Funding

Vera Reels in Strategic Investment; Adds Former Veritas CEO & Founder to Board

Vera Reels in Strategic Investment; Adds Former Veritas CEO & Founder to Board
By David Penn Posted on
Categories: Funding, Fundings, Vera

VeraSecurity_homepage_May2016 What a week for Vera! Within hours of the data security startup’s Finovate debut, the company announced that it had landed a strategic investment from Capital One Growth Ventures. The investment adds to Vera Security’s oversubscribed Series B round, taking the company’s total funding to $35 million.

The Series B was led by Sutter Hill Ventures, with existing investors Amplify Partners and Battery Ventures also participating. Vera_MarkLeslie

The funding news comes with word that former Veritas Software founder, chairman, and CEO, Mark Leslie (pictured right) will join Vera’s board of directors. A 30-year veteran of the Silicon Valley technology scene who served as president and CEO of Synapse Computer and Rugged Digital Systems in the 1980s, Leslie called Vera a leader among a “new class of security startups working  globally to secure data in a completely new way.”

Speaking for Capital One Growth Ventures, Adam Boutin praised Vera’s “elegant solution for securing data through its entire lifecycle” that avoids compromising access, control, or transparency. “We are thrilled to invest in Vera and have been impressed with their team and their ability to build a solution that balances complex functionality with ease-of-use,” Boutin said.

With more than a quarter-of-a-million users at Fortune 500 companies in verticals ranging from finance to manufacturing to entertainment, Vera specializes in providing data protection and encryption that both tracks and secures digital content across apps, devices, users, and platforms in real-time. Emerging from stealth just over a year ago, Vera was a finalist in the RSA Conference Innovation Sandbox Contest in February, the same month the company was named one of the 20 coolest cloud security vendors of the 2016 Cloud 100 by CRN. Also in February, Vera teamed up with Richard Fleischman and Associates (RFA) to provide U.S. hedge funds, private equity firms, and asset managers with its advanced data security technology. Vera unveiled its cloud-based IRM-as-a-Service (Information Rights Management-as-a-Service) platform in March, enabling businesses to “protect and manage access to any data generated by custom-built business applications.”

Led by CEO Ajay Arora, Vera demonstrated its data security technology at FinovateSpring 2016. The video of the company’s demo will be available soon.

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Money Transfer Company Azimo Pulls in $15 Million in Strategic Funds from Rakuten

Money Transfer Company Azimo Pulls in $15 Million in Strategic Funds from Rakuten
By Julie Muhn (@julieschicktanz) Posted on
Categories: Azimo, Funding

AzimoHomepage

Digital money-transfer network Azimo added $15 million to its $25 million in VC funds today, bringing the London-based company’s total to around $40 million.

The strategic investment was led by Japanese fintech services company Rakuten, the organization that owns messaging service Viber. Existing investors—eVentures, Frog Capital, Greycroft, Accion and MCI Capital—also participated in the round.

The funds will be used to integrate Azimo’s money-transfer services into messaging apps and fuel the company’s expansion into Asia, which is home to seven of the top 10 remittance-receiving countries. Azimo already offers its services in a small portion of Asia. While 30% of its total transfers are sent to the region, the expansion efforts will enable more outbound remittances from Asia.

Michael Kent, CEO and founder of Azimo, explains:

While we weren’t actively looking for additional capital, the approach from Rakuten really appealed because of their presence in markets core to our long-term ambitions. They have a huge presence in Asia, they really understand consumer financial services, and, as owners of Viber, are a significant player in the social messaging market. The partnership will accelerate our Asian expansion and assist in our aim of developing ever deeper social network integrations.

Azimo is not disclosing its valuation but TechCrunch estimates it to be $100 million with the prospect of raising a bigger round of funding next year. Founded in 2012, the company operates in 190+ countries and 80+ currencies. Its network connects half a million people and has the potential to reach up to 5 billion people across the globe.

Founder and CEO Michael Kent and CTO Marek Wawro, co-founder, debuted Azimo’s social remittance network at FinovateEurope 2013.

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Zooz Raises $24 Million in its Largest Funding

Zooz Raises $24 Million in its Largest Funding
By David Penn Posted on
Categories: Funding, Fundings, Zooz

Zooz_homepage_May2016

In a round led by Target Global Ventures, Israeli payments technology innovator Zooz  just raised $24 million in new capital. The investment takes the company’s total funding to more than $40 million and will enable Zooz to accelerate growth, build and develop new products, and expand in both existing and new markets.

In thanking both new and current investors, Zooz CEO Oren Levy said that the growing interest on the part of merchants is playing a key role in driving adoption of new payment technologies. “Retailers now understand the need for smart payment platforms that can help them expand into new markets quickly and cost-effectively,” he said, “and that is where we excel.”

Zooz_stage_FF2013

Pictured (left to right): Peter Donarski, senior executive, First Data, and Noam Inbar, VP business development at Zooz, demonstrated Zooz Transforming Checkout at FinovateFall 2013.

Saying that Zooz is in the right place at the right time to take advantage of the growth in the global payments market, Target Global Ventures’ general partner Shmuel Chafets praised the way the Zooz platform “optimizes and simplifies the payments process, meeting a crucial industry need that will only increase.” The round also featured participation from new investors Fang Fund, iAngels, and Kreos Capital, as well as existing investors Blumberg Capital, lool ventures, Rhodium, Claltech, XSeed Capital, and CampOne Ventures, as well as angel investor Eilon Tirosh.

Since the company’s last funding round in the summer of 2014, Zooz added offices in London, Berlin, and San Francisco and increased headcount by 50%. In April, Zooz integrated eCommerce, CRM, ERP and other technologies from Nodus Technologies into its platform, one month after announcing support for Android Pay. The company added Chester Ritchie, formerly of Worldpay, as its new EVP of sales and development in February. Ritchie spoke about Zooz’s payment technology in a company profile for The Green Sheet in April.

Founded in 2010 and headquartered in Raanana, Israel, Zooz demonstrated its Transforming Checkout solution at FinovateFall 2013.

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Fintech Fundings: 17 Companies Raise $4.8 Billion Week Ending April 22

By Jim Bruene Posted on
Categories: Funding

money_scrabbleDue to the massive $4.5 billion funding at Alipay’s Ant Financial, we just set the one-week record for fintech venture funding with $4.79 billion (of which $125 million was debt). However, for the first time this year, there were fewer than 20 deals during the week. But with 39 deals last week and 17 this week, it could hardly be called a slowdown.

The total number of deals YTD stands at 419, nearly double last year’s 223. Total dollars raised YTD is now $13.6 billion, 2.5x the $5.5 billion raised during the same period a year ago.

Here are the fintech deals by size from 16 April to 22 April 2016:

Ant Financial
Online payment services division of Alipay
Latest round: $4.5 billion Series B
Total raised: $4.5 billion
HQ: Hangzhou, China
Tags: Consumer, merchants, SMB, payments, mobile, funds transfer, P2P, peer-to-peer
Source: Crunchbase

SocietyOne
P2P lending platform
Latest round: $125 million, $25 million Series C and $100 million Debt
Total raised: $158.5 million including $100 million Debt
HQ: Sydney, Australia
Tags: Consumer, lending, credit, underwriting, crowdfunding, peer-to-peer loan marketplace, Finovate alum
Source: Crunchbase

Kueski
Alt-lender in Mexico
Latest round: $35 million ($10 million Series A, $25 million debt)
Total raised: $40.1 million
HQ: Guadalajara, Mexico
Tags: Consumer, lending, credit, underwriting, payday loans
Source: Crunchbase, Press Release

Forter
Ecommerce payments fraud technology
Latest round: $32 million Series C
Total raised: $50 million
HQ: San Francisco, California
Tags: SMB, payments, merchants, fraud, security
Source: Crunchbase

Acorns
Small-dollar investments provider
Latest round: $30 million Series D
Total raised: $61.96 million
HQ: Newport Beach, California
Tags: Consumer, savings account, desposits, investing, millenials, payments, mobile, Paypal (investor)
Source: Crunchbase

Transactis (OfferIQ)
BillerIQ bill presentment and payment solution
Latest round: $30 million Series E
Total raised: $66.7 million
HQ: New York City
Tags: Enterprise, payments, billpay, invocing, billing, white-label
Source: Crunchbase

Tuliu.com
Land purchase and sales management platform
Latest round: $23 million Series B
Total raised: $23 million
HQ: China
Tags: Real estate, mortgage, land purchase, discovery
Source: Crunchbase

Platform Black (GLI Finance)
Invoice finance marketplace lender
Latest round: $7.2 million
Total raised: Unknown
HQ: Basingstoke, England, United Kingdom
Tags: SMB, lending, credit, underwriting, trade finance, factoring, accounts receivables, invoice financing, investing
Source: PYMNTS.com, Startups.co.uk

Castle
Rental payment and management platform 
Latest round: $2 million Seed
Total raised: $2 million
HQ: San Francisco, California
Tags: SMB, landlords, commercial real estate, merchants, payments, Y Combinator (investor)
Source: Crunchbase

ClassWallet
Payment and procurement plaftform for the education market
Latest round: $1.5 million
Total raised: $4.04 million
HQ: Miami, Florida
Tags: Governmet, education, payments, billing, invoicing, expense reimbursement, purchasing
Source: Crunchbase

BrickVest
Online real estate investment platform
Latest round: $1.44 million
Total raised: $2.44 million
HQ: London, England, United Kingdom
Tags: Consumer, investing, credit, commercial real estate, mortgage
Source: Crunchbase

Modalku
Small business marketplace lender
Latest round: $1.2 million Seed
Total raised: $1.2 million
HQ: Jakarta, Indonesia
Tags: Consumer, lending, credit, underwriting, merchants, acquiring, purchase finance
Source: Crunchbase

Tricount
Group expense manager
Latest round: $560,000 Seed
Total raised: $560,000
HQ: Brussels, Belgium
Tags: Consumer, payments, personal finance, budgeting, PFM, millenials
Source: FT Partners

CodiPark
Payment and access solutions for off-street parking
Latest round: $500,000 Seed
Total raised: $780,000
HQ: New York City
Tags: Consumer, SMB, merchants, acquiring, payments
Source: FT Partners

Konfio
Online micro-business loans
Latest round: Undisclosed Series A
Total raised: Unknown
HQ: Mexico City
Tags: SMB, small business, lending, credit, underwriting
Source: Crunchbase

MCX Stock Exchange
Commodity exchange in India 
Latest round: Not disclosed
Total raised: Unknown
HQ: San Francisco, California
Tags: Enterprise, investing, futures, commodities, trading
Source: FT Partners

Rapid Ratings
Ratings service for public and private company financial health
Latest round: Not disclosed
Total raised: Unknown
HQ: New York City
Tags: Enterprise, investors, advisors, investing, information services, analytics
Source: FT Partners

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BlueVine Receives Boost from Citigroup

BlueVine Receives Boost from Citigroup
By Julie Muhn (@julieschicktanz) Posted on
Categories: BlueVine, Funding

bluevinehomepage

Alternative lending company BlueVine this week received an undisclosed amount of funding from Citi Ventures, Citibank’s investing arm. The funding adds to BlueVine’s $40 million round, led by Menlo Ventures, that closed a few months back.

While the full terms of the deal have not been disclosed, the two are working on a strategic relationship. Citibank is already working with P2P lender Lending Club to offer credit to underserved communities, and it’s likely the megabank is hoping to tap into BlueVine’s expertise in factoring, which accounts for about 85% of its business.

In a statement, managing director at Citi Ventures, Arvind Purushotham, states:

“We found BlueVine doing factoring in a much more modern fashion. They’re able to approve invoices to be factored very quickly, and because they’re online and plugged into account systems that small- and medium-sized business use, they’re able to pull data from a variety of sources.”

This strategic partnership follows a recent trend of financial institutions experimenting with alternative lending partnerships. Citibank’s 2015 partnership with Lending Club has so far been successful, but earlier this month the bank shuttered an agreement with Prosper in which Citibank was to sell $377 million in bonds backed by Prosper loans. Also this month, JP Morgan Chase launched a partnership with On Deck to offer online loans to small business clients.

BlueVineFF14StageBluevine’s VP Operations Edward Castaño and CEO Eyal Lifshitz demonstrated on stage at FinovateFall 2014.

Founded in 2013, BlueVine issues working capital to small businesses who sell their unpaid invoices at a discount, then receive $5,000 to $250,000 in a matter of days to help manage operations. Unlike BlueVine’s traditional line of credit offering, the term of the financing is short, usually 60 to 90 days. The Palo Alto-based company’s CEO Eyal Lifshitz debuted BlueVine at FinovateFall 2014.

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Where Are They Now? FinovateSpring Alums Raise More than $326 Million in a Year

Where Are They Now? FinovateSpring Alums Raise More than $326 Million in a Year
By David Penn Posted on
Categories: Aurora Financial Systems, Cloud Lending, Credit Sesame, CUneXus, Currency Cloud, Dealstruck, DriveWealth, Emailage, Finicity, Funding, Fundings, itBit, Kabbage, Karmic Labs, LendKey, LoanNow, Malauzai Software, Moven, Onovative, Prairie Cloudware, StockViews, Trizic, Trulioo, Vouch, Yodlee

FS2015_overheadview

Last week we took a look at what the alums of FinovateSpring 2015 have been up to in the year since they demoed on the Finovate stage. Today, we’re focusing on the funding.

All $326 million of it.

Of the 72 companies that demoed at FinovateSpring 2015 in San Jose last year, 21 of them had raised capital within a year. Kabbage’s raise of $135 million certainly stands out. But the $25 million investment picked up by itBit in May of last year, as well as the $15 million raised by Trulioo and the $12 million raised by Moven were also major contributors to a strong fundraising performance from the Class of FinovateSpring 2015. And this doesn’t even include companies such as Yodlee, which was acquired by Envestnet for $660 million, or Aurora Financial Systems, bought by fellow Finovate alum, Finicity, for an undisclosed sum.

March 2016

January 2016

Dec 2015

October 2015

September 2015

August 2015

  • [M&A] Holy Yodlee! Envestnet to Buy Yodlee for $660 Million – video

July 2015

June 2015

May 2015

——-

FinovateSpring 2016 is less than a month away. Pick up your tickets today and save your spot at our upcoming spring conference in San Jose, California.

 

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$656 Million Raised by 32 Alums in Q1 2016

$656 Million Raised by 32 Alums in Q1 2016
By David Penn Posted on
Categories: Funding, Fundings

moneybag_goldcoinsFor the third year in a row, Finovate alums raised more than $600 million in equity and debt financing in the first quarter. The tally for 2016 is likely higher than the reported $656 million in combined equity and debt given that five fundraising amounts were undisclosed.  The total was more than double the $303 million recorded in Q4 2015. 

The first quarter of 2016 demonstrates that investor interest in fintech in general and Finovate alums in specific remains robust, if not growing.

Previous Quarterly Comparisons

  • Q1 2016: $656 million raised by 32 alums
  • Q1 2015: $680 million raised by 29 alums
  • Q1 2014: $600 million raised by 23 alums
  • Q1 2013: $155 million raised by 15 alums

Looking at the alumni deals, a tip of the hat to Betterment, whose $100 million funding in March was the largest capital infusion of the quarter.Also deserving mention were Pindrop Security, which raised $75 million, and AppAnnie, which raised $63 million, both in January. The 1o largest equity investments totalled $412 million, or 62% of the funding.

Top 10 Equity Investments

  1. Betterment: $100 million
  2. Pindrop Security: $75 million
  3. AppAnnie: $63 million
  4. Taulia: $46 million
  5. Bluevine:  $40 million
  6. EZBOB: £20 million ($25 million)
  7. Xignite: $20.5 million
  8. Signifyd: $20 million
  9. Workfusion: $14 million
  10. PayActiv: $9.2 million

That said, from Betterment’s big funding to the more modest financings for companies like StockViews and AnchorID, we are proud of all our alums, the innovations they bring to market, and the investors who support them. So with no further ado, here is the Q1 detail for 2015:

January: More than $443 million raised by 12 alums 

  • AppAnnie: $63 million – post
  • BlueVine: $40 million – post
  • CUneXus: $1 million – post
  • Gem: $7 million – post
  • IP Commerce: undisclosed – post
  • LendUp: $150 million (debt and equity) – post
  • Linxo: €2 million ($2.2 million) – post
  • LoanNow: $5o million (debt) – post (“credit facility”)
  • Mambu: $8.7 million – post
  • Pindrop: $75 million – post
  • Taulia: $46 million – post
  • True Potential: undisclosed – post

February: More than $63 million raised by 9 alums 

  • ModoPayments: $2 million – post
  • PayActiv: $9.2 million – post
  • Qapital: $3.5 million – news
  • Revolut: $4.8 million – post
  • Signifyd: $20 million – post
  • Spreedly: $3 million – post
  • SwipeStox: undisclosed – news
  • Trusted Knight: undisclosed – post
  • Xignite: $20.5 million – post

March: More than $150 million raised by 11 alums

  • AnchorID: $260k (debt) – news
  • Betterment: $100 million – post
  • Bluefin: $6 million – post
  • Dealflow: $1 million (debt) – post
  • EZBOB: £20 million ($25 million) – post
  • Finagraph: undisclosed – post
  • iQuantifi: $2 million – news
  • SnoopWall: $1.13 million – news
  • Stockviews: $355,000 – post
  • Stratumn: $670,000 – news
  • Workfusion: $14 million – post

If you are a Finovate alum that raised money in the second quarter of 2016, and do not see your company listed, please drop us a note at research@finovate.com. We would love to share the good news! Funding received prior to becoming an alum not included.

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Ixaris Receives $6 Million in Funding After Spinning Off from Parent Company

Ixaris Receives $6 Million in Funding After Spinning Off from Parent Company
By Julie Muhn (@julieschicktanz) Posted on
Categories: Funding, Ixaris

IxarisHomepage

Payments-solutions provider Ixaris has spun off Ixaris Technologies, a dedicated B2B tech-focused arm that will support its Open Payment Ecosystem Platform, an offering that launched last June.

With the launch of Ixaris Technologies as a distinct company, the London-based company’s shareholders have contributed $6 million in launch funding to accelerate growth. Combined with its previous $10 million in equity funding, Ixaris’ total funding is $16.

CEO Alex Mifsud highlights the fiscal reasoning behind the spinoff: “Our B2B payment offering now accounts for 25% of Ixaris Group revenues, which exceeded $16 million in 2015.” He continues by explaining the market reason behind the separation: “The payments industry is shifting focus towards APIs and technology solutions to help drive open banking, further reinforcing that the time is right to launch a company dedicated to open payments.”

Ixaris’ sister-company EntroPay will focus on its self-service consumer and SMB virtual card business.

At FinovateEurope 2015, Ixaris launched a UI editor for its Open Payments Platform.

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Aire Receives Funding from Accion Venture Lab

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

AireHomepage2016

Aire, a startup that democratizes access to credit, received funding from Accion Venture Lab, a $10 million nonprofit initiative dedicated to building a financially inclusive world. The amount of the investment was undisclosed; the company stated it prefers to focus on the strategic partnership with Accion.

Aire boasts previous funding from Barclay’s Accelerator, Techstars, and SparkLabs Global Ventures. The London-based company gathers meaningful data about potentially credit-worthy clients via an online interview and other reliable sources. It uses artificial intelligence to process the data and qualify users for credit. The company also helps lenders by expanding the pool of qualified applicants.

Co-founder and CEO Aneesh Varma, who we interviewed earlier this year, launched the company in 2014 after he personally experienced the difficulty of accessing credit, despite being a credit-worthy individual. In a press release, Varma commented on the funding:

Accion Venture Lab has been very supportive of our research and product since our early years. I am really glad to have them come onboard now as we start our international expansion.

Aire, which launched its API at FinovateEurope 2014 in London, plans to use the funding to fuel international expansion.

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Fintech Fundings Q1 2016: 334 Deals Totalling $6.7 Billion

Fintech Fundings Q1 2016: 334 Deals Totalling $6.7 Billion
By Jim Bruene Posted on
Categories: Funding, Uncategorized

Money_quarterThe fintech funding slowdown is officially a myth. In first quarter, both the money raised and the number of deals increased sequentially and year-over-year. In fact, Q1 was the biggest quarter in both number (334) and value ($6.7 billion) since we began tracking in mid-2014. And it was probably the biggest ever, since things really started heating up in 2014.*

The 334 fundings were double the volume of Q1 2015. It was 31% higher than Q4 2015 and 21% higher than Q3, the busiest quarter last year. Deal value was also up 110% over Q1 2015, 56% over Q4 2015, and 3% higher than Q3 2015.

Below is the breakdown for the past seven quarters as tracked by The Finovate Group (see Notes & Caveats below for our methodology). For a full list of fundings by week, go here.

The bigger question is what happens for the rest of 2016 and beyond? Given the funds flowing into VCs, the overall tech budgets of big financial institutions, and the rewiring of financial services via APIs, SDKs and alt-this and -that, there could be many more shiney quarters ahead.

———

Global Fintech Fundings by Quarter

2016    Value      Number
Q1      $6.7 bil        334

2015
Q4      $4.3 bil*     255
Q3      $6.5 bil       275
Q2      $4.7 bil       195
Q1      $3.2 bil        171
Total $18.7 bil     896
————————–
Avg/Q $4.7 bil     224

2014
Q4     $4.1 bil       210
Q3     $2.1 bil       191

* The value shown for Q4 2015, excludes the $6.1 billion raised in IPOs of Square, Worldpay and First Data

———–

Notes & Caveats:

  1. There is no exact definition of what makes up a fintech company. We look for technology-oriented companies in the financial services arena, either providing services directly to consumers or selling technology to financial services companies. Our definition of financial services includes banking, investing, lending, trading, wealth management, insurance, cloud-based accounting for small business (SMB) and real estate. We also include any company that has appeared at Finovate or FinDEVr, because those companies are clearly targeting the financial services vertical.
  2. We are primarily tracking VC Equity and Debt flowing to private companies, although we also track equity raised in IPOs and follow-on rounds of public companies.
  3. We admit that our definition may not be exactly constant over time. It could be that at least some of the growth over time is that we have loosened our definition. It’s not intentional, but, hey, we love fintech and are always looking for companies to add to the list.
  4. This list is not complete. We primarily use the databases at Crunchbase, Finovate, FT Partners, and WhoGotFunded to find fintech fundings. If the funding went unreported in those databases, we are unlikely to have it.
——
Image licensed from 123rf.com

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Scalable Capital Scores $7.9 Million

Scalable Capital Scores $7.9 Million
By Julie Muhn (@julieschicktanz) Posted on
Categories: Funding, Scalable Capital

ScalableCapHomepage2

This week Scalable Capital, a company that seeks to democratize investment management, closed on $7.9 million (£5.6 million) in funding. Subscribers to the round include Holtzbrink Ventures, Peng T. Ong’s Monk’s Hill Ventures, The German Startups Group and MPGI, all of whom contributed to the company’s first round of funding in 2015. New investors Tengelmann Ventures and Leonteq-founder Michael Hartweg also participated.ScalableCapDemo

Combined with a previous round in 2015, today’s installment brings the Germany-based company’s total funding to $12.4 million (£8.8 million). In a press release, Adam French, co-founder and managing director of Scalable Capital, discussed plans for the funding:

This new capital will allow us to continue building our business in the U.K. as well as support our operations in Germany and expand selectively into new markets. Our goal is to become the leading digital investment manager in Europe.

French (pictured above right) debuted Scalable Capital at FinovateEurope 2016. He began the demo by asking, “Does the world really need another robo-adviser?” and then answered his own question:

Where we fundamentally differ from the traditional wealth management world and the other players in this market is in the way that we manage your money. We’ve developed a risk management technology which was previously developed for institutional investors and … put it in the hands of retail investors.

Scalable Capital offers diversified and cost-efficient ETF portfolios. The company’s special sauce is in the way users select their risk preference. Instead of choosing from broad risk-categories (conservative, medium, and high) Scalable Capital quantifies the risk and attaches an institutional risk measure. The risk in every client portfolio is controlled by daily projections, and portfolios are readjusted if the risk limit has been breached.

Founded in 2014, Scalable Capital has received approval from the U.K.’s Financial Conduct Authority and will begin operating with its first U.K.-based investors this month.

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Persado Pulls in $30 Million in Funding Led by Goldman Sachs

Persado Pulls in $30 Million in Funding Led by Goldman Sachs
By Julie Muhn (@julieschicktanz) Posted on
Categories: Funding, Persado

PersadoHomepage

Marketing messaging company Persado closed on $30 million in Series C funding this week. The round was led by Goldman Sachs and included an all-star cast of previous contributors, including American Express Ventures, Bain Capital Ventures, Citi Ventures, and StarVest Partners.

This is the company’s third round of funding since it was founded in 2012, bringing its total to $66 million.

The New York-based company offers software that uses algorithms to map emotions and create optimal marketing content for emails, websites, social media messages, and push notifications. It uses machine learning to determine the message that will generate the best response from the target audience. Co-founder and CEO Alex Vratskides says, “Persado is revolutionizing how organizations communicate by propelling creativity into the data-driven age, arming brands with ‘smart content’ that resonates with any audience, every time, and inspires them to act.”

At FinovateEurope 2016, the company’s Chief Revenue Officer Lawrence Whittle (below) launched Persado Go, an automated solution that offers business customers persuasive messaging in real-time via a self-service interface. In the demo, Whittle showed how a bank can create a marketing email to persuade dormant credit card clients to resume their relationship with the bank.

PersadoFEUIMG

In a press release, Vratskides said the company will use the funding to invest in product distribution and development. Specifically, he plans to deliver messages in more communication channels and to expand the service into more sectors, such as healthcare messaging and civic engagement.

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