Synctera, which connects community banks and FinTechs, raised $33m in a Series A round led by Fin VC.
The round included participation from Mastercard and Gaingels, and follow-on investments from Lightspeed Venture Partners, Diagram Ventures, SciFi Ventures and Scribble Ventures. It also featured angel investors including former Marqeta CRO Omri Dahan and Greenlight CEO Tim Sheehan among others.
The latest funding round comes on the heels of the FinTech company scoring raising $12.4m in seed funding in December last year which was led by Lightspeed Venture Partners and Diagram Ventures, therefore, bringing Synctera’s total fundraise to $45.4m to date.
Alongside its Series A, Synctera committed to the Cap Table Coalition alongside other startups by allocating 10% of all funding rounds to traditionally marginalised investors in an attempt to allow for more representation and collaboration to further innovate the industry.
The company intends to use the funds to expand operations hiring for roles across engineering, product and sales, accelerate the development of its product roadmap and prepare for a future international expansion.
Launched by CEO Peter Hazlehurst, former head of Uber Money, head of Google Wallet and CPO at Yodlee, as well as CTO Kris Hansen and head of product Dominik Weisserth, Synctera is building a SaaS-based partnership banking marketplace connecting community banks with FinTech platforms that need a licensed partner to operate in the US. The platform allows banks to streamline day-to-day reconciliation, operations and regulatory compliance and FinTechs to launch via a one-stop-shop API. Put simply, Synctera wants to make it easier for community banks and FinTechs to partner with each other.
Emerging from stealth last year, Synctera has already secured customers in Coastal Community Bank and ONE Finance, as well as Tennessee-based Lineage Bank. The company has also partnered with money management and financial wellness platform for women, Ellevest.
Synctera noted that demand for its services has ballooned along with the embedded finance and Banking-as-a-Service FinTech sectors over the last year.
Commenting on the round, Hazelhurst said, “Since launch, Synctera has formed one of the best teams in the industry. Bringing on a group of investors with deep industry expertise will help us meet rapidly increasing demand in our next stage of growth.”
Echoing a similar sentiment, FinVC founder Logan Allin said, “As soon as we met Peter, Kris, and Dominik and learned about their solution for the market, we were immediately sold. The specific focus on community banks and the world-class tech behind the platform really convinced us that they’re building something that will stand the test of time and prove invaluable to financial services of the future.”
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