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Fintech Fundings: 17 Companies Raised $580 Million Week Ending July 31

By Jim Bruene Posted on July 31, 2015
Categories: Funding

Another monster week in fintech. Depending on how much Stripe received in its round (at a $5 billion valuation), something north of $600 million flowed to 17 fintech companies worldwide. That closes out the month at just under $2 billion raised ($1.65 billion equity; $250 million debt), more than double the $900 million raised a year ago ($675 million equity; $225 million debt).

About 80% of the money this week ($479 million) flowed to Finovate and FinDEVr alums, our biggest week ever (not including the Lending Club IPO which raised $865 million). To put that in perspective, during all of 2014 our alums raised just over $1 billion (excludes IPOs (Yodlee, OnDeck, and Lending Club). An even more startling number: In July 2014, we had one alum funded to the tune of $27 million. During July 2015, 17 alums raised more than $750 million.

Will fintech funding go higher? It’s hard to look at the year-over-year trend and think that it will get much higher. The bigger question for startups, and their backers, is what happens after “peak fintech?” Is there a gradual decline to a sustainable level of investment, or are we witnessing a bubble, which by definition is the precursor to a bath. Given the enormous size of the financial services industry and the pent-up demand for digital services, as well as infrastructure modernization, we firmly believe in fintech’s sustainability.

Finovate and FinDEVr alums raising money this week:

Kabbage $120 million (of rumored $150 million at $875 million valuation)*
Twilio $130 million (at a rumored $1.1 billion valuation)*
Behalf $119 million
Shopkeep $60 million
Radius $50 million
Expensify $17.5 million

——
* Presenting at our upcoming developer event, FinDEVr 2015

Here are the 17 companies by deal size from 25 July to 31 July:

Kabbage
Alt-lender to small businesses
HQ: Atlanta, Georgia
Latest round: $120 million Series E (of rumored $150 million at $875 million valuation)
Total raised: $585 million ($357 million debt, $228 million equity)
Tags: Lending, credit, underwriting, SMB
Source: Finovate

Twilio
Cloud communications
HQ: San Francisco, California
Latest round: $130 million ($1.1 billion valuation)
Total raised: $234 million
Tags: Messaging, SMS, text messaging, marketing, VoIP, API, developers, FinDEVr presenter 2015
Source: Crunchbase

Behalf
Small-business short-term alt-lender
HQ: New York City, New York
Latest round: $119 million Series B
Total raised: $129 million
Tags: Credit, lending, underwriting, SMB, financing, factoring, receivables financing, Finovate alum
Source: Finovate

Shopkeep
iPad point of sale system
HQ: San Francisco, California
Latest round: $60 million Series D
Total raised: $97.2 million
Tags: Credit, debit cards, merchants, SMB, online, acquiring, POS
Source: Finovate

Radius
Predictive marketing technology
HQ: San Francisco, California
Latest round: $50 million Series D
Total raised: $129 million
Tags: Finovate alum
Source: Finovate

China Rapid Finance
Consumer credit marketplace in China
HQ: Shanghai, China
Latest round: $35 million Series C (at $1 billion valuation)
Total raised: $56 million
Tags: Lending, credit, underwriting, consumer loans
Source: Crunchbase

iwoca
Short-term small-biz financing
HQ: London, United Kingdom
Latest round: $20 million
Total raised: $31.5 million
Tags: Credit, alt-lending, SMB, financing, loans
Source: Crunchbase

Expensify
Expense report management
HQ: San Francisco, California
Latest round: $17.5 million
Total raised: $27.8 million
Tags: Expense reports, SMB, accounting, enterprise, strategic investor
Source: Finovate

Seedrs
Equity crowdfunding marketplace
HQ: London, United Kingdom
Latest round: $15.6 million Series A
Total raised: $22.8 million
Tags: Investing, P2P, SMB, peer-to-peer
Source: Crunchbase

Crowdcube
Debt and equity crowdfunding marketplace
HQ: Exeter, England, United Kingdom
Latest round: $9.4 million
Total raised: $13.1 million
Tags: Lending, investing, SMB, equity, loans
Source: Crunchbase

OneVest
Platform for investing in startups
HQ: New York City, New York
Latest round: $3 million Series A
Total raised: $5.3 million
Tags: Investing, SMB, wealth management
Source: Crunchbase

Cryptocurrency Research Group
Card processing
HQ: San Francisco, California
Latest round: $3 million grant
Total raised: $3 million
Tags: Bitcoin, crypto, blockchain, R&D
Source: Crunchbase

Stockal
Automated stock-trading adviser
HQ: Bangalore, India
Latest round: $160,000
Total raised: $160,000
Tags: Investing, mobile, trading
Source: Crunchbase

Buyatab
Digital giftcard solutions
HQ: Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada
Latest round: Undisclosed
Total raised: Unknown
Tags: eGift cards, SMB, prepaid card, gifting, fee income
Source: FT Partners

realbest
Online real estate platform
HQ: Berlin, Germany
Latest round: Undisclosed
Total raised: Unknown
Tags: Homeowners, mortgage, house buying
Source: FT Partners

Stripe
Online payment processing and management
HQ: San Francisco, California
Latest round: Undisclosed (less than $100 million at $5 billion valuation)
Total raised: $190+ million
Tags: Payments, credit, debit cards, API, merchants, SMB, online, acquiring, Visa (investor), American Express (investor)
Source: Crunchbase

Cognia
Payment processing for telephone-based transactions
HQ: London, England, United Kingdom
Latest round: Undisclosed
Total raised: $4.6+ million
Tags: Payments
Source: FT Partners

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Expensify Tallies Up $17.5 Million in Funding to Support its New Fintech Investment Fund

By Julie Muhn (@julieschicktanz) Posted on July 31, 2015
Categories: Expensify, Funding

Automated expense-report-management platform Expensify closed a $17.5 million round of funding earlier this week from OpenView Venture Partners. The new installment brings the company’s total funding to $27.2 million.

The San Francisco-based startup, which has 16,000 customers, will use the funding to support its newly launched endeavor, Expensify Ventures, a strategic investment fund for early stage fintech startups. According to David Barrett, Expensify CEO:

Every day we meet with entrepreneurs and companies that have awesome ideas when it comes to solving some of the corporate world’s biggest pain-points, and making life easier for both employees and employers … . From receipt-capture to expense management and even booking travel, a ton of companies are out there trying to make these processes easier, and Expensify wants to be involved.

Expensify is positioning itself as a unique type of investor with an empathetic point of view. “Fundraising is pretty much the worst part of a CEO’s job,” the company states on its web page. “We know—we’ve been there. But we’ve made it through the ring of fire (many times) and are now in a position where we’re ready to give back. Let us help.”

As a VC, the company is looking to invest in startups focused on financial technology, mobile OCR, travel services, payments, and anything relevant to business travelers and accountants. One of the first companies to partner with Expensify through Expensify Ventures is Piper, an alternative receipt solution.

Expensify’s most recent Finovate appearance was on stage at FinovateSpring 2013 where it debuted its invoice solution.

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The Next FinTech Unicorn? Rumored $150 Million Heading to Kabbage

By David Penn Posted on July 27, 2015
Categories: Funding, Kabbage

The Atlanta Business Journal blog is reporting that Kabbage is making its way through a $150 million Series E round. The report adds that $120 million of the round has already been raised. Once completed, the company will have total capital of more than $585 million and a valuation of more than $875 million.

Participating in the round were BlueRun Ventures, Santander UK, Thomvest Ventures, and UPS Strategic Enterprise Fund. The round is expected to close within weeks.

The new capital will help Kabbage grow its staff—adding as many as 100 new workers—as well as “double” its office footprint. The fundraising had been more than hinted at by Kabbage CEO Rob Frohwein last month, who said that a raise was “likely.”

Jason Dell, Kabbage’s head of product, demonstrated the Kabbage Card at FinovateSpring 2015 in San Jose.

A small business lending innovator, Kabbage uses data generated by business activity—rather than relying exclusively on credit scores—to provide small businesses with a range of financing options. Kabbage has provided more than $550 million in funding, and says that its loan-application volume is up more than 200% year over year. Approximately 70% of Kabbage borrowers are brick-and-mortar merchants, according to the company.

Earlier this month, Kabbage announced a partnership with Experian that would bring its lending platform to Experian’s institutional clients that had small business and consumer customers. In May, following the company’s demo of its Kabbage Card at FinovateSpring, it teamed up with Sage Payment Solutions to launch a small business loan product.

Kabbage was founded in 2009, and is headquartered in Atlanta, Georgia. The company will be presenting at FinDEVr 2015 in San Francisco, 6/7 October. To save your spot at our upcoming event for fintech developers, register here.

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New Investment for Dealstruck Boosts Lending Capital to More than $100 Million

By David Penn Posted on July 24, 2015
Categories: Dealstruck, Funding

Dealstruck has raised $10 million in new capital from Community Investment Management (CIM). The online business lender now retains total capital of $70 million and says the investment will enable it to lend more than $100 million to small businesses.

Managing partner for CIM, Jacob Haar, praised Dealstruck’s transparency and “compelling financing options” in explaining his firm’s investment in the company. In his statement, Dealstruck CEO Ethan Senturia emphasized the way lenders like Dealstruck have helped small businesses overcome traditional funding challenges, improving overall the “financial landscape for small businesses.”

“The growth in alternative lending has breathed new life into so many small businesses,” Senturia said. “And growing the capital pool means more access and more opportunity.”

Dealstruck CEO and co-founder Ethan Senturia presented Dealstruck’s Line of Credit Borrower Portal at FinovateSpring 2015 in San Jose.

The company also announced that Robert Riedl, former COO of Consumer Portfolio Services, would be joining Dealstruck as head of capital markets. Reidl has more than 25 years’ experience in specialty lending, and began his career as an investment banker at ContiFinancial Services, Jefferies & Company, and PaineWebber.

Dealstruck provides small businesses with up to $500,000 in funding. Funding solutions include traditional business loans; asset- and inventory-backed lines of credit; as well as revenue-based options. The company uses the applying business’s past two years of tax returns, current bank account information, and the FICO scores of the business’s owners in order to make a customized, funding determination in minutes.

Dealstruck’s Series B round comes just a few months after the company’s $8.3 million Series A round in April. Also this spring, Dealstruck was named to AlwaysOn’s first OnFinance Top 100. Founded in June 2012 and headquartered in San Diego, California, Dealstruck demoed its Line of Credit Borrower Portal at FinovateSpring 2015 in May.

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Fintech Fundings: 22 Companies Raise $450 Million Week Ending July 24

By Jim Bruene Posted on July 23, 2015
Categories: Funding

While the week got off to a slow start, the money arrived in buckets the past 48 hours. Counting the $250 million in new debt to alt-small-biz lender LiftForward, the weekly total was $454 million. But the more widely tracked equity total was still a sizable $204 million across 20 companies including three Finovate alums: Apprenda which raised an impressive $24 million; DealStruck with $10 million to fuel its small-biz lending; and Revolut bringing in $2.3 million for its mobile P2P payment service.

The biggest equity round ($50 million) went to Remedy Partners, a Connecticut-based health tech company. While not a pure fintech play, we included it here because its primary customers are the big insurers, including the U.S. government. The second biggest round was also in the insurance arena, as Sweden’s BIMA (aka Milvik) raised $38 million for its micro-insurance products in emerging markets.

Here are the deals from 18 July through 24 July 2015, ranked by size:

Remedy Partners
Bundled care and payment programs for health insurers
HQ: Darien, Connecticut
Latest round: $50 million Series B
Total raised: $86.2 million
Tags: Insurance, health care, payments, accounts receivable, accounting
Source: Crunchbase

BIMA (Milvik)
Mobile insurance provider in emerging markets
HQ: Stockholm, Sweden
Latest round: $38.4 million Series C
Total raised: $60.4 million
Tags: Insurance, mobile, underbanked, pay-as-you-go, microinsurance
Source: Crunchbase

Mswipe
Mobile point-of-sale solution for feature phones
HQ: Mumbai, India
Latest round: $25 million Series C
Total raised: Unknown
Tags: mPOS, acquiring, credit and debit cards, payments, merchants, SMB
Source: Crunchbase

Apprenda
Platform-as-a-service provider
HQ: Troy, New York
Latest round: $24 million
Total raised: $55 million
Tags: Enterprise, development platform, Finovate alum
Source: Finovate

CircleBack Lending
Consumer lending P2P marketplace
HQ: Boca Raton, Florida
Latest round: $17.5 million Series A
Total raised: $22 million
Tags: Lending, credit, consumer, loans, investing, person-to-person
Source: Crunchbase

DealStruck
Marketplace lender for small biz
HQ: Carlsbad, California
Latest round: $10 million Series B
Total raised: $69.5 million ($19.5 million equity; $50 million debt)
Tags: Lending, underwriting, loans, SMB, P2P, peer-to-peer, investing, Finovate alum
Source: Crunchbase

Innovati
Payment-acceptance technology
HQ: Bangalore, India
Latest round: $5 million
Total raised: $6.6 million
Tags: Payments, merchants, POS, point-of-sale, acquiring, SMB
Source: Crunchbase

DataFox
Discover and track companies for investing, sales
HQ: San Francisco, California
Latest round: $5 million
Total raised: $6.8 million
Tags: Investing, sales, business development
Source: Crunchbase

Procurify
Corporate-purchasing management
HQ: Richmond, British Columbia, Canada
Latest round: $4 million
Total raised: $5.2 million
Tags: Purchasing, expense management, expense reports, accounts payable, accounting
Source: Crunchbase

Bitx
Bitcoin wallet and payments
HQ: Singapore
Latest round: $4 million
Total raised: $4.8 million
Tags: Digital wallet, bitcoin, blockchain, mobile, payments, South Africa (market)
Source: FT Partners

Limelight Health
Sales tools for insurance agents
HQ: California City, California
Latest round: $3 million Series A
Total raised: $3 million
Tags: Healthcare, insurance, brokers, sales, quotes
Source: Crunchbase

Mint Payments
Mobile point-of-sale system
HQ: Sydney, Australia
Latest round: $2.9 million
Total raised: Unknown
Tags: mPOS, SMB, payments, cards, acquiring, merchants
Source: FT Partners

Investorist
Investing and selling platform for raw land property
HQ: Melbourne, Australia
Latest round: $2.5 million Seed
Total raised: $2.5 million
Tags: Real estate, investing, off-the-plan property, B2B, SMB, enterprise
Source: Crunchbase

Revolut
P2P mobile payments and remittances
HQ: London, England, United Kingdom
Latest round: $2.3 million Seed
Total raised: $2.8 million
Tags: Payments, fx, remittance, mobile, prepaid debit card, Finovate alum
Source: Finovate

MoneyMover
Remittance provider
HQ: Cambridge, England, United Kingdom
Latest round: $1.6 million
Total raised: Unknown
Tags: Payments, fx, SMB, funds transfer
Source: FT Partners

Fortress Risk Management
Enterprise risk-management services for financial institutions
HQ: South Glastonbury, Connecticut
Latest round: $1 million
Total raised: $5.1 million
Tags: Security, enterprise, business intelligence, compliance, ERM, fraud protection
Source: Crunchbase

Factom
Using the blockchain for managing records
HQ: Austin, Texas
Latest round: $1 million Series A
Total raised: $1.1 million
Tags: Bitcoin, blockchain, cryptocurrency
Source: Crunchbase

Self Lender
Credit-building service
HQ: Austin, Texas
Latest round: $500,000 Seed
Total raised: $2.6 million
Tags: Lending, loans, consumer, credit score, underwriting
Source: Crunchbase

Bankers Toolbox
Risk and compliance management for financial institutions
HQ: North Hollywood, California
Latest round: Undisclosed
Total raised: Unknown
Tags: Compliance
Source: FT Partners

Cermati
Indonesian consumer financial services hub
HQ: Jakarta, Indonesia
Latest round: Undisclosed
Total raised: Unknown
Tags: Consumer, lead generation, advertising, deposits, credit
Source: Crunchbase

——-

Debt only

LiftForward
Alt-lender to small- and mid-sized businesses
HQ: New York City, New York
Latest round: $250 million Debt
Total raised: $261.3 million ($2.3 million equity, $259 million debt)
Tags: Lending, credit, SMB
Source: Crunchbase

Argos Risk
Credit risk management tools for small businesses
HQ: Minneapolis, Minnesota
Latest round: $200,000 Debt
Total raised: $2 million
Tags: SMB, accounts receivables, trade finance, underwriting
Source: Crunchbase

———

Photos licensed from 123RF.com

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Fintech Unicorn List Q2 2015: An Estimated 46 Have Arrived + 38 On Their Tails

By Jim Bruene Posted on July 22, 2015
Categories: Funding

We published our first fintech unicorn list in April 2014 with a mere 11 companies. Just 15 months later, that number is up four-fold to 46. And it’s 11 more than our update two months ago (13 new unicorns less 2 falling out). Time will tell whether these valuation bets are temporary insanity from private investors or the beginning of a long cycle of re-imagining financial services. We’ll get back to you on that.

Please note: Our list includes financial technology companies (either direct services or software) founded since 2000 and valued at $900 million or more. Unlike other lists, we include exits (3 companies); public companies (5); real estate plays (2); and a few Finovate alums (3) that are not pure-play fintech, but do have substantial operations in that vertical. Without those additions, there would be 35 pure-play private fintech unicorns, or 29 if you used a strict $1 billion floor. See more caveats as the end of the post.

In addition to the 46 full-fledged unicorns, we’ve added 37 narwhals or semi-unicorns each with an estimated value of $500 million to $800 million. In total, there are 83 companies with a combined value of $121 billion, about 1/3 the most-valued bank on the planet.

Here is the breakdown by fintech sector:

Sector	Unicorns	Semi-U	Total
Lending	14	10	24
Payments	15	7	22
Real estate	2	5	7
Insurance	4	1	5
Investing	1	4	5
Accounting	3	0	3
Security/Risk	1	2	3
Bitcoin/Block	1	2	3
Credit reports	1	1	2
Digital banking	1	1	2
Other	3	4	7
Total	46	37	83

And the full list (*new arrivals; **previous unicorns):

Company	Sector	Finovate Alum?	Value ($Bil)	Value Source
Lufax	Lending	No	9.6	WSJ June 2015
Zhong An Online*	Insurance	No	8.0	WSJ June 2015
Square	Payments	No	6.0	WSJ June 2015
LendingClub	Lending	Yes	5.6	Public
Zillow	Real estate	No	4.8	Public
Zenefits	Insurance	No	4.5	May 2015 round
CreditKarma	Credit	Yes	3.5	WSJ June 2015
Stripe	Payments	No	3.5	Dec 2014 round
Powa Technologies	Payments	Yes	2.7	Nov 2014 round
Klarna	Payments	Yes	2.5	Mar 2014 round
Xero	Accounting	Yes	2.4	Public
CommonBond	Lending	No	<1.0	Valuation less than $1 bil per company (8/21/15)
One97	Payments	No	2.0	Feb 2015 round
Prosper	Lending	Yes	1.9	Apr 2015 round
Affirm*	Lending	No	1.8	Funderbeam
Biz2Credit	Lending	No	1.7	Funderbeam
Dataminr*	Analytics	Yes	1.6	Funderbeam
Lakala*	Payments	No	1.6	CB Insights
Adyen	Payments	No	1.5	Dec 2014 round
FinancialForce.com	Accounting	No	1.5	Funderbeam
Oscar	Insurance	No	1.5	WSJ June 2015
Wonga*	Lending	Yes	1.5	Funderbeam
Zuora	Payments	No	1.5	Funderbeam
iZettle	Payments	No	1.4	Funderbeam
Housing.com	Real estate	No	1.3	Funderbeam
Qufenqi	Lending	No	1.3	Funderbeam
Revel Systems	Payments	No	1.3	Funderbeam
Social Finance (SoFI)	Lending	No	1.3	Feb 2015 round
Jimubox	Lending	No	1.1	Funderbeam
Q2*	Banking	Yes	1.1	Public
Coupa Software*	Accounting	No	1.0	CB Insights
Fenergo*	Onboarding	Yes	1.0	Funderbeam
FundingCircle	Lending	No	1.0	WSJ June 2015
Kofax	Doc mgmt	Yes	1.0	Acquired (Lexmark)
Mozido	Payments	No	1.0	Finovate est
TransferWise	Payments	Yes	1.0	CB Insights
Trusteer	Security	No	1.0	Acquired (IBM)
Vanco Payments*	Payments	No	1.0	Funderbeam
Avant	Lending	Yes	0.9	Forbes (4/15)
ClimateCorp	Insurance	No	0.9	Acquired (Monsanto)
Coinbase	Bitcoin	Yes	0.9	Funderbeam
Dynamics*	Payments	Yes	0.9	Funderbeam
IEX Group	Investing	No	0.9	Funderbeam
LendingHome*	Lending	No	0.9	Funderbeam
On Deck	Lending	Yes	0.9	Public
RenRenDai Xoom	Lending Payments	No No	0.9 0.9	Funderbeam Acquired (PayPal)
Total Unicorns			98.1
Near Unicorns
21 Inc	Bitcoin	No	0.8	Funderbeam
BankBazaar*	Banking	Yes	0.8	Funderbeam
Betterment	Investing	Yes	0.8	Funderbeam
Braintree	Payments	Yes	0.8	Acquired (PayPal)
LifeLock**	Credit	No	0.8	Public
Rong360	Lending	No	0.8	Funderbeam
Wealthfront	Investing	Yes	0.8	Funderbeam
Accurate Group	Real estate	No	0.7	Funderbeam
App Annie**	Mobile	Yes	0.7	Funderbeam
Auction.com*	Real estate	No	0.7	Funderbeam
Ayadsi	Analytics	Yes	0.7	Funderbeam
Oportun (Progreso Fin)	Lending	Yes	0.7	Finovate est
Taulia	Payments	Yes	0.7	Funderbeam
WorldRemit	Payments	Yes	0.7	Funderbeam
AnJuke	Real estate	No	0.6	Funderbeam
Circle Internet Finance	Bitcoin	No	0.6	Funderbeam
EzBob	Lending	Yes	0.6	Funderbeam
FangDD	Real estate	No	0.6	Funderbeam
Kabbage	Lending	Yes	0.6	Funderbeam
Bill.com	Payments	Yes	0.5	Finovate est
CAN Capital	Lending	Yes	0.5	Finovate est
Cardlytics	Marketing	Yes	0.5	Funderbeam
Credorax	Payments	No	0.5	Funderbeam
Financial Software Systems	Risk Mgmt	No	0.5	Finovate est
FreeCharge	Payments	No	0.5	Finovate est
Kreditech	Lending	Yes	0.5	Finovate est
Motif Investing	Investing	Yes	0.5	Funderbeam
Ping Identity	Security	Yes	0.5	Finovate est
PolicyBazaar	Insurance	Yes	0.5	Funderbeam
Radius	Marketing	Yes	0.5	Finovate est
Receivables Exchange	Lending	Yes	0.5	Finovate est
Snowball Finance	Investing	No	0.5	Funderbeam
Strategic Funding Source	Lending	Yes	0.5	Finovate est
U51	Lending	No	0.5	Finovate est
Wepay	Payments	Yes	0.5	Funderbeam
VivaReal	Real estate	No	0.5	Funderbeam
Zopa Shopkeep	Lending Mobile POS	Yes Yes	0.5 0.5	Finovate est Finovate est
Total Semi-U			23
Grand Total			121

*New companies and/or new unicorns
**Falling from unicorn list (note: Lifelock was a unicorn until yesterday’s stock drop)
Updates:
July 24: Added Xoom to Unicorn list based on acquisition price paid by PayPal
July 28: Added Shopkeep POS to Near Unicorn list based on $60 million Series D funding and total of $97 million raised
Aug 21: CommonBond emailed to say that the Funderbeam valuation ($2.0 billion) is incorrect and they are currently valued at less than $1 billion (but declined to disclose current valuation).

More caveats:

1. For private companies (41 of the 47 unicorns), values are hugely dependent on the terms of the deal (read this), so they are not comparable to public company valuations.
2. About half the unicorn valuations are derived from public statements by the companies or investors during recent rounds or acquisitions. However, half are estimated by analysts/algorithms from tracking firms, especially Funderbeam, an Estonian startup that’s relatively new on the scene. So there is a lot of room for error in these valuations.
3. For the “near-unicorn” list we’ve added a number of companies that recently raised large rounds, but have not made public statements about valuation. We estimated most of those at $500 million, but those are simply educated guesses.
4. We are using a broad definition of fintech including real estate. Also, we’ve included a few Finovate alums that are not pure-play fintech, but that have a significant financial services business.

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Platform-as-a-Service Specialist Apprenda Raises $24 Million

By David Penn Posted on July 21, 2015
Categories: Apprenda, Funding

In a round led by Safeguard Scientifics, enterprise PaaS provider Apprenda raised $24 million. The Series D takes the company’s total funding to $56 million. Also participating in the round were New Enterprise Associates and Ignition Partners.

Apprenda plans to put the new capital to work adding staff to its engineering, product, client services, and sales teams. Up to half of the 50 new employees are expected to be developers. Apprenda currently employs 90 workers in its offices in Troy, New York, and Manhattan.

The company will also use the new resources to “deepen support for WebSphere and other IBM technologies” as well as focus on security-related integrations, in its goal to be the “world’s most compatible PaaS system.”

“We care about not only the net new application(s) that developers are building today,” Apprenda CEO Sinclair Schuller said, “but also the thousands of apps in these companies that are already there. We want to take all existing IP you have and help you run in a cloud-like way.”

Apprenda CEO and co-founder Sinclair Schuller presented his PaaS platform at FinovateFall 2013 in New York.

Apprenda is a development platform that enables building .NET and Java applications inside financial services and banking. As explained by Schuller during his FinovateFall appearance, the technology “stitches together the servers inside a data center into one unified cloud that banks and financial services can use in the context of their own private cloud solutions.” The platform provides a foundational software layer and application run-time environment that allows developers to focus on building new innovations rather than on negotiating and solving IT issues.

Last month, Apprenda announced that it was supported by VMware vCloud Air. The company released version 6 of its platform in April, featuring support for Docker containers, IBM WebSphere Application Server, and authentication protocols.

Apprenda demonstrated its technology at FinovateFall 2013 in New York. The company was founded in June 2005 and is headquartered in Troy, New York.

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Revolut Launches to Public, Announces $2.3 Million in Funding

By Julie Muhn (@julieschicktanz) Posted on July 20, 2015
Categories: Funding, Revolut

Today, Revolut is publicly launching its money-remittance platform and multicurrency card that lets users spend and exchange money at interbank rates in real-time. The London-based company is also announcing $2.3 million of new funding from a Venture Round led by Balderton Capital, with participation from SeedCamp.

This brings the startup’s total funding to $2.8 million.

Revolut’s multicurrency card and mobile-remittance platform eliminate the middlemen to enable users to exchange money in real time, and at a better rate than they would otherwise receive at a traditional bank. The service is aimed at travelers and remittance customers, who transfer money using the free app, SMS, Whatsapp, and social media channels.

The Revolut card is free, and can be used at any location MasterCard is accepted. When swiped, the card automatically converts into the local currency at the best interbank rate.

On top of all this, no ATM fees are associated with the Revolut card. And in case the card is lost or stolen, the mobile app has a remote card-blocking feature that lets users cancel the card.

While the app is available to users across the globe, the card distribution is limited to Europe (though users can make purchases globally).

What’s next? The Revolut card will soon enable customers to pay at a brick-and-mortar shops using bitcoin.

Revolut debuted its multicurrency card and remittance platform at FinovateEurope 2015 in London. Check out its live demo video.

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Fintech Fundings: 21 Companies Raise $300 Million Week Ending July 17

By Jim Bruene Posted on July 17, 2015
Categories: Funding

The Wall Street Journal reported yesterday that venture fundings of $19.2 billion in Q2 were just shy of the peak dot-c0m era (see inset). While the data wasn’t broken out by sector, I’d wager that last quarter’s $5 billion in fintech-startup funding was 5x to 10x more than in 1999/2000. Is there too much being invested? Maybe. But at least in fintech, there are vast opportunities to improve existing processes and open new markets.

Overall, it was another interesting week with Finovate alums prominently represented, accounting for nearly half (46%) of the $295 million invested globally in the fintech sector. Congratulations to Fenergo ($75 million); RealtyMogul ($35 million); Fastacash ($15 million); and Maluazai ($11 million).

In total, 21 companies raised $295.5 million, all in equity (as far as we know).

Here are the fundings from 11 July through 17 July 2015 in order of magnitude:

Fenergo
Regulatory compliance solutions for new account opening
HQ: Dublin, Ireland
Latest round: $75 million
Total raised: $80.4 million
Tags: Onboarding, compliance, KYC, account opening, Finovate alum
Source: Finovate

Ethoca
Merchant-issuer collaboration software
HQ: Toronto, Ontario, Canada
Latest round: $45 million
Total raised: $45 million
Tags: Security, merchant, card acquiring
Source: FT Partners

RealtyMogul
Marketplace lender for real estate projects
HQ: Los Angeles, California
Latest round: $35 million
Total raised: $45.1 million
Tags: Crowdfunding, mortgage, commercial real estate, P2P, person-to-person, lending, consumer, Finovate alum
Source: Finovate

Upstart
Online alt-lender
HQ: Palo Alto, California
Latest round: $35 million
Total raised: $42.7 million
Tags: Lending, near-prime, underwriting, consumer, loans
Source: Crunchbase

AcadiaSoft
Margin-call automation software
HQ:Pembroke, Massachusetts
Latest round: $30 million
Total raised: $34 million
Tags: Investing, credit, lending, margin, securities
Source: Boston Business Journal

Credit Benchmark
Independent source of consensus credit risk
HQ: London, United Kingdom
Latest round: $20 million
Total raised: $27 million
Tags: Underwriting, risk management, compliance, investing, enterprise, B2B
Source: FT Partners

Fastacash
Money and value-transfer platform
HQ: Singapore
Latest round: $15 million
Total raised: $23 million
Tags: Payments, social, mobile
Source: Finovate

Malauzai
Mobile banking platform
HQ: Austin, Texas
Latest round: $11 million
Total raised: $24 million
Tags: Digital banking, mobile
Source: Finovate

FlyPay
Mobile payment system for restaurants
HQ: Islington, England, United Kingdom
Latest round: $10.7 million Series A
Total raised: $12.4 million
Tags: Payments, mobile, mPOS, point of sale, acquiring, cards
Source: Crunchbase

Blender
Israel-based P2P loan platform
HQ: Tel Aviv, Israel
Latest round: $5 million Series A
Total raised: $5 million
Tags: P2P, lending, consumer, loans, underwriting, investing, marketplace lender
Source: Crunchbase More background: Pymnts

Estimize
Open earnings forecasts platform for investors
HQ: New York City, New York
Latest round: $3.6 million
Total raised: $6.2 million
Tags: Investing information, valuations, trading, stocks, crowdsourced, financials
Source: Crunchbase

TradingView
Investment information and research
HQ: Chicago, Illinois
Latest round: $3.6 million
Total raised: $4.3 million
Tags: Investing, research, trading, stock market
Source: Crunchbase

ClassWallet
Money-management solution for the classroom
HQ: Miami, Florida
Latest round: $1.9 million
Total raised: $3.1 million
Tags: Payments, wallet, education
Source: Crunchbase

QuikWallet (LivQuik)
Mobile point-of-sale system
Mumbai, India
Latest round: $1.6 million Seed
Total raised: $2.1 million
Tags: Payments, mobile, mPOS, merchants, acquiring, cards, SMB
Source: FirstPost

ShoCard
Identity verification via the blockchain
Latest round: $1.5 million Seed
Total raised: $1.5 million
Tags: Security, account opening, consumer, ID theft, privacy
Source: TechCrunch

Privitar
Big-data analytics for financial institutions
HQ: London, United Kingdom
Latest round: $1 million
Total raised: $1 million
Tags: Data analytics, business intelligence, BI
Source: FT Partners

Airbitz
Bitcoin wallet
HQ: San Diego, California
Latest round: $450,000
Total raised: $ million
Tags: Bitcoin, virtual currency, blockchain, mobile wallet
Source: FT Partners

GiftStarter
Platform for group gifting and payments
HQ: Seattle, Washington
Latest round: $125,000 Seed
Total raised: $160,000
Tags: Payments
Source: Crunchbase

Enepath
VoIP trading solutions
HQ: Singapore
Latest round: Undisclosed
Total raised: Unknown
Tags: Communications, VoIP
Source: FT Partners

LinQpay (unknown URL)
Digital payments solutions
HQ: Malta
Latest round: Undisclosed Seed ($10 million valuation)
Total raised: Unknown
Tags: Payments, prepaid cards, digital banking, mobile, global payments
Source: Crunchbase

MDX Technology
Market data solutions
HQ: London, United Kingdom
Latest round: Undisclosed
Total raised: Unknown
Tags: Trading, investing, enterprise, information
Source: FT Partners

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Malauzai Raises $11 Million in Venture Funding

By David Penn Posted on July 16, 2015
Categories: Funding, Malauzai Software

Malauzai Software has just filed a form D with the SEC for $11 million in equity financing.

The investors in the venture round of funding were not disclosed. But the new capital takes Malauzai Software’s total to more than $24 million. Austin Business Journal quoted Robb Gaynor, Malauzai Software founder and chief product officer, who said the funding will help support the company’s growth and “market expansion.”

Previous investors in the company include Live Oak Banking Company and Wellington Management, which led the company’s last funding round, a $6.5 million fundraising, in May 2014.

From left: Malauzai Software co-founders, CTO Danny Piangerelli and CPO Robb Gaynor who are joined here by a handful of their partners in demonstrating Malauzai’s Virtual Banking Experience at FinovateSpring 2015 in San Jose.

Malauzai specializes in developing innovative banking apps for community banks and credit unions. The company’s mobile apps and internet products give banks and CUs the ability to offer features such as P2P payments, mobile account registration, remote capture, picture billpay, and more, to their customers wherever they are and on whatever device they choose. This week, Malauzai announced a deployment of its mobile remote capture technology at Citizen’s 1st National Bank in Iowa. And in April and May, Malauzai’s new SmartwearApp for use with the Apple Watch went live with eight credit unions and community banks.

Malauzai demonstrated its Virtual Banking Experience at FinovateSpring 2015 in San Jose. Founded in 2009 and headquartered in Austin, Texas, Malauzai has more than 350 bank and credit union customers. Tom Shen is CEO.

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Realty Mogul Builds $35 Million in New Funding

By Julie Muhn (@julieschicktanz) Posted on July 15, 2015
Categories: Funding, Realty Mogul

Realty Mogul, a platform for crowdfunding real estate transactions, pulled in $35 million in funding early this week. This Series B installment is the company’s fifth round of funding since it was founded in 2012, bringing the total to $45.1 million.

Canaan Partners, the leader of Realty Mogul’s Series A round, participated in this year’s round, which was led by existing investor, Sorenson Capital.

For buyers, Realty Mogul offers debt financing of up to $1.5 million for residential properties and $25 million for commercial properties. It also has a commercial property equity option for up to $5 million. Additionally, the platform caters to both accredited retail investors and institutional investors.

Since launch, the California-based company’s platform has been used to furnish $80 million in funding for 250+ properties worth a total of $500 million. In the past year, Realty Mogul has added 70 employees and plans to hire more. In fact, the company will use the new funding to bolster its technology and data team to better analyze deals and risk.

Realty Mogul debuted its crowdfunding tool for real estate at FinovateSpring 2014 in San Jose. Check out the live demo video below.

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Fenergo Raises $75 Million from Insight Venture Partners

By David Penn Posted on July 15, 2015
Categories: Fenergo, Funding

A $75 million investment from Insight Venture Partners will help fuel international expansion for Irish client onboarding lifecycle management specialist, Fenergo.

The funding is expected to close within weeks, and will take the company’s total funding to more than $80 million. In addition to helping Fenergo enter new markets around the world, the investment will support development of a partner ecosystem including Fenergo University and Consulting Accreditation Program.

Marc Murphy, Fenergo CEO, pointed to the company’s growth in recent years as evidence that Fenergo “can deliver the solutions that financial institutions need” with regard to regulatory onboarding and client lifecycle management. “We are thrilled to have a firm like Insight Venture Partners join our team,” he said. For its part, Insight underscored Fenergo’s brand and product strength, as well as the management team, in explaining the reasons behind his firm’s investment. The hope is that continued investment, innovation, and growth will help Fenergo’s technology become the industry standard in its field.

From left: Fenergo’s Niall Twomey, CTO, and Marc Murphy, CEO, demonstrated Deal Manager at FinovateEurope 2012.

Fenergo is a leading provider of client lifestyle management solutions for investment banks, private banks, and capital markets firms. The company’s technology helps institutions manage key processes, ranging from onboarding to mangement of client and counterparty data. Fenergo also makes it easier for institutions to remain compliant with both existing and emerging regulations. With clients including Scotiabank, Sun Trust, and Royal Bank of Canada, Fenergo has reported year-over-year growth of more than 100% for the past three years in a row.

Founded in 2009 and based in Dublin, Fenergo made its Finovate debut at FinovateEurope 2012 in London. The company demonstrated its Deal Manager platform.

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—— * Presenting at our upcoming developer event, FinDEVr 2015

Jason Dell, Kabbage’s head of product, demonstrated the Kabbage Card at FinovateSpring 2015 in San Jose.

Dealstruck CEO and co-founder Ethan Senturia presented Dealstruck’s Line of Credit Borrower Portal at FinovateSpring 2015 in San Jose.

——-

Debt only

Photos licensed from 123RF.com

Near Unicorns

Apprenda CEO and co-founder Sinclair Schuller presented his PaaS platform at FinovateFall 2013 in New York.

From left: Malauzai Software co-founders, CTO Danny Piangerelli and CPO Robb Gaynor who are joined here by a handful of their partners in demonstrating Malauzai’s Virtual Banking Experience at FinovateSpring 2015 in San Jose.

From left: Fenergo’s Niall Twomey, CTO, and Marc Murphy, CEO, demonstrated Deal Manager at FinovateEurope 2012.

——
* Presenting at our upcoming developer event, FinDEVr 2015