It’s mid-August. Who is even working now? Evidently, the folks cranking out new fintech (and their investors) are not letting up. So far this month, 24 startups have received a total of $102 million in new capital.
Tags: Investing, financing, New York
Social trading and wealth management platform
Total funding: $8.5 million
Automated 401(k) management tools and portfolio analytics
Source: Crunchbase
Total funding: $3.5 million
Tags: Underbanked, payday lending, California
Source: Crunchbase
Total funding: $3.2 million
Equity crowdfunding platform
Total funding: $1.5 million
Financial management software for small biz and individuals
Total funding: $1.4 million
Tags: Gift cards, prepaid cards, credit cards, California
Online platform providing small business financing in India
Source: Crunchbase
Total funding: $920,000
Source: Crunchbase
Total funding: $550,000
Total funding: $270,000
Latest round: $250,000
Facilitating payments for person-to-person vehicle sales
Tags: Escrow, vehicle lending, Switzerland
Identity theft protection
Total funding: Unknown
Taulia Raises $27 Million in Series D Funding
Taulia, a company that aims to ease cash flow issues faced by small and medium sized businesses, announced today it raised $27 million in Series D funding.
This newest installment, which brings Taulia’s total funding to $67.2 million, comes from QuestMark Partners, which led the round, and existing investors Trinity Ventures, Matrix Partners, Lakestar and DAG Ventures.
When Taulia launched in 2009, its primary service was Dynamic Discounting, a product that helps suppliers receive faster cash flow, and gives buyers more flexibility and discounts if they pay early. Now Taulia offers seven products, including einvoicing and supplier management tools that help small businesses interact with their suppliers.
Of the 225,000 suppliers on Taulia’s platform, 55 rank among the largest corporate companies. The San Francisco-based company plans to use the funding to sign more large corporate clients and expand into Asia.
Taulia is now valued at $200 million.
To learn more about Taulia, check out its FinovateSpring 2012 demo where it debuted its Early Payment Network.
DemystData Brings in $5 Million for its Big Data API for Financial Institutions
For DemystData, big data is more than just a buzz word. The New York-based company focuses on improving financial institutions’ access to information to optimize interaction with customers.
The company announced today it raised $5 million in a Series A investment. Investors include:
- Notion Capital
- SingTel Innov8
- Arbor Ventures
- P2P Equity Partners
- Errol Damelin (UK-based Wonga founder)
DemystData previously received two investments of undisclosed amounts.
The company’s software aggregates data from multiple sources in real time to build customer profiles. Institutions use these profiles to make better decisions. DemystData is processing more than 30 million profiles for financial clients, which include some of the largest, global P2P lenders in the U.S. and U.K., as well as leading banks in AsiaPacific.
Using this new investment, DemystData plans to continue its global growth while expanding its team. Additionally, it hopes to further enhance its API.
To learn more about DemystData, check out its FinovateAsia 2012 demo video, where it debuted Credit-in-a-Box. Interested in this and other back-end systems for FIs? Pick up your ticket to FinDEVr to check out more.
Alternative Lending Pays Up: Kabbage Raises $50 Million, Prosper Pulls in $70 Million
At FinovateSpring last week, we witnessed the popularity of alternative lending platforms as shown through Dealstruck, LendingRobot, and Venovate.
Further underlining this trend, two players in the alternative lending space, Kabbage and Prosper, both announced funding today.
- Funding: $50 million in Series D
- Previous funding totaled $465 million in combined debt and equity
- Contributing investors include:
- SoftBank Capital
- TCW/Craton
- Lumia Capital
- David Bonderman
- Warren Stephens
- UPS’ Strategic Enterprise Fund
- Peter Thomson’s Thomvest
- BlueRun Ventures
- MDV
- Founded: 2009
- Last demoed at FinovateSpring 2013
Kabbage plans to use the funding to boost its marketing efforts, build out its partnerships, and expand further internationally. It also has plans to better leverage big data for underwriting purposes.
Prosper, a P2P funding platform based in San Francisco.
- Funding: $70 million.
$50 million of this will be allocated to Prosper’s balance sheet. The remaining $20 million is a secondary round in which some shareholders are cashing out.- Previous funding totals $190 million
- Contributing investors include:
- Francisco Partners
- Institutional Venture Partners
- Phenomen Ventures
- Founded: 2006
- Demoed at Finovate 2007
Last month, Prosper announced $1 billion in total loans originated on its platform and it plans to reach $2 billion in total loans this year.
It is speculated that this new round places Prosper at a $600 million valuation, up from a $100 million valuation around eight months ago.
ShopKeep POS Snags a Spot in the iPad POS Spotlight with $25 Million in Funding
On the heels of this week’s rumors of Square’s possible IPO or acquisition, ShopKeep POS is taking its place in the in the iPad-based POS system spotlight.
Today, the New York-based company announced it raised $25 million in Series C funding.
Contributing investors include:
- Thayer Street Partners
- Tribeca Venture Partners
- TTV Capital
- Contour Venture Partners
- Canaan Partners
- Tom Glocer
- Matt Coffin
ShopKeep, which is proud of its New York roots and already has an international office in Belfast, is looking to open an office on the west coast. It will also use the funding to expand on its product with analytics can be accessed anywhere.
The funding will also help with the growth spirt ShopKeep is expecting from all of the POS systems currently running Windows XP. Since Microsoft is no longer providing support for that operating system, merchants using it will need to seek out a different option.
To see a live demo of ShopKeep POS in action, check it out at FinovateFall 2012.
Tuition.io Brings in Funding, Surpasses $1 Billion in Loans Under Management
It’s been no secret lately that the student loan system is broken. Student loan management platform Tuition.io, who we saw on stage at FinovateFall two years ago, is seeking to help out borrowers and has quickly gained traction.
As proof, the company announced today it received an undisclosed amount of funding from Raj Date through advisory and investment firm, Fenway Summer. Contributors to the California-based startup’s 2013 seed round include:
- Mohr Davidow Ventures
- MESA+
- Rob Glaser
- Richard Wolpert
- Neu Venture Capital
- Launchpad LA
- Rothenberg Ventures
- Atom Factory
- AF Square, LLC
In addition to this news, it also announced it’s managing $1 billion in loans on its platform. This is up two-fold from just one year ago. When we interviewed CEO Brendon McQueen in April of last year, he reported the platform had $500 million under management.
Check out the live demo of Tuition.io’s platform from FinovateFall 2012.
Tax Day Turns to Funding Day for Some: LearnVest Raises $28 Million, The Currency Cloud Pulls in $10 Million
Most of us know April 15 as Tax Day, but for three Finovate alums, today is about a different flow of money than a tax return. Aside from Betterment’s announcement of its $32 million round (see our post from this morning), LearnVest pulled in $28 million in Series D funding, while The Currency Cloud garnered $10 million in Series B.
- New funding: $28 million Series D
- Investors: Northwestern Mutual Capital, Accel Partners, and American Express Ventures
- Total Funding: $69 million
- Founded: 2007
- Headquarters: New York, NY
LearnVest will use the funding to boost hiring efforts at its Arizona-based Expert Hub and to scale its LearnVest at Work channel, which won Best of Show at FinovateFall 2013.
Check out its Best of Show-winning FinovateFall 2013 demo video:
- New funding: $10 million
- Investors: Atlas Venture, Anthem Venture Partners, Notion Capital, XAnge Private Equity, Silicon Valley Bank
- Total funding: $17 million
- Founded: 2012
- Headquarters: London
The Currency Cloud will use the funding to expand its focus on the UK and Europe to a more international realm, specifically into the the U.S.
Check out The Currency Cloud’s demo from FinovateEurope 2014, where it debuted its new e-wallet functionality and user interface.
Kabbage Brings in $270 Million in Debt Financing to Provide Small Businesses with Funding of Their Own
Further highlighting Forbes’ point that the traditional banker is dead, small business financing company Kabbage announced today it received a revolving, 3-year line of debt financing, totaling $270 million.
The funds, which were provided by Guggenheim Securities, will be used to supply small businesses with working capital, both in the U.S. and internationally.
This new installment comes a year after the Atlanta-based company received $75 million in debt financing from Victory Park Capital and Thomvest Ventures.
Kabbage has seen an increasing demand for small business financing, both for web-based businesses and brick-and-mortar stores. The Wall Street Journal commented on its growth, reporting:
“In the last 15 or so months, default rates have dropped by more than 50%…. while Kabbage’s business has grown five-fold. The company aims to provide $1 billion in credit to businesses next year.”
Rob Frohwein, CEO, hinted that growth has been so dramatic that the company expects to pull in more financing soon. In an interview with TechCrunch, Frohwein comments on the funding, stating:
“Yes, this is a large facility, but looking at our growth rate, it’s something that we will need to look at again in a reasonably short period of time, believe it or not.”
To learn more about Kabbage, check out its live demo from FinovateSpring 2013 where it debuted its QuickBooks Financing Platform.
SmartAsset Brings in $5.2 Million in Series A Financing Round
The team at SmartAsset, a company that aims to answer consumers’ complex financial questions, has been busy lately. Not only are they preparing their 7-minute demo for FinovateSpring next month, they also recently launched a retirement planning tool, and this week announced they just closed on $5.2 million.
The Series A financing round was led by Javelin Venture Partners. Denis Grosz, SV Angel and Brendan Wallace, founder of Identified, also contributed.
SmartAsset plans to use the round to grow its New York-based team by around a dozen new employees and expand its platform’s capability to give users more control of their financial future.
To see SmartAsset’s newest tech and meet the innovators behind the platform, don’t miss its live demo at FinovateSpring.
Credit Karma Brings in $85 Million in Financing Led by Google Capital
What do Lending Club, Survey Monkey, and Credit Karma have in common? Answer: they’ve all received financing from Google Capital.
That’s exactly who led Credit Karma’s most recent $85 million financing round. Other investors include:
- Tiger Capital
- Susquehanna Growth Equity
- Ribbit Capital
TechCrunch reports that, of the $85 million in total funding, $60 million is going directly to Credit Karma, while the remaining $25 million is going to provide liquidity to shareholders and employees.
This round brings Credit Karma’s total funding to $118.5 million for its B2C-play credit score reporting and management platform. In the future, it seeks to be the Kayak for financial services and is looking to partner with banks to be a recommendation engine to help consumers better manage their debt.
Credit Karma last demonstrated at FinovateStartup 2009, where it debuted its Debt Manager.
SocietyOne Garners $5 Million in Series A Round from New Westpac Bank Fund, $3.5 Million from Other Investors
Australia-based P2P lending company SocietyOne announced earlier this week that it received its first round of funding, which totaled $8.5 million.
This series A round comes from Reinventure, Global Founders Capital and private investor Justin Reizes.
The most notable of these investors is Reinventure, which is a new venture capital manager funded by Westpac Banking Corp. According to the Financial Review, Westpac is believed to be the first bank in the world to take an equity stake in a P2P lending organization.
Managers of Reinventure, which contributed $5 million to SocietyOne’s $8.5 million round, say they are keeping the new fund at arm’s length from Westpac Bank. Despite the distance, Westpac hopes the investment will help it to gain insight into SocietyOne’s proprietary algorithm that assess the creditworthiness of borrowers.
Founder and CEO Matt Symons says that the funding will allow the company to accelerate its growth rate because it will:
- Enable it to offer more borrowers a better deal
- Give more investors access to attractive fixed income asset classes
SocietyOne’s platform, which won Best of Show at FinovateAsia 2012, connects creditworthy borrowers with investors looking for better rates of return.
To see SocietyOne’s award-winning demo, check out the video here.
Payoneer Lands $25 Million Series D Funding Round Led by Susquehanna Growth Equity
Cross border payments company, Payoneer, whose aim it is to simplify global commerce, announced yesterday that it received a $25 million boost.
The funding round was led by new investor Susquehanna Growth Equity. Existing investors also contributed:
- Carmel Ventures
- Greylock IL
- Vintage Venture Partners
The New York-based company plans to use the funds to:
- Accelerate its product roadmap
- Expand into new verticals and markets
- Increase sales and marketing investments
- More actively pursue acquisitions
Prior to this round, Payoneer received $8 million in Series B, $4 million in Series A, and $2 million in Seed funding. Combined, this brings the company’s total funding to $39 million.
Check out Payoneer’s live demo video from FinovateAsia 2013.