Funding

Fintech Fundings: 26 Companies Raise $1 Billion Week Ending 20 Nov 2015

Fintech Fundings: 26 Companies Raise $1 Billion Week Ending 20 Nov 2015
By Jim Bruene Posted on
Categories: Funding

money_tree_newLarge swaths of cash flowed into the global fintech sector last week. All told, 26 companies brought in $1.06 billion. A quarter of the total was Square’s IPO ($243 million), another $330 million was debt, with the remaining $479 million being VC/angel funding.

In addition to Square, two companies topped $100 million: student and personal loan startup Earnest ($75 million equity; $200 million debt) and Australia’s ZipMoney ($1 million equity; $100 million debt).

Two Finovate alums landed new rounds: $5 million to Tuition.io which enables employers to help pay down employee student loan debt and Nous, a crowdsourced investment-information platform, which raised $290,000.

Year-to-date, the total raised is $17.7 billion, or about $24 billion counting the payments-company IPOs (Worldpay, First Data, Square).

Here are the fundings by size from 14 Nov to 20 Nov 2015:

Earnest
Alt-personal and student lender
Latest round: $275 million ($75 million equity; $200 million debt)
Total raised: $299.1 million ($99.1 million equity; $200 million debt)
HQ: San Francisco, California
Tags: Consumer, credit, lending, underwriting, loans, student loan refinancing
Source: Crunchbase

Square
Payment processor and small-business lender
Latest round: $243 million (IPO)
Total raised: $833 million
HQ: San Francisco, California
Tags: Consumer, SMB, payments, point-of-sale, mPOS, acquiring, merchant, credit/debit cards
Source: LA Times, Crunchbase

ZipMoney
Financing online consumer purchases
Latest round: $101 million ($1 million equity; $100 million debt)
Total raised: $101 million (includes $100 million debt)
HQ: Sydney, Australia
Tags: Consumer, SMB, B2B2C, financing, lending, underwriting, ecommerce, payments
Source: Crunchbase

Ebury
Global funds-transfer service for businesses
Latest round: $83 million
Total raised: $119 million
HQ: London, England, United Kingdom
Tags: Enterprise, SMB, accounts payables, payments, FX, trade finance
Source: Crunchbase

LQD Business Finance
Online small-business financing
Latest round: $30 million Debt
Total raised: $30 million Debt
HQ: Chicago, Illinois
Tags: SMB, commercial lending, credit, loans
Source: Crunchbase

Openhouse
Real estate discovery app
Latest round: $13.5 million
Total raised: $19.5 million
HQ: Santa Monica, California
Tags: Consumer, real estate, home buying, mortgage
Source: Crunchbase

Align Commerce
Payment service provider for global commerce
Latest round: $12.5 million
Total raised: $12.5 million
HQ: San Francisco, California
Tags: Enterprise, SMB, payments, bitcoin, FX, trade finance
Source: Crunchbase

Sensible Lender
P2P property lender
Latest round: $10.6 million
Total raised: $10.6 million
HQ: Kent, England, United Kingdom
Tags: P2P lending, investing, mortgage, underwriting, crowdfunding
Source: FT Partners

Hanweck Associates
Real-time risk analytics for financial institutions
Latest round: $10 million
Total raised: $10 million
HQ: New York City, New York
Tags: Security, risk management
Source: FT Partners

Card.com
Prepaid card platform
Latest round: $9 million
Total raised: $12 million
HQ: Santa Monica, California
Tags: Consumer, debit card, gift card, payments, card management
Source: Crunchbase

Intersections
Identity-protection services
Latest round: $7.5 million Post-IPO equity*
Total raised: Unknown
HQ: Chantilly, Virginia
Tags: Consumers, enterprise, security, credit report monitoring
Source: Crunchbase, BusinessWire

SalaryFinance
Payroll-based lender
Latest round: $6.1 million
Total raised: $6.1 million
HQ: London, England, United Kingdom
Tags: Enterprise, SMB, B2B2C, consumer credit, lending, underwriting, employee benefits
Source: Crunchbase

Tution.io
Student loan repayment service for employers
Latest round: $5 million
Total raised: $8.15 million
HQ: Santa Monica, California
Tags: Student lending, employee benefit, SMB, enterprise, Finovate alum
Source: Finovate

Prepaid Financial Services
Prepaid card services
Latest round: $3.8 million (at $75 million valuation)
Total raised: Unknown
HQ: London, England, United Kingdom
Tags: Consumer, SMB, prepaid cards, debit cards
Source: FT Partners

Vanare
Wealth management system for advisors
Latest round: $3.35 million
Total raised: $3.35 million
HQ: New York City, New York
Tags: Advisers, investing, asset management, robo-adviser
Source: Crunchbase

Peppermint Innovation
Mobile banking and payments platform
Latest round: $2.7 million
Total raised: $2.7 million
HQ: Australia
Tags: Payments, mobile, remittances, banking, Indonesia (market)
Source: FT Partners

GoodBox
Mobile ecommerce and payments platform
Latest round: $2.5 million
Total raised: $2.7 million
HQ: Bangalaru, India
Tags: SMB, payments
Source: FT Partners

ietty
Home discovery platform
Latest round: $1.6 million
Total raised: $4.0 million
HQ: Tokyo, Japan
Tags: Consumer, real estate, home buying, mortgage
Source: Crunchbase

iBox
Mobile point-of-sale solution
Latest round: $1.3 million Seed
Total raised: $4.8 million
HQ: Hong Kong, China
Tags: SMB, payments, mPOS, merchants, acquiring, hardware, credit/debit cards
Source: Crunchbase

Health Solutions One
Online health insurance broker
Latest round: $1 million Seed
Total raised: $2 million
HQ: Roswell, Georgia
Tags: Consumer, insurance, price comparison, lead gen
Source: Crunchbase

Bitwage
Bitcoin-based international payroll
Latest round: $750,000
Total raised: $750,000
HQ: Sunnyvale, California
Tags: SMB, enterprise, payments, human resources, cryptocurrency, payroll
Source: Crunchbase

Stampery
Proof of ownership via the blockchain
Latest round: $600,000
Total raised: $600,000
HQ: San Francisco, California
Tags: SMB, consumer, blockchain, security, contracts, security
Source: Crunchbase

Fintec Labs
Banking and insurance incubator
Latest round: $350,000 ($2.3 million valuation)
Total raised: $745,000
HQ: South Africa
Tags: Insurance, SMB, startups
Source: Crunchbase

Nous Global Markets
Crowdsourcing financial market predictions
Latest round: $460,000
Total raised: $1.6 million
HQ: London, England, United Kingdom
Tags: Consumer, trading, investing, gamification Finovate alum
Source: Finovate

POM
Secure invoice payment
Latest round: $200,000
Total raised: $200,000
HQ: Viaams-Brabant, Belgium
Tags: SMB, payments, accounting, accounts receivables
Source: FT Partners

ScramCard
Ultra-secure consumer payments device
Latest round: Undisclosed
Total raised: Unknown
HQ: Hong Kong, China
Tags: Consumer, B2B2C, credit/debit card, payments, security, token, hardware
Source: Crunchbase

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Tuition.io Raises $5 Million in Series A

Tuition.io Raises $5 Million in Series A
By David Penn Posted on
Categories: Funding, Fundings, Tuition.io

Tuitionio_homepage_Nov2015

Student-loan management specialist Tuition.io has raised $5 million in Series A funding. Participating in the round were MassMutual Ventures, Mohr Davidow Ventures, and Wildcat Venture Partners.

The funding takes Tuition.io’s total capital to more than $8 million. Tuition.io plans to use the capital to help acquire more enterprise customers, as well as to grow its customer service, engineering, and sales teams.

Tuitionio_stage_FF2012

Tuition.io founder and CEO Brendon McQueen demonstrated his company’s platform at FinovateFall 2012 in New York.

Calling the investment a “testament to the headway” the company has made, Tuition.io founder and CEO Brendon McQueen pointed to his company’s status as a first-mover in the field as key. “We are proud to have been the first to market at scale with an innovative financial wellness platform that enables employers to offer student-loan payments as a benefit for hiring and retention,” McQueen said. He credited Tuition.io for “helping global companies attract and engage competitive talent while simultaneously addressing the $1.3 trillion student loan crisis in the U.S.”

Bryan Stolle, a general partner with Mohr Davidow Ventures, referred to Tuition.io as a “real game-changer for recruiting millennials.” He credited the company’s enterprise platform for “empowering employers to recruit and retain employees with student-loan contributions as a benefit.”

Tuition.io helps student-loan borrowers manage their debts. The platform uses graphical visualization to make it easier for borrowers to see how much they owe, to whom, and how to pay it off sooner. In April, Tuition.io launched a new student loan benefit solution, Flex395 that lets employers directly contribute to employees’ student-loan repayments to accelerate the payoff.

Announcing the new Flex395 initiative this spring, McQueen suggested that for many young professionals entering the workforce, retiring student loan debt is a higher priority than investing in their 401(k)s. “Young people neither willingly adopt nor care about 401(k) products,” McQueen said. “However, 70% of college graduates are finishing school with student loan balances averaging nearly $30,000.”

“The question is not whether 401(k)s are beneficial—of course, they are—but rather what benefits employers can offer that are most relevant and attractive to young, talented employees,” McQueen explained.

Founded in October 2011 and headquartered in Los Angeles, Tuition.io demoed its technology at FinovateFall 2012. Since inception, the company has helped thousands of borrowers manage more than $2 billion in outstanding student loans.

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Fintech Fundings: 16 Companies Raise $900 Million Week Ending 13 Nov 2015

Fintech Fundings: 16 Companies Raise $900 Million Week Ending 13 Nov 2015
By Jim Bruene Posted on
Categories: Funding

ncr_cash_registers

It was a quieter week in fintech fundings. Other than Blackstone’s $820 million bet on NCR — founded in 1884 as National Cash Register, NCR is likely the oldest financial technology company on the planet — just $85 million flowed to the under-100-year-old crowd. And we are not sure if the NCR inflow should even be considered “new money.” According to today’s WSJ story, the money appears to be earmarked for share repurchases, meaning it’s just a transfer of $820 million to the existing common-stock holders, rather than new capital sitting on the balance sheet. But we’ll see if they do follow that path.

Excluding NCR, 15 companies raised $85.4 million this week. Year-to-date, the total is $16.9 billion or $22.8 billion counting the Worldpay and First Data IPOs.

Here are the deals by size from 7 Nov to 12 Nov 2015:

NCR
ATMs, POS and financial technology
Latest round: $820 million Post-IPO equity
Total raised: Unknown
HQ: Duluth, Georgia
Tags: Enterprise, ATM, POS, core banking, payments, Blackstone (investor)
Source: WSJ

CircleUp
Equity crowdfunding platform
Latest round: $30 million
Total raised: $47 million
HQ: San Francisco, California
Tags: Consumer, SMB, financing, equity, P2P, investing
Source: Crunchbase

MoneyFarm
Investment advisory for small savers
Latest round: $17.2 million
Total raised: $40 million
HQ: Milan, Italy
Tags: Consumer, investing, robo-adviser, mobile
Source: Crunchbase

Bango
Mobile payments for m-commerce companies
Latest round: $17 million Post-IPO equity
Total raised: Unknown
HQ: Cambridge, England, United Kingdom
Tags: SMB, payments, mobile, acquiring, merchants, credit/debit cards
Source: Crunchbase

Bread Finance
Unsecured consumer financing of purchases
Latest round: $14.3 million, Series A
Total raised: $14.3 million
HQ: New York City, New York
Tags: Consumer, lending, underwriting, payments, merchants, SMB
Source: Crunchbase, WSJ

Innovation Broking
Corporate insurance brokerage services
Latest round: $3 million
Total raised: $3 million
HQ: Watford, United Kingdom
Tags: Insurance, B2B, enterprise
Source: FT Partners

Moni
Mobile bank
Latest round: $1.45 million Seed
Total raised: $1.45 million
HQ: London, England, United Kingdom
Tags: Consumer, banking, personal finance, PFM, mobile
Source: Crunchbase

NextBank Project
Bitcoin exchange
Latest round: $950,000
Total raised: $ million
HQ: Vanuatu
Tags: Consumer, SMB, bitcoin, cryptocurrency, exchange, payments
Source: Crunchbase

Camino Financial
Lending marketplace targeting Hispanic-owned small businesses
Latest round: $750,000
Total raised: $750,000
HQ: Glendale, California
Tags: SMB, lending, lead gen, price comparison, commercial loans
Source: FT Partners

RenewBuy
Auto insurance portal
Latest round: $500,000 Angel
Total raised: $500,000
HQ: Gurgaon, India
Tags: Consumer, automobiles, motorcycles, insurance, lead gen, price comparison, quotes
Source: Crunchbase

ZeePay
Mobile payments at the point-of-sale
Latest round: $200,000
Total raised: $200,000
HQ: Ghana
Tags: Payments, mPOS, underbanked, merchants, retailers, acquiring
Source: WhoGotFunded

Painless1099
Savings platform for freelancers
Latest round: $25,000, Seed
Total raised: $25,000
HQ: Buffalo, New York
Tags: SMB, savings accounts, tax, Lincoln Savings Bank (partner)
Source: Crunchbase

EDGARreader
Financial technology intelligence application
Latest round: $25,000 Award
Total raised: $25,000
HQ: New York City, New York
Tags: Consumer, investing, information
Source: Crunchbase

Captain401
401(k) management platform
Latest round: Undisclosed
Total raised: Unknown
HQ: San Francisco, California
Tags: Employees, SMB, retirement, benefits, investing, YCombinator
Source: WSJ

LevelFunded
Employee benefits provider
Latest round: Undisclosed
Total raised: Unknown
HQ: National, Maryland
Tags: SMB, health care, employees, benefit management, insurance
Source: Crunchbase

FinTecSystems
Real-time financial data access for financial institutions
Latest round: Undisclosed
Total raised: Unknown
HQ: Munich, Germany
Tags: Enterprise, fraud, security, online banking, payments, API, developers, big data
Source: FT Partners

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Image: West Islip Business Machines

 

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Roostify Garners $500,000 in Funding from Wells Fargo Accelerator

Roostify Garners $500,000 in Funding from Wells Fargo Accelerator
By Julie Muhn (@julieschicktanz) Posted on
Categories: Funding, Roostify

RoostifyFunding

Mortgage loan technology startup, Roostify, landed $500,000 in funding last week.

The San Francisco-based company received the funds as a part of its participation in Wells Fargo’s startup accelerator program, a semiannual bootcamp for fintech companies. The year-old accelerator has hosted Finovate alums EyeVerify and Zumigo, which graduated in the spring of 2014.

The $500,000 installment adds to Roostify’s series A round received mid-month October from USAA, Colchis Capital Management, and two tier 1 banks. Since the amount of the series A was undisclosed, Roostify’s total funding is unknown.

Roostify debuted at FinovateSpring 2014 in San Jose.

 

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Fintech Fundings: 23 Companies Raise $120 Million Week Ending 30 Oct 2015

Fintech Fundings: 23 Companies Raise $120 Million Week Ending 30 Oct 2015
By Jim Bruene Posted on
Categories: Funding

Money_pumpkinsWhile there were no blockbuster fundings last week, five companies pulled in eight figures each: Marqeta, $25 million; TruMid, $25 mil; Knip, $15.7 mil; iSignThis, $10.5 mil; and Zebit, $10 mil. In total, 23 fintech companies raised more than $121 million including Finovate alums Spreedly which brought in $2.5 million for its marketplace payments platform and iSignThis which raised $10.5 million in post-IPO equity for its identity-verification services.

Here are the fundings from 25 Oct to 31 Oct 2015 by size:

Marqeta
Open API issuer/payment processor platform
Latest round: $25 million Series C
Total raised: $45.5 million
HQ: Emeryville, California
Tags: APIs, developers, payments, debit cards, prepaid cards, mobile wallets, ACH
Source: Crunchbase

TruMid
Electronic trading marketplace for corporate bonds
Latest round: $25 million
Total raised: $25 million
HQ: New York City, New York
Tags: Trading, investing, bonds
Source: Crunchbase

Knip
Digital insurance manager
Latest round: $15.7 million Series B
Total raised: Unknown
HQ: Zurich, Switzerland
Tags: Insurance, consumer, lead generation, mobile
Source: Crunchbase

iSignThis
Identity-proofing solutions
Latest round: $10.45 million Post-IPO equity
Total raised: Unknown
HQ: Melbourne, Australia
Tags: Security, fraud, AML, KYC, compliance, Finovate alum
Source: Finovate

Zebit
Payment and credit platform for the underbanked
Latest round: $10 million
Total raised: $10 million
HQ: San Diego, California
Tags: Payments, underbanked, consumer, credit, sub-prime, ecommerce
Source: Crunchbase

RazorPay
Payments gateway
Latest round: $9 million Series A
Total raised: $11.6 million
HQ: Bangalore, India
Tags: Payments, merchants, SMB, acquiring
Source: Crunchbase

MoBeam
Mobile giftcard and coupon redemption
Latest round: $6.2 million Series B
Total raised: $28.5 million
HQ: Palo Alto, California
Tags: Payments, loyalty, B2B2C, gift cards, merchants, marketing
Source: Crunchbase

Seed
Business banking platform
Latest round: $5 million
Total raised: $5.1 million
HQ: San Francisco, California
Tags: SMB, banking, financial management
Source: Crunchbase

Commerce Signals
Federated data-exchange platform
Latest round: $4 million Series A
Total raised: $4 million
HQ: Palo Alto, California
Tags: Enterprise, SMB, privacy, data
Source: Crunchbase

Qvinci
Financial reporting software
Latest round: $3.4 million
Total raised: $3.4 million
HQ: Austin, Texas
Tags: Accounting, Intuit (partner), commercial lending, SMB
Source: Crunchbase

Spreedly
Payment software for marketplaces and platforms
Latest round: $2.5 million Series A
Total raised: $4.7 million
HQ: Durham, North Carolina
Tags: Payments, API, developers, Finovate alum, FinDEVr alum
Source: Finovate

Paid
Accounts receivables management
Latest round: $1.4 million Seed
Total raised: $1.4 million
HQ: San Francisco, California
Tags: Small biz, SMB, financial management, billing, invoicing, accounting, bookkeeping
Source: Crunchbase

Privacy
Virtual card numbers on the fly
Latest round: $1.2 million Seed
Total raised: $1.2 million
HQ: New York City, New York
Tags: Payments, security, debit/credit cards, consumer
Source: Crunchbase

Splittable
Expense-splitting mobile application
Latest round: $1.2 million Seed
Total raised: $1.2 million
HQ: London, England, United Kingdom
Tags: Expense management, PFM, payments, mobile
Source: Crunchbase

Open Listings
Enabling home purchase without a real estate agent
Latest round: $1 million Seed
Total raised: $1 million
HQ: Los Angeles, California
Tags: Real estate, mortgage, home purchase, consumer, DIY, mobile
Source: Crunchbase

Clipperz
Blockchain-based notary service
Latest round: $110,000
Total raised: $110,000
HQ: Bagnacavallo, Italy
Tags: Security, privacy, cryptocurrency, data
Source: Crunchbase

Clarus Financial Technology
Software for derivatives market
Latest round: $110,000
Total raised: $110,000
HQ: London, England, United Kingdom
Tags: Enterprise, investing
Source: FT Partners

Replay (no website)
Apple TV purchase and payment marketplace
Latest round: $25,000 Hackathon prize
Total raised: $25,000
HQ: Los Angeles, California
Tags: Payments, ecommerce, shopping, marketplace
Source: Finovate

Bit2Me
Blockchain-based remittance app
Latest round: $10,000 Prize
Total raised: Unknown
HQ: Spain
Tags: Bitcoin, blockchain, remittances, payments, cryptocurrency, mobile
Source: Coindesk

Digital Currency Group
Cryptocurrency incubator and investor
Latest round: Undisclosed
Total raised: Unknown
HQ: New York City, New York
Tags: Cryptocurrency, blockchain, bitcoin, payments
Source: Crunchbase

GetSafe
Digital insurance manager
Latest round: Undisclosed
Total raised: Unknown
HQ: Heidelberg, Germany
Tags: Insurance, personal finance, consumer, mobile
Source: FT Partners

Omise
Payment gateway
Latest round: Undisclosed Series B
Total raised: $2.9 million (prior to Series B)
HQ: Bangkok, Thailand
Tags: Payments, API, developers, merchants, mobile
Source: Crunchbase

Tavaga
Mobile investment management
Latest round: Undisclosed
Total raised: Unknown
HQ: Mumbai, India
Tags: Investing, advisers, social network, mobile, wealth management, mutual fund
Source: FT Partners

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Fintech Fundings: 27 Companies Raise $420 Million Week Ending 23 October

Fintech Fundings: 27 Companies Raise $420 Million Week Ending 23 October
By Jim Bruene Posted on
Categories: Funding

Money_clickThere was a little of everything this week in what continues to be a strong month in funding (already over $1 billion). Worldwide, 28 companies raised about $420 million ($417 million not including funds from 4 undisclosed rounds).

Two blockbuster deals contributed over half the total: $170 million to German marketplace lender Auxmoney and $81 million to health insurance management platform Collective Health. And seven other rounds surpassed the $10-million mark. But there were also plenty of smaller seed bets this week, something we haven’t seen as much of recently. Ten companies raised $1.7 million or less. Finally, congratulations to Finovate alum Financit which grabbed an undisclosed, but we are guessing considerable, amount of capital from Goldman Sachs.

So far this year, $15.7 billion has been raised privately. In addition, $5.9 billion was invested through two blockbuster payment IPOs last week.

Here are the deals from 17 Oct to 24 Oct 2015, by size:

Auxmoney
P2P loan platform
Latest round: $170 million Series C
Total raised: $198 million
HQ: Dusseldorf, Germany
Tags: Consumer, lending, marketplace, peer-to-peer, loans, investing
Source: Crunchbase

Collective Health
Health insurance platform for businesses
Latest round: $81 million Series C
Total raised: $119 million
HQ: San Mateo, California
Tags: Enterprise, small biz, SMB, health insurance, management
Source: Crunchbase

Insureon
Insurance for small businesses
Latest round: $31.5 million
Total raised: $31.5 million
HQ: Chicago, Illinois
Tags: SMB, insurance, lead gen, quotes
Source: Crunchbase

Poynt
Smart payment terminal
Latest round: $28 million Series B
Total raised: $28 million
HQ: Palo Alto, California
Tags: SMB, small biz, merchants, acquiring, mPOS, point-of-sale, acquiring, payments
Source: Crunchbase

Citrus Payments
Web and mobile payment solutions for merchants
Latest round: $25 million
Total raised: $32.3 million
HQ: Mumbai, India
Tags: Consumer, payments, billpay, billing, SMB, merchants, point-of-sale, acquiring
Source: Crunchbase

iControl
Payment management
Latest round: $20 million
Total raised: $20 million
HQ: Burtonsville, Maryland
Tags: Business, SMB, trading partner management, Goldman Sachs (investor)
Source: FT Partners

Wave Crest Group
Prepaid card platform
Latest round: $14 million
Total raised: $32.9 million
HQ: Gibraltar
Tags: Enterprise, B2B2C, debit cards, prepaid, mobile, payments processing
Source: Crunchbase

MoneyForward
Online personal financial management
Latest round: $13.3 million Series C
Total raised: $30.9 million
HQ: Tokyo, Japan
Tags: Consumer, PFM, account aggregation, banking
Source: Crunchbase

Skills Fund
Lending to bootcamp students
Latest round: $11.5 million Seed
Total raised: $11.5 million
HQ: Austin, Texas
Tags: Consumer, student loans, accelerated learning, alt-lending
Source: Crunchbase

NerdWallet
Personal finance information portal
Latest round: $5 million Series A ($510 million valuation)
Total raised: $102 million (includes $33 million debt)
HQ: San Francisco, California
Tags: Consumer, financial services, lead gen, price comparison
Source: Crunchbase

inMediata
Healthcare payment management
Latest round: $4 million
Total raised: $4 million
HQ: Charlotte, North Carolina
Tags: Health care, payments, B2B2C, small business, SMB
Source: FT Partners

PIN Payments
Payments for developers
Latest round: $3.1 million
Total raised: $3.1 million
HQ: Melbourne, Australia
Tags: Consumer, PFM
Source: Crunchbase

WB21
Real-time global money-transfer system
Latest round: $2.27 million
Total raised: $2.94 million
HQ: Palo Alto, California
Tags: Consumer, payments, remittances,
Source: Crunchbase

Moneytree
Mobile transaction aggregation
Latest round: Undisclosed Series A (“in millions”)
Total raised: $1.6 million (prior to the Series A)
HQ: Tokyo, Japan
Tags: Consumer, mobile, debit/credit cards, account aggregation, PFM
Source: Crunchbase

Pepper
Mobile payment and loyalty app
Latest round: $1.7 million
Total raised: $1.7 million
HQ: London, England, United Kingdom
Tags: Consumer, payments, mobile, rewards
Source: FT Partners

LoanBook Capital
Marketplace lending platform
Latest round: $1.25 million
Total raised: $2.4 million
HQ: Barcelona, Spain
Tags: Consumer, P2P, lending, loans, underwriting, investing
Source: Crunchbase

SoftPay Mobile
Mobile point-of-sale
Latest round: $1 million Series A
Total raised: $1 million
HQ: Hanoi, Vietnam
Tags: Consumer, payments, mPOS, acquiring, merchants, Life.SREDA (investor)
Source: Crunchbase

SlimTrader
Trading platform for African commerce
Latest round: $1 million
Total raised: $1 million
HQ: Seattle, Washington
Tags: Consumer, ecommerce, payments, mobile
Source: Crunchbase

Timelio
P2P receivables financing plaform
Latest round: $500,000 Seed
Total raised:$500,000
HQ: Melbourne, Australia
Tags: SMB, small biz, receivables financing, invoice factoring, P2P, peer-to-peer
Source: Crunchbase

BSAVE
Bitcoin investing
Latest round: $400,000
Total raised: $400,000
HQ: London, England, United Kingdom
Tags: Consumer, virtual currency, investing
Source: Crunchbase

HomeCanvasr
Off-market real estate listings
Latest round: $200,000 Seed
Total raised: $200,000
HQ: Brooklyn, New York
Tags: Consumer, home purchase, real estate, mortgage
Source: FT Partners

Equinvest
Online platform for equity investing
Latest round: $170,000
Total raised: $170,000
HQ: Rome, Italy
Tags: Consumer, startups, SMB, equity investing, angel investing, VC
Source: Crunchbase

FastSeva
Online telecom recharge and billpay
Latest round: $100,000
Total raised: $100,000
HQ: Surat, India
Tags: Consumer, mobile, telecommunications, billing, invoicing
Source: Crunchbase

Financit
In-store financing specialist
Latest round: Undisclosed
Total raised: $21.4 million
HQ: Toronto, Ontario, Canada
Tags: Consumer, financing, B2B2C, indirect lending, loans, underwriting, in-store POS, Finovate alum
Source: Finovate

Abra
Bitcoin remittances
Latest round: Undisclosed Series A
Total raised: $14 million
HQ: Mountain View, California
Tags: Consumer, payments, cyrptocurrency, remittances, American Express (investor)
Source: FT Partners

LetsVenture
Fund-raising platform for startups
Latest round: Undisclosed
Total raised: Unknown
HQ: Singapore
Tags: SMB, enterprise, investing, fund raising, equity, investing
Source: Crunchbase

Stockal
Automated personal trader
Latest round: Undisclosed Seed
Total raised: Unknown
HQ: Bangalore, India
Tags: Consumer, mobile, investing, trading, analytics
Source: Crunchbase

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Financeit Closes Undisclosed Amount of Funding from Goldman Sachs

Financeit Closes Undisclosed Amount of Funding from Goldman Sachs
By Julie Muhn (@julieschicktanz) Posted on
Categories: FinanceIt, Funding

FinancitHomepage1015

Canada-based Financeit, a company that offers cloud-based POS financing, closed an undisclosed amount of funding today.

Goldman Sachs led the round, and the amount furnished is undisclosed.

The company’s last round of funding, an installment of $13 million, was received in November 2013. This brought the company’s total amount raised to $21.5 million. Today’s undisclosed amount brings the company’s total funding somewhere north of that amount.

According to the press release, Financeit plans to use the funds to add to its merchant partner base of 4,000. Co-founder and CEO Michael Garrity states, “The minority investment made by Goldman Sachs gives us growth capital to put our leading-edge financing platform into the hands of more merchants.”

Last year, in partnership with FIS, Financeit launched in the United States. Check out the launch video here. In its four years of operation across the two countries, Financeit has received more than $1 billion in loan applications.

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Xpenditure Raises $5.7 Million in Series A

Xpenditure Raises $5.7 Million in Series A
By David Penn Posted on
Categories: Funding, Fundings, Xpenditure

Xpenditure_homepage_Oct2015

FinovateEurope 2014 alum Xpenditure has just raised $5.7 million in new funding. The investment takes the Belgium-based expense management solution provider’s total capital to more than $9 million.

The Series A round was led by a variety of private investors, including current shareholder Bart Swanson, along with Lorenz Bogaert, Toon Coppens, and Jonas Dhaenens.

Writing about the investment at the Xpenditure blog, company CEO and co-founder Boris Bogaert said the investment comes as the company is poised for growth in Europe and beyond. Bogaert added that Xpenditure plans on “doubling the team in the next four months” as well as making additional investments in technology.

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From left: Co-founder and COO Wim Derkinderen and Head of Product Koen Christiaens demonstrated Xpenditure at FinovateEurope 2014.

Xpenditure specializes in providing alternatives to traditional, often manual, expense report management. Or, as Bogaert is quoted in TechCrunch, “We want to kill the monthly expense report.” He pointed out that creating worthwhile solutions requires more than simply recreating manual processes in digital form, as some software companies have tried to do.

Instead, Xpenditure provides businesses with a solution that handles the entire expense management process from receipt to accounting. Xpenditure’s mobile app allows users to scan and upload receipt data directly to their online account. A dashboard enables transparency and easy expense management. Businesses can generate PDF reports or create them within their accounting and ERP software such as Intuit’s QuickBooks and Xero.

Founded in 2011 and officially launched in March 2013, Xpenditure demonstrated its platform at FinovateEurope 2014 in London. The company has offices in New York, Brazil, Germany, and Belgium, and serves customers in more than 22 countries around the world.

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Blooom Announces $4 Million Series A Round Led by QED Investors

Blooom Announces $4 Million Series A Round Led by QED Investors
By David Penn Posted on
Categories: blooom, Funding, Fundings

blooom_homepage_Oct2015

In its first outside-capital raise, personal investment-management platform Blooom has hauled in $4 million. The Series A round was led by QED Investors, a firm that has invested in a variety of fintech startups—and Finovate alums—in recent years, ranging from Braintree and Credit Karma to Prosper and LendUp.

Also participating in the round were DST Systems Inc., Commerce Ventures, Hyde Park Venture Partners, and UMB.

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Blooom Co-Founders Chris Costello and Randy AufDerHeide demonstrated at FinovateFall 2014.

Blooom operates in one of the more interesting niches in personal investment management, 401(k) accounts. Unlike other investors, many 401(k) account holders never asked for them—they were simply a job benefit. As such, 401(k) investors represent a potentially huge market of investors who need help managing these accounts wisely.

The company’s leadership team includes former investment banker Greg Smith who penned the notorious “Why I am Leaving Goldman Sachs” piece for the New York Times in 2012. Now president of Blooom, Smith feels he is finally with an organization that “aligns with his values” and the issues of customer service and putting clients first he wrote about in his critical NYT op-ed.

Blooom works by giving investors a short questionnaire about their current financial status, risk tolerance, and investment preferences. Consumers can take advantage of the free 401(k) comparative analysis or sign up for ongoing account management, including rebalancing and allocation adjustments. Price is either $1 a month for clients with account values below $20,000, or $15 a month for larger accounts.

Read more about Blooom in its Finovate debut feature from last fall.

Recent headlines for Blooom include winning a grant last month from LaunchKC. The company has been profiled in Forbes, highlighted as a member of the “Silicon Prairie” in Inc, and referred to as “the future of retail savings” by COOConnect.

Founded in February 2013 and headquartered in Overland Park, Kansas, Blooom demonstrated its platform at FinovateFall 2014 in New York .

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Mortgagetech on the Move as Roostify Closes Series A Round Led by USAA

Mortgagetech on the Move as Roostify Closes Series A Round Led by USAA
By David Penn Posted on
Categories: Funding, Fundings, Roostify

Roostify_homepage_Oct2015

While deal-terms were not disclosed, we learned late Wednesday that mortgage-transaction technology innovator Roostify has wrapped up a Series A investment round led by USAA.

“Roostify is innovating the home-buying process for consumers and lenders through a platform that brings simplicity and efficiency to something that sorely needs it,” said Michael Smith, USAA executive director for corporate development.

Roostify CEO Rajesh Bhat asserts the solution “brings a user friendliness to the process that benefits lenders and applicants by streamlining the process. (It cuts) the time to close loans and lessens errors in the applications.”

Roostify_stage_FS2014

From left: Roostify Lead Engineer Jonathan Kirst and CEO Rajesh Bhat demonstrated at FinovateSpring 2014 in San Jose, California.

Also participating in the funding were Colchis Capital and “two tier-1 banks.” Bhat said the funding will help grow the technology and bring more lenders to the platform.

Roostify simplifies the challenging process of buying a home for all parties involved. Home-buyers using the platform benefit from 100% transparency and greater control over the process, resulting in greater accountability and lower costs. Lenders can approve and process more loans faster using Roostify, having processed thousands of applications through the platform since its launch in early 2014.

Founded in March 2013 and headquartered in Burlingame, California, Roostify made its Finovate debut at FinovateSpring 2014 in San Jose.

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Kabbage’s Fresh $135 Million to Help Grow Karrot Consumer Lending Platform

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

KabbageHomepage

Alternative-financing provider Kabbage pulled in $135 million in new funding today. We speculated about this round in July, when rumors first circulated.

It is the company’s largest round of equity financing, and brings the company’s total raised to just over $600 million. Perhaps more notably, some sources report that Kabbage is now valued at $1 billion (this has not been confirmed by Kabbage), making it a fintech unicorn.

Reverence Capital Partners led the round, and several global banks also participated, including ING Group, Santander InnoVentures, and Scotiabank.

With this list of globally diverse bank investors, Kabbage plans to use the funds to fuel international expansion. It also aims to grow Karrot, its consumer-lending platform, from 10% of its business to 30% by next year. Watch the video of Kabbage’s debut of Karrot at FinovateFall 2014:

Kabbage also announced it has expanded its credit facility to $900 million. According to the company, the list of investors includes a mix of banks and financial groups, but does not include any of the contributors to the equity round.

CEO Rob Frohwein states that the company is on track to generate $100 million in revenues this year.

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InForcePRO Rakes in $4 Million Following Finovate Debut

InForcePRO Rakes in $4 Million Following Finovate Debut
By David Penn Posted on
Categories: Funding, Fundings, InforcePRO

InforcePRO_homepage_Sep2015

In a round led by LiveOak Venture Partners, insurance technology specialist InforcePRO has closed a $4 million venture capital round.

The investment takes InforcePRO’s total capital to more than $5 million. The company says the new funding will help with expansion both in the United States as well as internationally. InforcePro co-founder Cameron Jacox anticipated growth of 400% over the next two years, saying that such growth would enable the company to “help more than 600 million global policyholders.”

InforcePRO_stage_FF2015

InforcePRO co-founder Karan Kanodia demonstrated his technology’s real-time policy analysis at FinovateFall 2015 in New York City.

Fellow co-founder Karan Kanodia said that InforcePRO’s strategy to “put policyholders first” was a “tectonic shift for an industry which was traditionally built on a ‘gotcha’ mindset.” InforcePRO differentiates itself by providing “post-sale software solutions” that give insurance distributors new up-sell and cross-sell opportunities, as well as improving overall customer engagement. The technology makes it easy for insurance professionals to run instant policy reviews, enabling them to identify potential sale or service opportunities on insurance policies that are as many as three decades old.

Venu Shamapant, general partner at Live Oak Venture Partners, included InforcePRO among the companies it has invested in that are “focused on solving long-overlooked problems resulting in disruption of large and established industries.”

“LiveOak’s investment will help InforcePRO capitalize on the global demand for their solutions, and accelerate the company’s pace of product innovation,” said Shamapant.

Founded in November 2013 and headquartered in Austin, Texas, InforcePRO made its Finovate debut at FinovateFall 2015 in New York City. The company has more than 25 employees and its platform monitors more than 2 million life insurance policies.

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