring Ripple’s cross-border payment solution to banks in the Asia-Pacific region.

Ripple currently features 15 of the top 50 global banks in its global network, with pilot projects for more than 30 banks already completed. Calling the company “one of the most advanced distributed financial technology” firms in the industry, Global Head of Transaction Banking at Standard Chartered Alex Manson pointed out that Ripple’s technology was already a “tested and viable solution.” This, Manson said, would lead the way for collaboration between Standard Chartered and Ripple to “co-develop more use cases to better serve our clients and their ecosystems’ needs in an evolving marketplace.” Accenture’s Richard Lumb added that the use-cases for distributed financial technology go beyond cross-border payments, including services like real-time reporting and fraud detection.

In addition to the funding, Ripple announced a number of new additions to its network. These banks include:

BMO Financial Group
Mizuho Financial Group (MHFG)
National Australia Bank (NAB)
Siam Commercial Bank (SCB)
Shanghai Huarui Bank
Standard Chartered

Larsen called 2016 “the year where the most forward-thinking financial institutions are actually using blockchain technologies for payments and settlements rather than as an experiment.” He called the new additions a “major endorsement” of Ripple’s technology and the company’s capacity to build a “modern payments system to enable new economic opportunities and the seamless flow of value around the world.”

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Juvo’s Global Launch Features Finovate Debut and $14 Million In New Funding

By David Penn Posted on September 15, 2016
Categories: Funding, Fundings, Juvo

There are many great ways to kick off a global launch. We like to think demonstrating your technology live on stage at a Finovate conference is one.

But we’ll concede that announcing a $14 million funding-round featuring participation from the former CEOs at companies like AT&T Wireless, Telefonica International, and Vodafone Group is pretty good, too.

“Only Juvo can deliver financial services to millions of underserved consumers around the world instantly,” former NYSE CEO and Juvo investor, Duncan Niederauer said. He praised both the company’s leadership and its track record, saying Juvo was in a strong position to help mobile operators transition to digital technology as well as respond to “the wider socioeconomic issues around financial inclusion for all.”

CEO and founder Steve Polsky and VP of Product Development Jason Robinson demonstrated Juvo Identity Scoring at FinovateFall 2016.

Juvo’s Identity Scoring technology leverages data science, machine learning, and game mechanics to provide financial identities to underserved populations around the world. Founded by CEO Steve Polsky, Juvo has a market footprint in 23 countries across four continents, giving the technology a reach of more than 100 million. Identity Scoring analyzes both subscriber and usage data in real-time to give mobile operators the consumer data they need to improve engagement and support growth. The company says that mobile operators using the solution have seen gains of 10% to 15% in average revenue per user, and has enabled them to offer high-value financial services.

“Juvo starts by reimagining the prepaid experience and encouraging identity-based relationships between subscribers and their mobile operators,” Polsky explained. “Juvo helps turn a previously ‘invisible’ customer into a ‘visible’ one,” he said, “opening doors for the customer, the mobile operator, and financial service provider alike, and bringing us closer to our vision of financial inclusion for all.”

Founded in March 2014 and headquartered in San Francisco, California, Juvo demoed its Identity Scoring solution at FinovateFall 2016 last week. Juvo’s investors include Wing Venture Capital, Freestyle, and Seed-Resolute.

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Signifyd Raises $19 Million in New Funding

By David Penn Posted on September 13, 2016
Categories: Funding, Fundings, Signifyd

E-commerce anti-fraud innovator Signifyd has locked in an investment of $19 million from American Express Ventures, Menlo Ventures, and TriplePoint Capital. The funding, which takes Signifyd’s total to $50 million, will help the company grow its infrastructure and continue to enhance its machine learning technology.

American Express Ventures partner Rohit Bodas emphasized both Signifyd’s commitment to state-of-the-art technology as well as the Palo Alto-based startup’s confidence in its technology in discussing his firm’s decision to invest. “By leveraging machine learning and providing a 100% guarantee, Signifyd is making it possible for even the smallest merchants to combat fraud and achieve measurable cost savings in the process,” Bodas said.

Signifyd co-founder and CEO Rajesh Ramanand demonstrated Guaranteed Payments at FinovateSpring 2013.

Signifyd’s anti-fraud solution leverages the power of the “social graph” and what it says are “thousands of different data points” to help ensure that online consumers are who they say they are. The technology provides merchants with a clear “Accept or Decline” judgement on transactions, and assumes liability for any transaction that is incorrectly determined to be fraudulent. Signifyd says merchants can realize margin gains of 20% and enjoy cash-flow predictability from the company’s 100% financial guarantee alone. Signify serves more than 5,000 e-commerce companies, including major retailers like Peet’s Coffee & Tea and Lacoste.

Founded in 2011 and headquartered in Palo Alto, California, Signifyd demonstrated its Guaranteed Payments technology at FinovateSpring 2013. Earlier this year, Signifyd unveiled a fraud-protection app for Magento Marketplace, and was featured in a March 2016 column from TechCrunch called, “The rise of APIs.” Named one of the best places in the area to work by San Francisco Business Times this past spring, Signifyd began the year extending its integration with Shopify Plus and added CyberSource founder Bill McKiernan to its board of directors.

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Payworks Raises $4.5 Million Series A

By David Penn Posted on September 6, 2016
Categories: Funding, Fundings, payworks

Just a few days after launching its next-generation payment-gateway, Pulse, Payworks announced a $4.5 million Series A. The round was led by HW Capital and Rumford, and featured the participation of “leading U.S. and European payment executives” as well as existing investor, Speedinvest. The funding will help accelerate the Munich, Germany-based company’s continued expansion into Europe and North America.

“We are extremely happy on having closed our Series A with a great group of investors,” said Christian Deger, Payworks CEO and co-founder. “With their support, we will make Pulse available to even more merchants worldwide and establish our position in the market as a leading payment-gateway technology company.”

Nikolaus von Taysen, a partner at Rumford, had high praise for the German SaaS payment-gateway company, and called Payworks “one of the very few companies that has a shot at replacing an old and outdated infrastructure on a global scale.”

CEO Christian Deger demonstrated the Payworks’ platform at FinvoateEurope 2014.

Payworks gives payment processors an alternative to the costly, inefficient, inflexible, and often poorly secured legacy systems still widely in use to process credit card payments. With Pulse, the company’s lightweight, next-generation, SaaS payment-processing platform, Payworks empowers smaller processors to keep up with the larger processors in the payment business. CEO and co-founder Christian Deger called the solution a “very important milestone for our company,” noting the technology provides fast, API-based, EMV, contactless card, mobile wallet, and chip and payment processing for both fixed and mobile point-of-sale systems.

Headquartered in Munich, Germany, and founded in 2012, Payworks demonstrated its platform at FinovateEurope 2014. Winner of the MPE Award for most innovative payment startup, the company is active in more than 15 countries, and its payment provider clients serve hundreds of thousands of merchants in a number of different industries.

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Fintech Fundings: 30 Companies Raised $330 Million First Week of August

By Jim Bruene Posted on September 1, 2016
Categories: Funding

money_scrabble The fintech sector attracted $332 million in new capital the first week of August. The number of deals totaled 30, slightly above the YTD average of 28 deals per week. Nearly two-thirds of the money went to solar energy lender, Mosaic.

Seven deals involved insurance startups, the most ever in a single week. Four of those came out of the most recent batch of companies launched from accelerator 500 Startups, where each received $125,000 in seed capital.

The total number of deals YTD stands at 869, about 400 more than last year’s 457. Total dollars raised YTD is $19.6 billion, double the $9.8 billion raised during the same period a year ago.

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Fintech deals by size from 30 July to 5 August 2016:

Mosaic
Lender for solar energy installations
Latest round: $220 million Private Equity
Total raised: $245 million
HQ: Oakland, California
Tags: Consumer, credit, loans, underwriting, solar energy, home equity
Source: Crunchbase

Kyriba
Cloud cash and treasury management solutions
Latest round: $22.7 million
Total raised: $95.1 million
HQ: San Diego, California
Tags: Enterprise, institutions, accounting, commercial banking
Source: FT Partners

Huize
Insurance portal
Latest round: $15 million Series B
Total raised: $15 million
HQ: Shenzen, China
Tags: Consumer, insurance, price comparison, discovery, lead gen
Source: Crunchbase

Paidy
Online payment service
Latest round: $15 million Series B
Total raised: $15 million
HQ: Japan
Tags: SMB, B2B2C, payments, online, security, merchants, acquiring
Source: Crunchbase

Clark
Mobile insurance broker
Latest round: $14.75 million Series A
Total raised: $14.75 million
HQ: Berlin, Germany
Incubator: FinLeap
Tags: Consumer, insurance, mobile, price comparison, lead gen
Source: Crunchbase

AxialMarket
Middle market capital matchmaker
Latest round: $14 million Series C
Total raised: $44.7 million
HQ: New York City
Tags: SMB, credit, loans, underwriting, commercial loans, M&A, investment banking
Source: FT Partners

Funding Societies
Lending marketplace for small businesses
Latest round: $7.5 million Series A
Total raised: $7.5 million
HQ: Singapore
Tags: SMB, credit, loans, underwriting, person-to-person, P2P, investing
Source: FT Partners

Kubo Financiero
P2P microfinance lender
Latest round: $7.5 million Series A
Total raised: $11 million
HQ: Mexico City, Mexico
Tags: Consumer, credit, loans, underwriting, person-to-person, P2P, investing
Source: Crunchbase

Coinify
Bitcoin point-of-sale solutions
Latest round: $4 million Series A
Total raised: $4 million
HQ: Copenhagen, Denmark
Tags: SMB, merchants, acquiring, POS, bitcoin, blockchain, crypto-currency
Source: Crunchbase

Privitar
Big-data analytics for financial institutions
Latest round: $4 million
Total raised: $5 million
HQ: London, England, United Kingdom
Tags: Institutions, analytics, BI, compliance, security
Source: FT Partners

VaultInvesting
Retirement plans for small businesses
Latest round: $1.55 million Seed
Total raised: $1.55 million
HQ: Seattle, Washington
Tags: SMB, investing, retirement planning, 401(k), employee benefits, HR
Source: Crunchbase

MovoCash
P2P payments
Latest round: $1.46 million
Total raised: $2.16 million
HQ: Palo Alto, California
Tags: Consumer, person-to-person, payments, funds transfer, remittances
Source: Crunchbase

Wealthify
Robo-adviser
Latest round: $1.3 million Equity Crowdfunding
Total raised: $1.3 million
HQ: Cardiff, England, United Kingdom
Tags: Consumer, advisers, wealth management, investing
Source: Crunchbase

Finja
Mobile wallet
Latest round: $1 million Seed
Total raised: $1 million
HQ: Lahore, Pakistan
Tags: Consumer, payments, mobile
Source: Crunchbase

RightCapital
Financial planning software for advisers
Latest round: $1 million Seed
Total raised: $1 million
HQ: New York City, New York
Tags: Advisers, wealth management, trading, investing
Source: Crunchbase

QuickGifts
Giftcard portal
Latest round: $500,000 Debt
Total raised: $3.97 million
HQ: Austin, Texas
Tags: Consumer, prepaid cards, gift cards, loyalty, payments
Source: Crunchbase

BrightPolicy
Home insurance portal
Latest round: $125,000 Seed
Total raised: $125,000
HQ: Evanston, Illinois
Accelerator: 500 Startups
Tags: Consumer, insurance, price comparison, discovery, lead gen
Source: Crunchbase

Homebot
Maximizing home equity
Latest round: $125,000 Seed
Total raised: $125,000
HQ: Denver, Colorado
Accelerator: 500 Startups
Tags: Consumer, mortgage, home equity lending, retirement planning, investing
Source: Crunchbase

INZMO
Mobile insurance provider
Latest round: $125,000 Seed
Total raised: $380,000
HQ: Tallinn, Estonia
Accelerator: 500 Startups
Tags: Consumer, insurance, price comparison, discovery, lead gen
Source: Crunchbase

StreamLoan
Workflow solution for residential home purchase
Latest round: $125,000 Seed
Total raised: $125,000
HQ: San Francisco, California
Accelerator: 500 Startups
Tags: Institutions, lenders, mortgage, lending, customer service, mobile, account opening
Source: Crunchbase

SureBids
Remittance provider
Latest round: $125,000 Seed
Total raised: $125,000
HQ: Lago, Nigeria
Accelerator: 500 Startups
Tags: Consumer, payments, remittances, gift cards
Source: Crunchbase

TaCerto
Online insurance broker
Latest round: $125,000 Seed
Total raised: $4.1 million
HQ: Sao Paulo, Brazil
Accelerator: 500 Startups
Tags: Consumer, insurance, discovery, price comparison, lead gen
Source: Crunchbase

Track
Self-employment tax payments
Latest round: $125,000 Seed
Total raised: $125,000
HQ: Palo Alto, California
Accelerator: 500 Startups
Tags: SMB, payments, tax prep, accounting
Source: Crunchbase

Trym
Insurance broker
Latest round: $125,000 Seed
Total raised: $125,000
Accelerator: 500 Startups
Tags: Consumer, insurance
Source: Crunchbase

AssetRover
Real estate investing tool
Latest round: $20,000 Seed
Total raised: $20,000
HQ: Cedar Rapids, Iowa
Tags: Consumer, investing, real estate
Source: Crunchbase

FixtHub
Fixed income markets enterprise software
Latest round: Undisclosed
Total raised: Unknown
HQ: New York City
Tags: Institutions, trading, bonds, investing
Source: Crunchbase

AxiCorp
Forex services
Latest round: Not disclosed
Total raised: Unknown
HQ: North Sydney, Australia
Tags: Consumer, SMB, FX, trading, investing
Source: FT Partners

DisLedger
Distributed ledgers for financial community
Latest round: Undisclosed Seed
Total raised: Unknown
HQ: Reston, Virginia
Tags: Institutions, blockchain, payments, bitcoin
Source: Crunchbase

Meeber
Mobile point-of-sale system
Latest round: Not disclosed
Total raised: Unknown
HQ: Singapore
Tags: SMB, payments, merchants, credit/debit cards, acquiring, POS
Source: Crunchbase

Qupital
Marketplace for corporate receivables
Latest round: Undisclosed
Total raised: Unknown
HQ: Hong Kong
Tags: SMB, credit, underwriting, factoring, trade finance, receivables financing
Source: Crunchbase

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Boku Lands $13.75 Million in Venture Funding

By David Penn Posted on September 1, 2016
Categories: Boku, Funding, Fundings

In a venture round featuring investments from new and existing investors, direct carrier billing and mobile payments leader Boku has raised $13.75 million in additional funding. The financing brings Boku’s total capital to $91 million, and will help fuel the company’s global growth. Participating in the venture round were existing investors Khosla Ventures, Benchmark Capital, NEA, Index Ventures, and DAG Ventures. Additional new and existing investors from the U.K., the U.S., and Asia were also involved.

“Carrier billing is evolving from being a niche product for phone-centric content into a mainstream payment method used by the world’s major brands for all types of digital products,” Boku CEO Jon Prideaux explained. With most customers of carrier billing traditionally coming from developing countries where access to credit and payment cards can be a challenge, Prideaux noted that the company has experienced “explosive growth” in more developed markets, thanks largely to partnerships it has forged with merchants and carriers.

“The world’s biggest tech companies see tremendous potential in the power of the phone as a source of funds,” Prideaux added. He said the combination of improved technology and increased awareness are two trends driving greater adoption of carrier billing as a viable payment option in both emerging and developed markets.

Founded in 2008 and headquartered in San Francisco, California, Boku demonstrated its mobile payment service at FinovateEurope 2011. The company announced a partnership with Google that will make carrier-billing a payment option on Google Play in Lithuania, as well as an agreement that brings direct carrier billing to Windows 10 phones in both the U.K. and Italy. Boku announced that it would power carrier billing for Spotify in Germany and Italy and do the same for Google Play with four new partners in Germany, the Netherlands, and Belgium.

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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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