Funding

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.

CardWise_Xpenditure_stage_FEU2014

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.

Blooom_stage_FF2014

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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MX Lands $4 Million from CheckFree Founder Pete Kight

MX Lands $4 Million from CheckFree Founder Pete Kight
By Julie Muhn (@julieschicktanz) Posted on
Categories: Funding, MX

MXhomepage

Just days away from its presentation at the FinDEVr developer conference next week, MX received a $4 million investment from CheckFree founder, Pete Kight.PeteKightIMG

Following this investment, Kight (pictured right) will join MX’s board of directors and will serve as an adviser to the company’s CEO, Ryan Caldwell.

Today’s investment brings the Utah-based company’s total raised to $54 million. In April of this year, USAA led MX’s most recent round, totaling $30 million. Prior to that, in November of 2014, it pulled in $20 million in seed funding.

MX, formerly known as MoneyDesktop, offers data aggregation, data cleansing, auto-categorization, classification, money management, custom APIs, data analytics, and marketing to help more than 550 financial institutions serve up a better user experience.

MX is one of 64 companies that will present its latest tools and APIs to a crowd of developers at FinDEVr in San Francisco next week. Brandon Dewitt, CTO of MX, will lead a presentation titled, How You Build Something Is More Important Than What You’re Building. Tickets for FinDEVr are available through early next week.

The company, founded in 2010, last demoed at FinovateFall 2014 in New York. Check out the video below.

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Ellevest Pulls in $10 Million from Morningstar

Ellevest Pulls in $10 Million from Morningstar
By Julie Muhn (@julieschicktanz) Posted on
Categories: Ellevest, Funding

EllevestHomepage

Ellevest, a digital investment platform for women—co-founded by Finovate alum Charlie Kroll—raised $10 million this week in a Series A round led by Morningstar.

Other investors in the New York-based startup include:

  • Ajay Banga, president and CEO of Mastercard
  • Robert Druskin, executive chairman of the DTCC, former COO of Citigroup, and former chairman of E*Trade
  • Mohamed El-Erian, chief economic adviser at Allianz and the former CEO of PIMCO
  • Karen Finerman, co-founder of Metropolitan Capital Advisers and panelist on CNBC’s Fast Money
  • Brian Finn, former chairman and CEO of Asset Management Finance Corp. and former president of Credit Suisse First Boston
  • Andrea Jung, CEO of Grameen America and former CEO of Avon
  • Jeff Schwarz, co-founder of Metropolitan Capital Advisors
  • Contour Venture Partners

Ellevest is focused on helping women bridge the investment gap, and seeks to transform investing into a women-specific experience.

The Ellevest investment platform, slated to launch in early 2016, was founded by Sallie Krawcheck (CEO) and Charlie Kroll (COO). Kroll is former CEO of Andera, which debuted its FortiFI solution at FinovateFall 2011. In October of 2011, Andera purchased oFlows, which demoed oFlows for Everyone at FinovateFall 2011. In May 2014, Andera was acquired by Bottomline Technologies.

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Kreditech Raises €82 Million in Series C Investment Led by J.C. Flowers

Kreditech Raises €82 Million in Series C Investment Led by J.C. Flowers
By David Penn Posted on
Categories: Funding, Fundings, Kreditech

Kreditech_homepage_Sep2015

German consumer-finance technology company Kreditech today announced that it has raised €82.5 million in a Series C round led by J.C. Flowers—and more funding could be on the way. The investment includes a bridge loan from Peter Thiel and Amadeus Capital Partners (Amadeus) from earlier this year that has been converted into equity, as well as word that Kreditech hopes the round ultimately will raise more than €100 million.

Also participating in the round were existing investors Värde Partners, HPE Growth Capital, and Blumberg Capital.

The more than €80 million raised so far boosts the company’s total funding to more than €300 million in debt and equity. Kreditech CFO Rene Griemens noted that more than half of the company’s total funding are unused debt facilities—a revolving credit arrangement—that can be loaned out to help fuel growth.

Kreditech_stage_FF2014

Kreditech CEO and co-founder Sebastian Diemer demonstrated Kredito24 at FinovateSpring 2014 in New York.

Loren Felsman, managing director at J.C. Flowers who will be joining the Kreditech board as part of the investment, praised the company’s “sophisticated approach to real-time consumer banking,” especially as it relates to the underbanked. “Most lenders, including those built on modern technology, may not crack these markets for years,” Felsman said.

Kreditech leverages big data to create better credit-scoring technology for consumer-borrowers with poor or no credit histories. Kreditech focuses on the current financial health of the borrower, analyzing more than 20,000 data-points to establish potential creditworthiness.

These data-points encompass a wide range of information typically overlooked when analyzing a borrower’s likelihood of repaying debt, and include everything from a borrower’s Facebook friends to semantic analysis, i.e., the writing tone in email messages or social media posts. The goal, as Deimer explained from the stage last year at FinovateFall 2014, was both a more accurate credit rating, better pricing and more personalized lending options for the borrower.

Kreditech has deployed its technology with subsidiaries operating in nine markets: Germany, Poland, Spain, Peru, Mexico, Australia, the Dominican Republic, the Russian Federation, and the Czech Republic. “These are markets with very low or no credit-bureau infrastructure at all,” Deimer pointed out. This was key to both maximizing margins and keeping customer-acquisition costs low.” The company is also “ramping up” operations in Brazil and Romania.

Deimer was named to the Hot Topic 100 list of the most influential people in fintech in August. In May, Inc.com added Kreditech to its roster of the “22 Financial Technology Startups You Need to Know.” This spring, Kreditech announced the hiring of Oliver Prill as its new COO. Prill was previously the CEO of a boutique small-business and consumer-debt-reconciliation firm, Optanus, and before that was the founder and CEO of C&A Bank in Germany.

Founded in 2012 and headquartered in Hamburg, Germany, Kreditech demoed its technology at FinovateSpring 2014 in New York.

 

 

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