Funding

Advanced Merchant Payments Brings in $5 Million in First Funding Round

By Julie Muhn (@julieschicktanz) Posted on
Categories: Advanced Merchant Payments, Funding

AMPLogo.jpg

Yesterday, as we began looking forward to FinovateEurope, we heard news from a 2014 alum, Advanced Merchant Payments (AMP).

AMP, a company that provides banks with alternative lending options for small-and-medium (SMB) businesses, pulled in a fresh $5 million this week. The funding, a first for the Hong Kong-based company, comes from SBT Venture Capital.

AMP operates in Hong Kong, Singapore, and the Philippines, and has recently expanded into the UK, participating in London’s Level39 fintech accelerator. It plans to use the funding to further internationalize and scale the business.

AMPHomepage.jpg

Founded in 2009, AMP helps financial institutions offer financing to small business customers by managing some or all stages of the loan process, including:

    • Qualification
    • Verification
    • Credit scoring
    • Approval
    • Disbursement
    • Daily repayment
    • Risk monitoring

AMP debuted its small business lending solution for banks at FinovateEurope 2014.

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Fintech Fundings: 16 Companies Raise $82 Million Week Ending Nov 21

By Jim Bruene Posted on
Categories: Funding

Thumbnail image for fintechfunding_license.jpg

With no blockbuster fundings ($25 mil+), the weekly total of $82 million was the fourth-lowest since we began tracking August 1. However, the overall number of companies was 16, making it a busy week. 
And we were glad to see one Finovate alum, Advance Merchant Payments ($5 mil) on the list. In addition, there was a future Finovate alum, Buttercoin. The hot cryptocurrency startup will be demoing at FinovateEurope in February. 

Here are the deals in order of size from Nov. 15 to Nov 21: 

Value exchange technology
Latest round: $21 million
Total raised: $21 million
Tags: Bitcoin, cryptocurrency, blockchain, payments, Montreal, Canada
Source: Crunchbase
Merchant advances in the digital media industry
Latest round: $15 million
Total raised: $50 million
Tags: Lending, merchant, credit, underwriting, Beverly Hills, California
Source: Crunchbase
Zibby, integrated lease-to-own financing for online purchases
Latest round: $10 million (includes some debt)
Total raised: $10 million (includes some debt)
Tags: Lending, ecommerce, shopping, credit, New York City
Source: FT Partners
Digital currency technology
Latest round: $7.2 million
Total raised: $7.2 million
Tags: Bitcoin, payments, cryptocurrency, remittances, San Francisco, California
Source: Crunchbase
Home search platform
Latest round: $6.0 million
Total raised: $7.1 million
Tags: Real estate, home buying, mortgage, Mountain View, California
Source: Crunchbase
Powers small unsecured SMB loans at banks
Latest round: $5.0 million
Total raised: $5.0 million
Tags: Lending, Alt-lending, SMB, underwriting, installment loans, Hong Kong, Finovate alum
Source: Finovate
Working capital financing through accounts payable financing
Latest round: $4.7 million
Total raised: $4.7 million
Tags: Financing, billing, credit, accounts payables, London, UK
Source: Crunchbase
Commercial loan and lease information provider
Latest round: $4.4 million
Total raised: $10 million
Tags: Commerial lending, underwriting, data, real estate, New York City
Source: Crunchbase
French online and mobile payments processor
Latest round: $4.1 million
Total raised: $6.8 million
Tags: Payments, mobile, digital, merchants, acquiring, SMB, Paris, France
Source: FT Partners
Automated hedge fund investing
Latest round: $2.0 million
Total raised: $2.0 million
Tags: Investing, hedge funds, San Francisco, California
Source: Crunchbase
White pages directory for Bitcoin
Latest round: $1.5 million
Total raised: $1.6 million
Tags: Cryptocurrency, bitcoin, identity, New York City
Source: Crunchbase
Automated investment research
Latest round: $1.5 million
Total raised: $1.5 million
Tags: Investing, information, Palo Alto, California
Source: Crunchbase
New Zealand equity crowdfunding platform
Latest round: $100,000
Total raised: $100,000
Tags: Crowdfunding, SMB, P2P, lending, credit, investing, Wellington, New Zealand
Source: Crunchbase
Open-source digital trading engine
Latest round: Undisclosed
Total raised: $1.3+ million
Tags: Bitcoin, cryptocurrency, payments, YC, Palo Alto, California, Finovate alum (see at FinovateEurope 2015)
Source: FT Partners
Pricing and profitability analytics for financial institutions
Latest round: Undisclosed
Total raised: Unknown
Tags: Analytics, big data, pricing, management, Australia
Source: Fortune
Coinffeine

Spanish Bitcoin company focusing on P2P transfers
Latest round: Undisclosed
Total raised: Undisclosed
Tags: Bitcoin, cryptocurrency, payments, remittances, Bankinter (investor), Spain
Source: FT Partners

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Financeit Brings in Fresh Funding After U.S. Launch

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

FinanceItLogo2014.jpg

What do wonders of the world, deadly sins, the Harry Potter series, and Financeit’s funding have in common? They all come in sets of seven (at least for now).

Financeit’s seventh round of funding comes from BEST Funds, which is adding an undisclosed amount to the $21.4 million Financeit has raised since its 2007 launch.

Previous rounds include $13 million in November 2013, along with $8.4 million in angel funding received in five rounds from 2007 to 2012.

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The new installment comes a few months after the Toronto-based company launched its point of sale financing solution in the United States. This is no small feat, given the hurdles of complying with U.S. regulations. Financeit plans to use the funds to expand growth in the new market.

Check out the live demo of Financeit’s U.S. launch, along with its partnership with FIS, at FinovateFall 2014.

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Another +1 For Host Card Emulation: SimplyTapp Garners $6 Million

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

SimplyTappLogo.jpg

Host Card Emulation (HCE) solutions company, SimplyTapp, is making it easier for banks to place their own tap to pay functionality in customers’ hands.

To further this mission, two investors, Blue Sky Capital and Lightspeed Venture Partners, recently contributed $6 million in Series B funding to the Austin-based startup.

SimplyTappHomepage.jpg

Other funding rounds include a $1.4 million Series A round last November and a $200,000 seed round in February of 2013. Its total funding now tallies just over $7.5 million.

Check out SimplyTapp’s video from FinDEVr San Francisco 2014, where it explains HCE.

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Fintech Fundings: More than $145 Million Raised Week Ending Nov 14

By Jim Bruene Posted on
Categories: Funding

fintechfunding_license.jpg

For the most part, Fintech investors took a small breather this week. Other than the VCs sending a cool tenth-of-a-billion-dollars off to POS provider Revel Systems, the rest of the sector pulled in about $50 million. 
Two of the 10 newly funded are Finovate alums: 
  1. Austin, TX-based SimplyTapp attracted $6 million to expand its NFC mobile payment technology. 
  2. FinanceIT secured an undisclosed investment from Toronto neighbor BEST Funds. 
The deals from Nov 8 to Nov 13 in order of size:
Point-of-sale systems
Latest round: $100 million (of which $25 million is a credit line)
Total raised: $114 million 
Tags: POS, acquiring, SMB, San Francisco, California
Source: Crunchbase
Gift card marketplace
Latest round: $18.1 million
Total raised: $21.7 million 
Tags: Giftcards, loyalty, payments, Chicago, Illinois
Source: Crunchbase
Payment services for merchants
Latest round: $8.2 million
Total raised: $8.2 million 
Tags: Credit/debit cards, acquiring, SMB, merchants, loyalty, Sunnyvale, California
Source: Crunchbase
French marketplace for short-term capital financing
Latest round: $7.5 million
Total raised: $7.6 millon 
Tags: Lending, receivables, working capital, SMB, Paris, France
Source: Crunchbase
Digital payment processor
Latest round: $6 million
Total raised: $7.6 million 
Tags: Credit/debit cards, acquiring, POS, SMB, NFC, Austin, Texas, Finovate alum
Source: FT Partners
Franchise financing marketplace
Latest round: $3.8 million
Total raised: $7.5 million 
Tags: Credit, lending, underwriting, SMB, loans, investing, P2P, crowdfunding, 
Source: Crunchbase
Digital payment processor
Latest round: $600,000
Total raised: $820,000 
Tags: Credit/debit cards, acquiring, SMB, Kuopio, Finland
Source: Crunchbase
Customer financing at the retailer’s point of sale
Latest round: Undisclosed
Total funding: $21 million (not including latest round)
Tags: POS, lending, SMB, merchants, Toronto, Canada
Source: FT Partners
Payment solution for U.S. merchants to accept Chinese UnionPay cards
Latest round: Undisclosed
Total raised: Unknown
Tags: Credit cards, debit cards, acquiring, payment processing, Palo Alto, California
Source: Crunchbase
Indian digital payments layer
Latest round: Undisclosed (Series A)
Total funding: $500,000 (prior to latest funding)
Tags: Payments, social media, merchants, acquiring, Mumbai, India
Source: Crunchbase

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Fintech Companies Attract $1 Billion in New Equity in October

By Jim Bruene Posted on
Categories: Funding

We have only been tracking fintech investments across all companies since Aug 1. But I’m pretty sure that even if we’d been doing it for 20 years, there would never have been a month as frenzied as October. 

In just one month, 76 fintech companies worldwide attracted a combined $1 billion in new equity investments. The largest ten deals alone were worth at least $30 million each: 
$185M Mozida
$150M Square
$75M   Yodlee (IPO) 
$70M   Cardlytics
$64M   Wealthfront
$57M   Financial Software Systems
$50M   Personal Capital
$42M   VivaReal
$40M   Credorax
$31M   Blockchain
————————
$764M Top 10 deals
$276M 66 Other deals
—————————–
$1.04B Total Investment
For more information, see our weekly postings.

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Socure Scores $2.5 Million to Overcome Evil with Good

Socure Scores $2.5 Million to Overcome Evil with Good
By Julie Muhn (@julieschicktanz) Posted on
Categories: Funding, Socure

Socurelogo.jpg

Online security companies are always working to stay one step ahead of fraudsters. Socure, a New York-based company is out to fight these malevolent deeds with an approach it calls Social Biometrics.

As it turns out, it pays to be good. The company just closed a $2.5 million round of funding this week. Investors include:

    • Founder Collective
    • Two Sigma Ventures
    • ff Venture Capital 

This, added to Socure’s $2.2 million Seed round it generated in March, brings the company’s total funding to $4.7 million.

Socuredashboard

Socure’s fraud detection solution uses people’s social behavior across networks to determine the authenticity of their identity. See their debut of Social Biometrics at FinovateFall 2013.

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Cardlytics Pulls in $70 Million in Series F Round, Prepares for IPO

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

CardlyticsLogoNew.jpg

Card-linked offers company, Cardlytics, closed a $70 million Series F round yesterday. The round was led by Discovery Capital, who will appoint a representative to Cardlytics’ board.

The Wall Street Journal reports that, with this newest installment, the Atlanta-based company has raised a total of $170 million since it was founded in 2008. Past investors include:

    • Groupe Aeroplan
    • Canaan Partners
    • ITC Holdings
    • Kinetic Ventures
    • Polaris Venture Partners
    • TTV Capital
    • Aimia

The company plans to use the funding to develop products that analyze data in new ways. It will not only help the merchants, who pay Cardlytics to list their offers, but it is also good news for its 400 bank partners.

This includes Bank of America, who uses the company’s technology to power its BankAmeriDeals (below). This year, Cardlytics anticipates the banks’ cut of payment it receives from merchants will add up to $20 to $25 million.

CardlyticsTablet1.1.jpg

The company plans to go public within the next 18 months. According to Cardlytics co-founder and President, Lynne Laube:

“We want to be ready to take advantage of the market, and getting ready for an IPO takes work.”

Check out Cardlytics’ demo from FinovateFall 2013, where it debuted its Gelocation Application.

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Vaamo Raises $3.2 Million, Launches Out of Private Beta

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

vaamoLogo2.jpg

A German platform where users save and invest money towards their long term goals has brought on some funding of its own this week.

Vaamo announced yesterday it closed a $3.2 million (€2.5 million) Seed round. The investment was led by Route 66 Ventures, the same firm that furnished U.S.-based D3 Banking with $7 million last week. The remaining funds have come from business angels.

This round comes a year after its angel round of $635,000 (€500,000), which brings vaamo’s total funding to $3.8 million (€3 million).

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According to vaamo co-founders Thomas Bloch, and Oliver Vins, the funding will be used to hire more talent, specifically for marketing, customer service, and engineering. It will also be used to bolster marketing efforts to improve customer acquisition.

Vaamo is opening to the public today after spending about four months in private beta. It currently has 250 customers saving real money on its goals-based platform. It is limited to German residents only, but vaamo has not excluded the possibility of expanding its usage across borders.

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D3 Banking Brings in $7 Million, with $3 Million More on the Way

D3 Banking Brings in $7 Million, with $3 Million More on the Way
By Julie Muhn (@julieschicktanz) Posted on
Categories: D3 Banking, Funding
D3BankingLogo

Here’s the math: D3 = Data Driven Digital Banking. The funding amount = $7 million.

Today, D3 Banking announced it raised $7 million in venture funding from Route 66 Ventures, a private investment firm focused on emerging financial services companies.

The Nebraska-based company reports that in the next 60 days, existing investors and a subordinate VC will contribute another $3 million, finalizing the round at $10 million.

The $10 million projected in this round, along with previous Angel investments of $6 million, will bring D3’s total funding to $16 million.

D3BankingHomepage

Since its launch in 2007, D3 Banking (formerly Lodo Software) has built a customer base of 225 institutions that use its digital financial management tools.

D3 expanded beyond financial management tools last year when it launched a comprehensive digital banking solution at FinovateSpring 2013. The first customer to roll out the new solution plans to go live with it in the next 30 days. Additionally, D3 is in talks with a number of other institutions who are interested in deploying the new solution. According to CEO Mark Vipond, now is the perfect time for the company to bring in its first round of Venture funding.

D3 will use the new capital to expand its sales and marketing team, invest in other product innovations, and deploy a SaaS-based solution for FIs that prefer on-premise deployment.

Check out D3 Banking’s video from FinovateSpring 2014 where it demonstrated the money movement tools added to the comprehensive solution it introduced last year.

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Fintech Fundings Top $310 Million the Week Ending October 23

By Jim Bruene Posted on
Categories: Funding

We’ve only been tracking fundings on a weekly basis for 11 weeks. But I don’t think there have been many weeks in history, if any, that the money flowing to the fintech sector was bigger. A total of $314 million in equity investments went to 18 companies (in addition, 4 companies received undisclosed new investments). Even without Mozida’s massive $185 million, it was still a huge week. 

There were 10 fundings greater than $7 million including two Finovate alums, Flint Mobile ($9.4 million) and D3 Banking, formerly Lodo Software ($7 million). 
In order of magnitude, the deals from Oct 14 to Oct 20, 2014:
White-labeled mobile payments & ecommerce solutions
Latest round: $185 million
Total raised: $308 million
Tags: Payments, mobile, ecommerce, marketing, shopping, enterprise, New York City
Source: Crunchbase
Digital commerce platform
Latest round: $14.5 million
Total raised: $14.5 million
Tags: Bitcoin, cryptocurrencies, ecommerce, San Francisco, California
Source: Crunchbase

Cloud-based mass payment service
Latest round: $13 million
Total raised: $13 million
Tags: Payments, SMB, Agoura Hills, California
Source: Crunchbase
Alt-financing for the construction industry
Latest round: $12.5 million
Total raised: $12.5 million
Tags: SMB, lending, credit, alt-finance, Scottsdale, Arizona
Source: Crunchbase
Platform to power P2P/direct lenders
Latest round: $12 million
Total raised: $17.4 million
Tags: P2P lending, crowdfunding, platform, direct lending, investing, New York City
Source: Crunchbase
Subscription billing management services
Latest round: $12 million 
Total raised: $19.6 million
Tags: Billpay, invoicing, payments, San Francisco, California
Source: Crunchbase
Consumer debt management
Latest round: $12 million
Total raised: $24.8 million
Tags: Debt, lending, PFM, Cost Mesa, California
Source: FT Partners
Mobile and online payments
Latest round: $9.4 million
Total raised: $20.4 million
Tags: mPay, digital payments, Redwood City, California, Finovate alum
Source: Finovate
Bringing private equity investing to smaller investors
Latest round: $9.3 million
Total raised: $9.3 million
Tags: Alt-finance, SMB, lending, credit, PE, investing, New York City
Source: Crunchbase
D3 Banking (formerly Lodo Software)
Digital banking & personal finance platform 
Latest round: $7 million
Total raised: $12.1 million
Tags: PFM, online, mobile banking, Omaha, Nebraska, Finovate alum
Source: Finovate

Fraud detection in financial services and ecommerce
Latest round: $4.5 million
Total raised: $4.5 million
Tags: Fraud, security, San Mateo, California
Source: FT Partners
Fraud detection technology for banks and credit unions
Latest round: $3.5 million
Total raised: $3.5 millon
Tags: Fraud, security, Wethersfield, Connecticut
Source: FT Partners
Fundraising and payments platform
Latest round: $3.5 million
Total raised: $3.5 million
Tags: Payments, non-profits, fundraising, Dallas, Texas
Source: Crunchbase
UK-based near-bank
Latest round: $3.2 million
Total raised: $6.4 million
Tags: Alt-banking, PFM, personal finance, UK
Source: Crunchbase
Cloud billing provider
Latest round: $1 million
Total raised: $1 million
Tags: Billpay, payments, SMB, invoicing, Annapolis, Maryland
Source: Crunchbase
Equity management platform
Latest round: $1 million
Total raised: $1 million
Tags: SMB, cap table, stock options, Sandy, Utah
Source: FT Partners
SparkProfit trading simulator
Latest round: $600,000
Total raised: $600,000
Tags: Investing, asset management, trading, data analytics, London, UK, Finovate alum
Source: Finovate
Japanese cloud invoice management
Latest round: $650,000
T
otal raised: $1 million
Tags: SMB, accounting, billpay, payments, Japan
Source: Crunchbase
Bitcoin payment gateway
Latest round: Undisclosed
Total raised: $2.1 million
Tags: Cryptocurrenices, ecommerce, Singapore
Source: FT Partners
Real-estate marketplace
Latest round: Undisclosed
Total raised: Unkown
Tags: Homebuying, mortgage, New York City
Source: Crunchbase
Ripple platform in London
Latest round: Undisclosed
Total raised: Unknown
Tags: Cryptocurrencies, London, UK
Source: Crunchbase
Chinese personal finance site
Latest round: Undisclosed
Total raised: Unknown
Tags: PFM, personal finance, investing, Bejing, China
Source: Crunchbase

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Fintech Fundings: 17 Companies Raise $100 Million Week Ending Oct 17

By Jim Bruene Posted on
Categories: Funding
You can tell the market is frenzied when fintech companies raise only $101 million this week. That still works out to a $5+ billion annual run rate, which isn’t too shabby. Much of the money went into a Series-D to India’s Financial Software Systems, a 23-year old fintech veteran. 
In terms of startups, the big winner this week was Finovate alum, Quantopian, a high-tech investing play that debuted at FinovateSpring 2013 (see post for more info). But Technisys ($13 million) and Germany’s Orderbird ($10 million) were not far behind. 
In addition, fintech accelerator SixThirty announced its latest investments: $100,000 each to Davo Technologies, MyMoneyButler, PFTIR and New Constructs (see below for details).  
Here are the 17 deals in order of magnitude (10 Oct through 17 Oct): 
Payments technology
Latest round: $57 million
Total raised: Unknown (though the latest round is referred to as “Series D”)
Tags: Chennai, India
Source: Crunchbase

Algorithmic trading platform
Latest round: $15 million
Total raised: $23.8 million
Tags: Investing, analytics, hedge fund, trading, Boston, Massachusetts, Finovate alum
Source: Finovate
Latin American digital banking technology
Latest round: $13 million
Total raised: $14 million
Tags: Mobile, Miami, Florida
Mobile POS
Latest round: $10 million
Total raised: $14 million
Tags: Mobile, point of sale, iPad, Berlin, Germany
Source: Crunchbase
Mexican P2P microfinance
Latest round: $1.7 million
Total raised: $1.8 million
Tags: Credit, lending, microfinance, P2P, Mexico
Source: Crunchbase
Digital currency exchange
Latest round: $1.4 million
Total raised: $1.4 million
Tags: Bitcoin, cryptocurrency, NYC, New York
Source: Crunchbase
Mobile payments
Latest round: $760,000
Total raised: $760,000
Tags: Payments, Netherlands
Source: Crunchbase
Asian financial planning and advice
Latest round: $640,000
Total raised: $640,000
Tags: Wealth management, PFM, personal finance, investment management, Singapore
Source: Crunchbase
Italian collaborative payments company
Latest round: $500,000
Total raised: $500,000
Tags: Payments, mobile, P2P, group payments, Milan, Italy
Source: FT Partners
Automated debt recovery technology
Latest round: $250,000
Totals raised: $5.3 million 
Tags: Credit, collections, debt, lending, San Francisco
Source: Crunchbase
Japanese bitcoin exchange
Latest round: $236,000
Total raised: $236,000
Tags: Bitcoin, cryptocurrencies, Japan
Source: Crunchbase
Sales tax remittances and other business payments
Latest round: $100,000
Total raised: $100,000
Tags: SMB, accounts payable, payments, SixThirty, Montclair, New Jersey
Source: Crunchbase
Reduce investment management fees
Latest round: $100,000
Total raised: $100,000
Tags: Investing, fees, SixThirty, Palo Alto, California
Source: Crunchbase
PFTIR (Public Funds Investment Tracking and Reporting)
Investment reporting technology
Latest round: $100,000
Total raised: $100,000
Tags: Analytics, investing, enterprise, SIxThirty, Chesterfield, Missouri
Source: FT Partners
New Constructs
Investment research
Latest round: $100,000
Total raised: $100,000
Tags: Investing, research, equities, SIxThirty, Brentwood, Tennessee
Source: FT Partners
Lending and membership technology
Latest round: Undisclosed
Total raised: Unknown
Tags: Aliso Viejo, California
Source: Crunchbase
i-Invested
Crowdfunding platform
Latest round: Undisclosed
Total raised: Unknown
Tags: P2P, lending, credit, investing, UK
Source: Crunchbase

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