Funding

CBANC Network Garners $4 Million in Series B Funding

CBANC Network Garners $4 Million in Series B Funding
By Julie Muhn (@julieschicktanz) Posted on
Categories: cbanc Network, Funding

CBANCNetworkHomepage

CBANC, a collaborative network for bank and credit union professionals, raised $4 million earlier this week. The Series B round was led by CBANC founder Hank Seale. Other investors include Texas Independent Bancshares, Mike Maples, and Adams Street Partners. When added to its previous round of $1.7 million, this brings the company’s total funding to $5.7 million.

CBANC launched its network as a platform where financial industry professionals can ask, answer, and share industry-related intelligence, specifically regarding regulation and new technology. It counts 7,000 financial institutions as members, which represent 85% of community banks and 33% of credit unions across the United States.

The company plans to use the funds to increase membership, add features and expand its base of 22 employees.  “We’re very well engaged on the compliance side of things,” CBANC CEO Bryan Koontz tells the Austin-American Statesman, “Now we want to bring the vendor community into the network, and we plan to invest in new features and new ways for the vendors to interact.”

CBANC demoed its professional network at FinovateFall 2011 in New York.

 

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BankersLab Closes on Undisclosed Amount in Angel Funding Round

BankersLab Closes on Undisclosed Amount in Angel Funding Round
By Julie Muhn (@julieschicktanz) Posted on
Categories: BankersLab, Funding

BankersLabHomepage

BankersLab, the company that refers to its training products as Flight Simulators for Bankers, announced today it closed a round of angel funding. The company has previously relied on its bootstrapped funds.

The amount of funding is undisclosed, but the San Francisco-based company hinted of its investor base, which includes financial and tech sector executives from the U.S., Germany and Singapore.

The San Francisco-based company plans to use the funding to accelerate development of PortfolioQuest, an SaaS-based simulation training product it will demo live at FinovateEurope 2016 in London.

BankersLab was founded in 2011. It has since offered training in acquisition, underwriting, collections, and account management to retail banking and fintech industry participants across 35 countries. The PortfolioQuest game, a spinoff of its original game series, enhances portfolio management skills by offering a single-player simulation game that allows participants to measure their performance against their colleagues and the fintech community at large.

BankersLab last demoed ScoringLab at FinovateAsia 2012.

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Rippleshot Raises $1.2 Million in Round Led by KGC Capital

Rippleshot Raises $1.2 Million in Round Led by KGC Capital
By David Penn Posted on
Categories: Funding, Fundings, Rippleshot

Rippleshot_homepage_Dec2015

Chicago-area cybersecurity specialist Rippleshot has raised $1.2 million in new funding. The investment round was led by KGC Capital and featured participation from UMB Bank; Wintrust; and SixThirty, the fintech accelerator based out of St. Louis.

Rippleshot says the new financing will help grow its team from eight to more than 30 in 2016. Developers, account managers, and sales staff are among the kinds of talent the company is looking for.

Rippleshot_stage_FF2014

Rippleshot Chief Scientist Randal Cox, co-founder, demonstrated the Rippleshot platform at FinovateFall 2014.

The company also announced that the co-founder of PerkStreet Financial, Jason Henrichs, will be joining the Rippleshot board of directors. Henrichs was also an early investor in anti-fraud analytics firm, Memento.

Rippleshot leverages big-data analytics and machine learning to detect and track down bankcard data-breaches. The company’s cloud-based technology focuses on the merchant side rather than the customer side, analyzing millions of daily credit card transactions for suspicious patterns. This approach provides a granular level of detail, enabling investigators to zero in on the specific stores, specific days, and even the specific POS terminals from which data has been stolen.

Founded in June 2013 and headquartered in Chicago, Rippleshot demonstrated its platform at FinovateFall 2014. In November 2015, Rippleshot joined the fall cohort of the SixThirty accelerator program; in August, was a finalist in the BBVA Open Talent Competition; and this spring, earned a finalist spot in the MRC METAwards along with fellow Finovate alum, BioCatch. Canh Tran is CEO.

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Fintech Fundings: $110 Million Raised by 13 Companies Week Ending 4 Dec 2015

Fintech Fundings: $110 Million Raised by 13 Companies Week Ending 4 Dec 2015
By Jim Bruene Posted on
Categories: Funding

dollar_money_signAs we head into the final four weeks of 2015, private investment into the fintech sector is just under $18 billion for the year—or $24 billion including the First Data, Worldpay and Square IPOs.

Two Finovate alums were among the 13 companies raising money this week:

In total, the 13 companies pulled in $112.7 million, all equity.

Here are the deals by size from 28 Nov through 4 Dec 2015:

Tyro Payments
Point-of-sale payment processor
Latest round: $72 million
Total raised: $104 million
HQ: Sydney, Australia
Tags: Merchants, SMB, acquiring, mobile, POS, mPOS, credit/debit cards
Source: Crunchbase

Progressa
Short-term online consumer loans
Latest round: $11.4 million Series A
Total raised: $11.4 million
HQ: Vancouver, Canada
Tags: Consumer, lending, payday, underwriting, loans
Source: Crunchbase

Clearpool Group
Electronic trading software
Latest round: $8 million
Total raised: $8 million
HQ: New York City, New York
Tags: Enterprise, investing, trading
Source: FT Partners

Mirador Financial
Small business lending technology
Latest round: $7 million Series A
Total raised: $9.7 million
HQ: Portland, Oregon
Tags: Enterprise, SMB, lending, underwriting, loans
Source: Crunchbase

ThetaRay
Threat detection solutions for financial institutions
Latest round: $5 million Series C
Total raised: $15 million
HQ: Jerusalem, Israel
Tags: Enterprise, big data, security, Alibaba (investor), Finovate alum
Source: Crunchbase

Bee
Mobile bank/card
Latest round: $4.6 million
Total raised: $4.6 million
HQ: New York City, New York
Tags: Consumer, prepaid debit card, neo-bank, challenger bank, mobile
Source: Crunchbase

Social Change Rewards
Rewards platform emphasizing personal wellness
Latest round: $2 million
Total raised: $2 million
HQ: Toronto, Canada
Tags: Consumer, rewards, gamification, cards, health care
Source: Crunchbase

Onovative
Marketing automation and analytics for financial institutions
Latest round: $1.0 million Series A ($3 million valuation)
Total raised: $1.6 million
HQ: Louisville, Kentucky
Tags: Consumer, marketing, analytics, Finovate alum
Source: Finovate

ETNetwork
Digital receipts platform
Latest round: $1.2 million
Total raised: $1.2 million
HQ: Stockholm, Sweden
Tags: Enterprise, merchants, SMB, PFM, transactions, debit/credit cards
Source: Crunchbase

ExpenseBot
Platform
Latest round: $150,000
Total raised: $325,000
HQ: North Ridgeville, Ohio
Tags: Consumer
Source: WhoGotFunded

Zize (formerly Tete)
Blockchain-based bitcoin analytics
Latest round: $100,000 Angel
Total raised: $100,000
HQ: Genova, Italy
Tags: Enterprise, cryptocurrency, big data, analytics, blockchain
Source: Crunchbase

iQapla
Automated trading tools
Latest round: Undisclosed Seed
Total raised: Unknown
HQ: Madrid, Spain
Tags: Consumer, trading, investing, stock market
Source: Crunchbase

OmegaFI
College fraternity and sorority financial management platform
Latest round: Undisclosed
Total raised: Unknown
HQ: Columbus, Georgia
Tags: Nonprofit, accounting, bookkeeping, billpay, invoicing
Source: FT Partners

 

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Q2 Acquires Social Money in $10 Million Deal

Q2 Acquires Social Money in $10 Million Deal
By David Penn Posted on
Categories: Funding, Fundings, Q2, Q2ebanking, Social Money

Q2_homepage_SocialMoney_Dec2015

Q2 Holdings just got social.

The virtual banking solution provider today announced it will acquire fellow Finvoate alum Social Money for $10.6 million. Q2’s President and CEO Matt Flake said the “strategic” acquisition will help its customers “expand their reach, grow market share, and engage account holders.”

Formerly known as Smarty Pig, Social Money helps financial services companies better engage their customers by offering them savings solutions such as GoalSaver, a customized, goal-directed and bank-audited saving system. Founded in 2007 and headquartered in West Des Moines, Iowa, Social Money is geared toward millennials and gen-Y consumers, a point underscored by Flake. “The digital banking experience matters when it comes to reaching millennials and retaining existing account holders,” he said, adding that Q2 is committed to serving the “increasingly digital modern consumer.”

SocialMoney_stage_FS2012b
Social Money CEO Scott McCormack demonstrated GoalSaver at FinovateSpring 2012.

The Social Money acquisition is the second for Q2 in 2015. In July, Q2 Holdings acquired anti-fraud, risk-management specialist Centrix Solutions for $20 million. Q2 is still studying how it will integrate Social Money’s portfolio into its offerings, saying it plans to provide a “rebranded suite of Social Money technologies” in 2016. For its part, Social Money sees the acquisition as an opportunity to continue helping community banks and credit unions “establish direct-to-digital capabilities in the future,” according to CTO Adam Anderson.

Q2’s solutions are used in more than 275 community banks and credit unions. At their Finovate debut, FinovateSpring 2011, Q2 demoed its risk and fraud analytics technology. Headquartered in Austin, Texas, Q2 Holdings was founded in 2005.

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Fintech Fundings: 12 Companies Raised $150 Million Week Ending 29 Nov 2015

By Jim Bruene Posted on
Categories: Funding

money_tree_newIt was a quiet week over the U.S. Thanksgiving holiday, but it still surpassed the $100-million mark, thanks entirely to U.K.-based Atom Bank’s $128 million raise. BBVA was lead investor, contributing $68 million for a 30% stake in the not-yet-launched mobile bank.

In total, 12 fintech companies raised $152 million, although 5 of the 12 did not release the amount raised. Finovate alum Lighter Capital had the second-biggest round this week, raising $9 million in equity and announcing a loan-funding commitment of $100 million, a sum not included in fundraising totals.

So far this year, venture funding in the fintech sector has totaled $17.8 billion, or about $24 billion including WorldPay, First Data and Square IPOs.

Here are the deals by size from 21 Nov through 27 Nov 2015:

Atom Bank
Digital bank
Latest round: $128 million; $230 million valuation
Total raised: $128 million
HQ: Durham, England, United Kingdom
Tags: Consumer, bank, BBVA (lead investor), mobile, challenger
Source: Crunchbase

Lighter Capital
Alt-lender focused on startups
Latest round: $9 million
Total raised: $15 million
HQ: Seattle, Washington
Tags: SMB, underwriting, revenue-based financing, commercial lending, loans, credit
Source: Finovate

Growth Street
Alt-lender for small businesses
Latest round: $7.6 million
Total raised: $7.6 million
HQ: London, England, United Kingdom
Tags: SMB, lending, short-term financing, commercial lending, underwriting
Source: Crunchbase

Anywhere to Go Co
Insurance claims platform (Claim Di)
Latest round: $2 million
Total raised: $2 million
HQ: Bangkok, Thailand
Tags: Enterprise, B2B2C, insurance, mobile
Source: Crunchbase

Lenda (formerly GoRefi)
Mortgage lending platform
Latest round: $2 million Seed
Total raised: $4 million
HQ: San Francisco, California
Tags: Consumer, mortgage, home buying, refinance, lead gen, price discovery
Source: Crunchbase

Early Salary
Alt-lending platform
Latest round: $1.5 million Seed
Total raised: $1.5 million
HQ: Pune, India
Tags: Consumer, lending, underwriting, young adults, credit scoring
Source: Crunchbase

NextBank Project
Bitcoin-based bank
Latest round: $1.4 million; $35 million valuation
Total raised: $2.1 million
HQ: Port-valais, Vanuatu
Tags: Bitcoin, banking, payments, consumer, SMB, cryptocurrency
Source: Crunchbase

Akredo
Lending portal
Latest round: $635,000
Total raised: $820,000
HQ: Warsaw, Poland
Tags: Consumer, lending, lead gen, price comparison
Source: Crunchbase

DealMarket
Deal management platform
Latest round: Undisclosed
Total raised: Unknown
HQ: Zurich, Switzerland
Tags: SMB, equity, investing
Source: FT Partners

Homie
Peer-to-peer real estate platform
Latest round: Undisclosed
Total raised: Unknown
HQ: Salt Lake City, Utah
Tags: Consumer, home buying, discovery, mortgage
Source: Crunchbase

Kount Money
Marketplace lender
Latest round: Undisclosed
Total raised: Unknown
HQ: Bengaluru, India
Tags: Consumer, credit, person-to-person, lending, P2P, peer-to-peer, investing
Source: Crunchbase

Point
Home-equity exchange
Latest round: Undisclosed
Total raised: Unknown
HQ: Palo Alto, California
Tags: Consumer, home equity, mortgage, lending, credit, investing
Source: Techcrunch

Savedo
Savings and timed-deposit portal
Latest round: Undisclosed
Total raised: Unknown
HQ: Berlin, Germany
Tags: Consumer, savings accounts, certificates of deposit, banking
Source: Crunchbase

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Lighter Capital Closes $9 Million Series B Funding Round, Raises $100 Million to Lend to Tech Startups

Lighter Capital Closes $9 Million Series B Funding Round, Raises $100 Million to Lend to Tech Startups
By Julie Muhn (@julieschicktanz) Posted on
Categories: Funding, Lighter Capital

Lightercaphomepage

Lighter Capital made a two-fold funding announcement last week. First, the Seattle-based company closed $9 million in Series B funding. Investors include:

  • Voyager Capital
  • Summit Capital
  • Individual investors, including Lighter Capital’s Chairman, Jeff Seely

Lighter Capital plans to use the funds to advance its platform and double its 23-person team. Today’s $9 million installment, combined with the company’s $6 million Series A round, brings its total funding to $15 million.

In addition to this, Lighter Capital raised $100 million to furnish 500 tech startups with capital. The funds, which come from Community Investment Management, will help Lighter Capital increase its investment cap from $1 million to $2 million.

Lighter Capital was founded in 2010. This year, it has increased investment funding to an average of six businesses per month. In total, the company has provided funds to 75 small businesses, including Finovate alum, Cloud Lending.

BJ Lackland is CEO of Lighter Capital, which debuted its Revenue Loan at FinovateSpring 2011 and last demoed at FinovateFall 2013.

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More than $1 Billion Raised by Alums in Q3 2015

More than $1 Billion Raised by Alums in Q3 2015
By David Penn Posted on
Categories: Funding, Fundings, Quarterly Funding

sackofmoneyFinovate alums raised about $1.1 billion in the third quarter of 2015.

The fundraising in Q3 of this year is more than 5x last year’s Q3 tally of $194 million, and 6x the 2013 total of $171 million. The number of deals was up as well: 40 last quarter compared to 17 in Q3 a year ago, and 23 in Q3 2013.

There were also four acquisitions:

Top 1o Fundings in Q3:

  • Twilio: $130 million
  • Kabbage: $120 million
  • Behalf: $119 million
  • Kreditech: $92 million
  • Fenergo: $75 million
  • ShopKeep: $60 million
  • BankBazaar: $60 million
  • Radius: $50 million
  • Payoneer: $50 million
  • RealtyMogul: $35 million

Total: $1.07 billion raised by 40 alums

July: $748 million raised by 16 alums

August: $153 million raised by 12 alums

September: $173 million raised by 12 alums

If you are an alum that raised money in the third quarter of 2015, and do not see your company listed, please drop us a note at [email protected]. We are eager to share your good news! Funding received prior to becoming a Finovate alumnus is not included in our research.

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Nous Closes In On £350,000 Fundraising Goal [Update: Nous Exceeds Original Goal, Raises $750,000]

Nous Closes In On £350,000 Fundraising Goal [Update: Nous Exceeds Original Goal, Raises $750,000]
By Julie Muhn (@julieschicktanz) Posted on
Categories: Funding, Nous.net

NousScreenshot

[Update] Nous has closed the round, exceeding expectations by raising $750,000 from angels and crowdfunding. This is $223,000 more than its original goal of $527,000.

Nous, a startup that builds products for global financial market enthusiasts, announced last week it has raised 88% of its £350,000 ($527,000) goal in its second external round of funding. The London-based company is currently raising funds on SyndicateRoom, a professional angel-crowdfunding site.

The campaign has two weeks remaining. Nous anticipates it will achieve and possibly exceed its goal amount to reach its overfunding limit.

Nous plans to use the funds to launch an ultra-low-risk trading app to serve a demographic overlooked by current financial products.

The founders of Nous bootstrapped the company with $500,000, and raised $605,000 in funding last year.

At FinovateEurope 2014, Nous launched SparkProfit, a financial data service and gamified market-prediction platform that combines human predictions and quantitative finance to better anticipate future market outcomes.

NousPresenting

From left: CEO Justin Short, founder, and Mick Horgan, co-founder, presented the Nous product for global financial markets at FinovateFall 2014.

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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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