While this week’s total of $160 million ($124 mil equity; $36 mil debt) won’t make headlines, the 14 companies raising money included a number of interesting plays. The biggest amount by far was the $64 million in equity plus $36 million in debt, invested in personal finance portal NerdWallet. And with a little less runway, Istanbul-baseed TravelersBox picked up $500,000 for its system to turn excess foreign currency and coins into gift cards.
Two FinovateSpring 2015 presenters landed big rounds:
- Credit Sesame raised $16 million to expand its debt-management and credit-tracking platform
- Vouch landed $6 million to help put the “first P” back in P2P lending
In total, 14 companies raised $160 million (not counting the undisclosed amount Square raked in to fund more alt-lending to its SMB customers). Here are the deals from 9 May to 15 May by size:
NerdWallet
Personal financial information
HQ: San Francisco, California
Latest round: $100 million Series A ($64 million equity; $36 million credit line)
Total raised: $100 million
Tags: Personal finance, advice, financial education, lead generation, Silicon Valley Bank (lender)
Source: TechCrunch
Credit Sesame
Consumer credit management
HQ: Mountain View, California
Latest round: $16 million
Total raised: $35.4 million
Tags: Finovate alum
Source: Crunchbase
Wave
Online accounting and invoicing
HQ: Toronto, Ontario, Canada
Latest round: $10 million Series C
Total raised: $28.5 million
Tags: Accounting, bookkeeping, accounts payable, accounts receivables, SMB
Source: FT Partners
Exchange Corporation
Online lending (Paidy)
HQ: Tokyo, Japan
Latest round: $8.3 million
Total raised: $11.6 million
Tags: Consumer lending, marketplace, underwriting, risk management
Source: FT Partners
Credifi
Data analytics for commercial real estate
HQ: New York City, New York
Latest round: $8 million Series A
Total raised: $8 million
Tags: Real estate, commercial mortgage lending, big data, investing, risk management
Source: Crunchbase
Vouch
Lending social network
HQ: San Francisco, California
Latest round: $6 million Series A
Total raised: $9 million
Tags: Lending, consumer loans, underwriting, social, P2P, peer-to-peer, Finovate alum
Source: Crunchbase
Vested Finance
Next-gen student financing
HQ: Austin, Texas
Latest round: $5 million
Total raised: $5 million
Tags: Student loans, lending, underwriting, youth market
Source: Crunchbase
Trusted Insight
Institutional investor network
HQ: Middletown, New Jersey
Latest round: $2.5 million Series A
Total raised: million
Tags: Investing, social, institutional investors
Source: FT Partners
Wallflower
Insurance company-backed, internet-of-things company
HQ: Charlestown, Massachusetts
Latest round: $1.5 million
Total raised: $2.8 million (includes $300,000 debt)
Tags: Insurance, iOT, safety, American Family Insurance (partner)
Source: Crunchbase
ShareIn
Equity crowdfunding platform
HQ: Edinburgh, Scotland, United Kingdom
Latest round: $1 million Seed
Total raised: $1 million
Tags: P2P, investing, SMB, peer-to-peer
Source: Crunchbase
Droplet
Mobile payments & rewards
HQ: Birmingham, England, United Kingdom
Latest round: $890,000
Total raised: $2.4 million
Tags: Payments, rewards, mobile, CrowdCube (investment marketplace used to raise round)
Source: Crunchbase
TravelersBox
Solution for collecting left over foreign currency
HQ: Istanbul, Turkey
Latest round: $500,000
Total raised: million
Tags: Cash, currency, gift cards, rewards
Source: FT Partners
Satoshi Citadel Industries
Building bitcoin ecosystem for the Philippines
HQ: Manila, Philippines
Latest round: $100,000 Seed
Total raised: $100,000
Tags: Bitcoin, cryptocurrency
Source: Crunchbase
Square
SMB payments and financing
HQ: San Francisco, California
Latest round: Unknown “non-dilutive” commitment to Square Capital
Total raised: $591 million
Tags: Payments, mobile, acquiring, SMB
Source: VentureWire
Update: An update of this post 
It’s another unicorn week in fintech, although “only” $750 million of the nearly $1 billion in new funding was equity. Affirm’s $275 million round was rumored to include about $200 million in debt to fund its alt-lending efforts.
While it wasn’t a 
The alternative lending sector, especially in China, is soaking up funds at an unprecedented pace. This week alone, more than $750 million went to startup lenders, 80% earmarked to China (Lufax $485 million and Jimubox $84 million), while Funding Circle (London, $150 million), EZBob (London, $45 million), Smava (Germany, $16 million), and Assetz (London, $4.5 million) rounded out the sector’s inflow.
U.K.-based 
Once again alt-lending dominated the dollar volumes flowing into fintech accounting for close to a half-billion this week. The majority ($400 million) went to Chicago-based Avant. We should note that with all the money flowing to alternative lending, it’s getting a bit harder to classify the funding between a lending pledge, straight debt, traditional equity or a hybrid.
