Funding Archives - Page 70 of 92

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payment-gateway company, and called Payworks “one of the very few companies that has a shot at replacing an old and outdated infrastructure on a global scale.”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.

——-

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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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.

——-

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.

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