Over the past seven days, a staggering 50 FinTech deals have been reported. Notably, Europe gained its latest unicorn after PayTech platform Scalapay raised an eye-watering $497m Series B round.
The 50 FinTech companies raised a combined total of $3.4bn this week, a small increase on last week, where $2.8bn was raised. This week’s deals came from a range of sectors from PayTech, to eSentire, BlueVoyant and Astrix Security in the cybersecurity industry, to numerous InsurTechs including SanteVent, Nirvana Insurance and EverQuote.
The biggest round this week was in the Buy Now, Pay Later (BNPL) sector, which has taken off as of late. Earlier this week, FinTech Global reported that the BNPL “craze” reached Japan, with Paidy raising the largest deal in the country ($120m) last year.
BNPL solutions have soared in popularity in recent years. Yet, despite customers flocking to the services, some are racking up debt. A recent report from Credit Karma found UK consumers racked up £3.3bn in BNPL debts over Christmas 2021. It also claimed that 42% of the people to make a BNPL service for Christmas in 2020 have not fully repaid their debts, with 11% admitting to have missed repayments.
Due to situations like this, there have been increasing calls for the industry to be better regulated and BNPL companies have been accused of misleading consumers. FinTech Global recently spoke to BNPL giants Klarna, Zilch and Affirm to get their perspective.
Here are the 50 FinTech funding rounds from this week.
Scalapay becomes Europe’s latest unicorn
PayTech platform Scalapay becomes Europe’s latest unicorn after the close of a $497m Series B round.
Tencent and Willoughby Capital led the round, with contributions also coming from Tiger Global, Gangwal, Moore Capital, Deimos and Fasanara Capital.
Scalapay, which is based in Italy, provides buy now, pay later services to e-commerce merchants. Customers can make payments in three or four instalments or choose to pay entirely after 14 days. It was founded in 2019 by Simone Mancini and Johnny Mitrevski, and since then it has raised over $700m in equity.
The company previously raised $155m in funding, which was led by Tiger Global, back in September 2021.
LiveMore Capital secures a £275m ($368m) credit line
According to mortgage lender LiveMore, the credit facility from NatWest will facilitate its portfolio growth and loan originations for its interest-only mortgage products. It also supports the next step in its journey to ‘reimagine later-life mortgages and mobilise the wider financial services industry towards fairer, more holistic over-50s lending practices’.
In addition, the credit facility will support LiveMore’s product offering of their retirement interest only mortgage as well as its term end interest only mortgage that provides the opportunity for a longer fixed-term rate – allowing borrowers to stay in their homes for longer.
LiveMore claims it was established to support an underserved sector of the market and provides a wider range of options to cater to over-50s borrowers.
Canadian cybersecurity firm eSentire bags $325m
The round was led by Georgian and Caisse de depot et placement du Québec. eSentire is also backed by venture capital firm Warburg Pincus, who remains its majority shareholder. Following this round, eSentire has raised a total of $411m.
Founded in 2001, eSentire sells managed detection and response services globally. The company claims it is the authority in MDR and currently protects the critical data and applications of 1200 organisations in 70+ countries from known and unknown cyber threats.
eSentire claims its mission is to hunt, investigate and stop cyber threats before they disrupt a business. The firm combines machine learning XDR technology, 24/7 threat hunting, and proven security operations leadership, to mitigate your business risk, and enable security at scale.
According to eSentire, the new funding will be used to support geographical expansion and build out its newer eSentire’s Atlas XDR SaaS offering.
Cybersecurity platform BlueVoyant lands $250m
Liberty Strategic Capital supplied $125m in the Series D round.
BlueVoyant is a cybersecurity defence platform that operates across four core functions. Its first function is managed security services, which provides 24/7 cyber threat detection and response inside customer networks. The second is third-party risk defence, providing supply chain and vendor network illumination.
Its third function is digital risk protection, which gives brand protection, threat intelligence and incident response. Finally, it offers professional services and mission critical cybersecurity services.
The BlueVoyant platform offers atomisation and customisation. BlueVoyant previously raised $68m in its Series C funding round back in 2020.
This deal marks Liberty’s third investment into the cybersecurity sector.
Amber Group raises $200m
Amber Group, a leading global digital asset platform, has raised $200m in Series B+ funding, bringing the company to a $3bn valuation.
The round was led by Temasek with participation from existing shareholders including Sequoia China, Pantera Capital, Tiger Global Management, Tru Arrow Partners, and Coinbase Ventures among others.
A significant follow-up to Amber Group’s 2021 $100m Series B round, this Series B+ round is the largest investment in Amber Group, valuing the company at $3 billion. Total capital raised at Amber Group now stands at $328m.
Founded in 2017, Amber Group has developed expertise in servicing both institutional and consumer markets. With global operations across 12 cities, the Singapore-headquartered company offers clients services that include algorithmic execution, electronic and OTC market-making derivatives, structured products, and advisory services.
PrimaryBid closes Series C
PrimaryBid, the FinTech platform that provides retail investors with fair access to public markets, has closed a $190m Series C investment round.
The round was led by SoftBank Vision Fund 2, with participation from existing investors.
PrimaryBid’s platform enables individual investors to share in a company’s success by giving issuers a safe and frictionless way to include their stakeholders and loyal communities at IPO and subsequent capital markets transactions, alongside institutional investors.
PrimaryBid said the funding will be used to expand its offering across continental Europe, leveraging key strategic partnerships with ABN AMRO and Euronext, as well as launch in new geographies including the US.
Since its $50m Series B round, PrimaryBid said it has experienced a period of accelerating growth in 2021, with sustained adoption of its platform by high profile public companies, IPO candidates, and the UK capital markets ecosystem. The company also expanded its geographical and product footprint by expanding its API services into Europe, conducting its inaugural transaction in France, and launching a new retail bond product.
SanteVet closes $171m round
SanteVet, a French pet insurance intermediary, has closed a $171m funding round from Columna Capital.
According to a report by Coverager, the company will use the capital to expand to Italy, the Netherlands, Portugal, and Austria, as well as accelerate growth in France, Belgium, Spain, and Germany.
Founded in 2003, SantéVet is a specialist animal health insurance, with a turnover of €20m and an ISO 9001 certification. The round was led by Columna Capital which has been a majority owner in the company since 2017
The pet insurer has said that it wants to become “the undisputed leader in the European animal health insurance market with more than one million insured animals” by 2026. To do this, it will invest in the development of its digital platform, strengthen its technology solutions and create 500 new jobs around the world. It currently has 300 employees and aims to reach 300,000 active policies by the end of the year.
CHEQ lands $150m
CyberTech platform CHEQ has raised $150m in its Series C funding round as it looks to expand its team.
Seasoned FinTech investor Tiger Global led the series investment, with commitments also coming from Battery Ventures, Hanaco, Phoenix Insurance and Key1 Capital.
With the funds, the company plans to expand its research and development, sales, and marketing teams.
Based in Israel, CHEQ provides go-to-market teams with security applications, protecting their sales pipelines, marketing funnels, sites, e-commerce, data and analytics from fake visitors, fraudsters and malicious bot traffic.
Its services are currently used by 50,000 websites around the world. In 2022, the company plans to triple its growth in 2022 across North America, EMEA and APAC.
CHEQ founder and CEO Guy Tytunovich said, “We’re putting cybersecurity in the hands of Go-to-Market leaders, to secure their operations, marketing, sales, data and analytics from fake users, bots, and other malicious actors, who makeup over 40% of the Internet’s traffic. We’re providing GTM organizations the highest level of protection a CISO could require, without hurting the needs of the CMO, CRO and other GTM leaders.”
With the close of the round, the CyberTech company has raised a total of $183m in funding, to date. It previously raised $16m for its Series B round back in 2019.
Groundfloor gains $118m
Groundfloor, which aims to help people build wealth through real estate, has closed a $118m funding round.
Medipower has initially deployed $5.8m into the company but will inject a further $100m through Groundfloor’s investment platform. Next year, it plans to deploy a further $220m into the platform. As part of the deal, Medipower chairman Yair Goldfinger will join Groundfloor’s board.
The fresh investment was also backed by retail investors, with $7.2m coming from 3,600 individuals through the SeedInvest platform and $5m in convertible notes from 86 backers on Groundfloor’s platform.
Proceeds from the round will help Groundfloor scale its operations, boost customer acquisition efforts and increase product development. The company is also looking to hire 50 new employees this year, which would nearly double its team.
Other plans for 2022 include rolling out its second mobile app, expanding into dedicated markets and building a footprint in Jacksonville, Florida.
Groundfloor, headquartered in Atlanta, offers short-term, high-yield real estate debt investments to the public. Users can get started from as little as $10 and build a portfolio of debt investments based on personal risk/reward profiles.
The company previously raised $3m in a crowdfunding campaign back in 2019.
Niyo lans $100m Series C
Consumer neo-banking platform Niyo has raised $100m for its Series C, as it looks to shift gear on its mission to transform banking in India.
Accel and Lightrock India co-led the round, with commitments also coming from Beams Fintech Fund, Prime Venture Partners, JS Capital and others.
These fresh funds will help Niyo bolster its product innovation, marketing and branding efforts, as well as increase its distribution footprint and hire more staff. The company is also looking to offer solutions to over 30 million users through organic and inorganic expansion over time.
Based in India, Niyo offers digital savings accounts and other banking services through partnerships with banks. It currently has four million customers and is adding an average of 10,000 each day. It also claims to process $3bn in transactions.
It recently released India’s first digital salary account and is also looking to release products for personal loans, credit cards, integrated forex and more. The FinTech company previously raised $35m in its Series B funding round back in 2019.
Beyond Identity rakes in $100m
Identity management solution provider Beyond Identity has raised $100m in a Series C funding round led by Evolution Equity Partners.
Following this round, Beyond Identity has bolstered its valuation to $1.1bn, making the company a unicorn. It has now raised a total of $205m since its inception.
Founded in 2020, Beyond Identity claims it is the most secure, passwordless authentication platform for tech forward-thinking organisations globally. The company added that its platform ‘fundamentally changes the way the world logs in’ by eliminating passwords and providing users with a frictionless multi-factor login experience.
By removing passwords and binding user identities, Beyond claims its solution can help firms prevent attacks that leverage compromised credentials.
According to Beyond, the new funding will be used for research and development and the firm’s expansion in the APAC and Latin America regions.
In December 2020, Beyond secured $75m in its Series B. This came only a matter of months after it closed its Series A on $30m.
Clickatell nets $91m
Clickatell, a chat platform that supports banking and payments, has netted $91m for its Series C round, which was led by Arrowroot Capital.
Funds also came from Kennedy Lewis Investment Management, Endeavor Capital and Harvest.
Clickatell has three core areas of growth. The first is to accelerate the development and innovation of its Chat Commerce offering. Its other two initiatives are expanding in the US and scaling its sales and marketing efforts.
The company claims to have an industry-first ability to combine communication and commerce in a single chat commerce proposition. It also claims to have established one of the world’s first banking solutions on WhatsApp.
Its end-to-end chat commerce platform serves over 10,000 customers, including Coca Cola, Deloitte, GT Bank, Booking.com, GoDaddy, IKEA, Novartis, Standard Bank, Tangerine, Telegram, Visa and many others.
Its solutions include chat banking, which lets customers engage with a chatbot to access various banking support services, including account management and bill payments.
Clickatell also offers contactless commerce payments, secure transactions, fraud alerts and more.
Secureframe’s $56m brings total equity to $79m
Secureframe has raised $56m in its Series B funding round, which brings its total equity raised to $79m in two years.
Accomplice led the investment, with commitments also coming from
The platform, which launched in 2020, Kleiner Perkins, Optum Ventures, Kaiser Permanente, Gradient Ventures, Soma Capital, Gaingels, Impatient Ventures and Flexport. Several angel backers also committed capital, including Duo Security CTO Jon Oberheide, VP Zero Trust Ash Devata and Alt and Lob CEO Leore Avidar.
Secureframe is a security compliance automation platform, which supports global compliance standards, including SOC 2, ISO 27001, HIPAA, and PCI DSS.
This investment round comes after a strong year of growth for Secureframe, which witnessed a ten-times ARR growth in 2021. It also experienced a seven-times customer growth, adding companies, including Stream, Dooly, Lob, Instabase, Slab, and Doodle, as customers.
Zenjob closes $50m Series D
Zenjob, a marketplace that connects students and others looking for jobs in retail, logistics and hospitality with employers, has closed a $50m Series D funding round.
According to a report by TechCrunch, the round was led by Aragon with participation from all Zenjob’s existing investors, including Acton Capital, Atlantic Labs, Forestay and Axa Venture Partners.
Founded in 2015, the startup directly employs temps, taking care of associated admin. It also offers temporary workers a pledge that it will pay out half their salary within 72 hours after a fulfilled shift — potentially speeding up remittance versus a traditional agency.
Zenjob currently has more than 2,500 companies, across 10,00+ locations in its two active European markets signed up to its platform, and over 40,000 workers using the platform each month.
The new funding will be used for expansion within Europe, including the UK market, where it plans to launch this summer. The capital will also be used for product development, including new data-based automation features, which it says are in the works to serve the needs of its expanding customer base, such as by supporting new “white collar” style job categories.
Pollination gets $50m backing from ANZ
As part of a strategic partnership, ANZ will invest $50m for a minority equity stake in Pollination, a global climate change investment and advisory firm.
ANZ and Pollination plan to deliver innovative solutions and opportunities for their customers, helping drive the transition to net zero and support biodiversity. The investment is part of Pollination’s Series B round.
The partnership brings together ANZ’s market-leading Institutional Bank and strength across Asia Pacific with Pollination’s expertise in climate finance, asset management, carbon projects, and environmental sustainability-focused corporate advisory.
The collaboration will focus on the transition needs of ANZ’s customers globally in the areas of sustainable finance, project & export finance, carbon markets and corporate advisory, including mergers and acquisitions.
Founded in 2019, Pollination comprises more than 120 experts operating across 13 countries. Team members have played leading roles in decarbonisation and nature solutions, including in development of the Paris Agreement.
Weavr scores $40m
Weavr, a plug-and-play financial solutions provider, has scored $40m for its Series A round, which was led by Tiger Global.
This round will help Weavr, which is headquartered in London, to expand internationally. Its first target is the US.
Capital from the round came from Mubadala Capital, QED Investors, Anthemis, Headline and Seedcamp. The Series A brings Weavr’s total funding over the past 18 months to $55m.
Weavr claims to be disrupting banking-as-a-service (BaaS) models through embedded financial services that are available to any business with a digital presence. It claims existing BaaS models have heavy cost, compliance and technical burdens.
Founded in 2019, Weavr preconfigures APIs into sophisticated, tailored embedded finance solutions clients deploy out of the box, removing the need of intensive integrations.
Its services provide a company everything they need to integrate financial services into mobile apps, SaaS applications and other digital properties.
MarketForce snags $40m
Kenyan B2B platform for consumer goods and digital financial services MarketForce has snagged $40m from a Series A financing haul.
The round was headed by V8 Capital Partners and saw participation from Ten13 VC, SOSV Select Fund, VU Ventures, Uncovered Fund, Reflect Ventures, Vastly Valuable Ventures, Greenhouse Capital, Remapped Ventures and Century Oak Capital.
Founded in 2018, MarketForce is a B2B commerce and FinTech marketplace that claims it empowers informal merchants in Africa to order, pay and receive inventory digitally and conveniently, access financing, collect digital payments and make extra money by reselling digital financial services.
MarketForce intends to use this funding to scale merchant inventory financing through a BNPL offering, grow deeper in existing markets and avail more digital financial and banking services through its extensive merchant network.
Phosphorus CybersecurityTM picks up $38m
Phosphorus CybersecurityTM, a CyberTech platform aimed at IoT devices, has picked up $38m in its Series A funding round.
The capital injection was led by SYN Ventures and MassMutual Ventures.
With the funds, the company plans to bolster the growth of its technology development. The majority of the capital will be put towards the hiring of engineering staff, enhancing the customer experience and accelerating inbound demand.
Phosphorus also plans to make enhancements to its technology, including extended device coverage and better integration with security platforms.
The CyberTech company was founded in 2017 by Chris Rouland, Rebecca Rouland and Earle Ady. Its platform offers automated security solutions against IoT vulnerabilities, as well as password management capabilities.
Its technology is used by companies in the finance, defence, retail and enterprise industries.
Propelld secures $35m Series B
Propelld, a student education financing platform, has secured $35m from a Series B funding round.
The round was led by WestBridge Capital and also saw participation from existing investors India Quotient and Stellaris Venture Partners.
Founded in 2017, Propelld enables flexible financing solutions through full digital journeys for learners pursuing education programs at vetted partner institutions.
The company provides tailored financing solutions for various educational programs and goes beyond traditional credit parameters to focus on students’ learning capabilities and employment potential to assess their eligibility for a loan.
According to Propelld, it intends to use the new influx of cash to strengthen its in-house technology capabilities and introduce new financing products. The firm also plans to grow its loan book rapidly in a segment that has low credit penetration and offer new products for verticals within education.
Ageras collects $34m
Ageras, which aims to resolve admin burdens for small businesses, has collected $34m (€30m) in fresh funding.
The deal was backed by seven first-time Ageras backers, including Centripetal Capital and Saeid Esmaeilzadeh. Existing Ageras investors Investcorp Technology Partners, Lugard Road Capital and Roosgruppen, also joined the round.
This investment will help the company expand the reach of its platform.
Ageras, which employs 250 people across Europe and the US, plans to use the funds to continue acquiring FinTech companies.
The company previously raised $73m in funding in early 2021 from Lugard Road Capital. Since then, it has expanded its product suite to include payroll services, freelance invoice management and more.
Ageras offers a variety of financial service tools, including accounting, bookkeeping, tax preparation and auditing.
PayMongo raised $31m Series B
Philippines-based FinTech PayMongo, which enables merchants to accept digital payments, has raised $31m in Series B funding as it looks to expand regionally.
According to a report by TechCrunch, the round included Justin Mateen’s JAM Fund, ICCP-SBI Venture Partners and Lisa Gokongwei’s Kaya Founders, along with returning investors Global Founders Capital and SOMA Capital. The startup says the round also included founders from European fintechs like Qonto, Viva Wallet, Billie and Scalable.
This brings PayMongo’s total funding to just under $46m. Its last funding was a $12m Series A announced in 2020 and led by Stripe.
The company targets micro-, small- and medium-sized businesses, enabling them to accept different forms of payments, including credit cards, online wallets and over-the-counter. Its products include PayMongo API and e-commerce plugins.
The new funding will be used to further develop PayMongo’s current payments infrastructure and add more financial services, including disbursements, capital lending, BNPL, and subscriptions and recurring payments.
anecdotes, which identifies itself as the first operating system (OS) for compliance, has collected $25m in its Series A funding round.
Red Dot Capital Partners, an Israel-based venture capital fund, served as the lead investor, with commitments also coming from Vintage Investment Partners, Shasta Ventures, Glilot Capital Partners and Aleph.
Funds from the investment will help anecdotes develop new applications that are aimed at fast-growing companies.
This investment comes after strong growth for anecdotes, which includes commercial agreements with Similarweb, Riskified, Fiverr, Unity and more.
Anecdotes acts as a base for all compliance related processes. It continuously collects and maps data from dozens of systems, including AWS, Snowflake, Cloudflare, GitHub, Datadog, and more.
Nirvana Insurance’s $22m Series A
Nirvana Insurance, a technology-driven platform that modernises commercial fleet insurance, has publicly launched its services on the back of a $22m Series A.
The Series A round was led by Lightspeed Venture Partners with additional participation from General Catalyst, Elad Gil, Fidji Simo (CEO, Instacart), Spike Lipkin (CEO, Newfront), Sam Hodges (CEO, Vouch), and more.
Nirvana said it will use the funding to scale its operations, grow its team, and invest in R&D efforts to expand products and services.
The company uses telematics data to transform the “stubbornly analog” world of truck insurance to help fleets mitigate risk; improve driver performance; drop costs; and make the insurance process easier for everyone.
The Nirvana platform connects billions of data points from telematics and AI-powered dash cams, as well as public sources like the DMV and the department of transportation, to provide instantaneous quotes. Location, speed, video, erratic driving, weather, and traffic are all factors that are assessed by Nirvana’s machine-learning algorithms.
Foxbit raises $21m
Brazilian cryptocurrency exchange Foxbit has reportedly raised $21m in its Series A funding round.
Okcoin owner OK Group served as the lead investor, according to a report from Coindesk.
With the capital, the company plans to increase the development of new technologies, expand its product and technology teams, and seek acquisitions.
Brazil-based Foxbit operates a crypto exchange, boasting a variety of assets, including bitcoin, ether, Litecoin, TrueUSD and more.
Zero Networks lands $20.3m
Enterprise network security company Zero Networks has raised $20.3m in its Series A funding round.
The investment was led by Venrock, with commitments also coming from F2 Venture Capital, PICO Venture Partners and several unnamed angel investors. This Series A brings Zero Network’s total funding to $25m.
This capital will be used for R&D, expanding the product offering and reaching a wider customer base.
Zero Networks has a unique approach to make segmentation simple for cybersecurity. Its platform empowers financial institutions to stop any type of attack from spreading in a network.
It automatically takes every asset and restricts network access to exactly what is needed, implementing security for client, server, home, office, on-premise and cloud environments.
Dowsure Technologies closes $20m Series B
China-based Dowsure Technologies has raised $20m from a Series B financing round that was led by an undisclosed global strategic investor.
Also participating in the round were VenturesLab, Plug and Play China and Qianhaiyifang.
Dowsure is a key player in the cross-border ecommerce market and provides unified lending experiences for cross platform sellers such as Ebay, Amazon and Shopee.
According to FinTech Finance, Downsure’s assessment model and algorithm can be implemented in digital assets that have continual online cash flow but are still considered underbanked by traditional financial institutions. The company has a vision to unleash the value of digital assets in the online world.
EverQuote to gain $15m private investment
EverQuote, an online insurance marketplace, has signed an agreement for a $15m private placement investment by its chairman and co-founder.
The investment was placed by Recognition Capital, an entity owned by David Blundin, chairman of the board of directors and co-founder of EverQuote and a longtime investor in the company.
Under the terms of the purchase agreement, Recognition Capital has agreed to purchase 1,004,016 shares of EverQuote’s Class A Common Stock at a price of $14.94 per share, which is equal to the closing price of the Class A Common Stock on the Nasdaq Global Market on February 22, 2022, for an aggregate purchase price of $15m.
EverQuote operates an online insurance marketplace, connecting consumers with insurance providers. The company’s mission is to empower insurance shoppers to better protect life’s most important assets—their family, property, and future.
Astrix Security rakes in $15m
Israeli cybersecurity startup Astrix Security has raked in $15m in early-stage funding to develop technology to help firms secure third-party app integrations.
The round was led by Bessemer Venture Partners and F2 Capital. Participating was Venrock and a number of undisclosed angel investors.
Founded in 2021, Astrix claims it is the first access management solution for third-party app integrations. Through agentless, one-click deployment, Astrix is able to allow security teams to instantly see through the fog and detect redundant, misconfigured and malicious third-party exposure to the critical systems.
The company said its technology is capable of providing an immediate investory of all third-party connectivity to enterprise applications, enriched with contextual data for assessment and timely mitigation.
Zebec to scale with $15m
Zebec, a continuous and programmable cash stream protocol on Solana, has raised $15m in funding to scale its payment solution.
The funding was led by Solana Ventures and Distributed Global, with investments from Lightspeed Venture Partners, Circle, Coinbase, Alameda Research, OKX Blockdream Ventures, DST Global Partners, Road Ventures, Global Founders Capital, BECO Capital, Greenoaks, GoldenTree Asset Management and 500 Startups. It will be used to continue scaling the Zebec DeFi payment solution.
Zebec’s unique programmable and continuous money stream protocol makes it simple for anyone to send and receive cash up to the second for investments, payments, subscriptions and more.
Zebec Pay, Zebec’s initial application, is the first tax compliant, on-chain payroll processing system enabling employees to be paid by the second and immediately use their money. As a DeFi native model that offers a payment solution for DAOs, crypto projects, Web3 and the metaverse, Zebec is built on Solana for ultimate scalability, speed and low transaction fees.
Picnic in $14m Series A
Picnic, which claims to be the first social engineering prevention and detection platform, has raised $14m in its Series A funding round.
Crosslink Capital, Rally Ventures and Energy Impact Partners led the round.
Picnic claims the root of most major cyberattacks leverage social engineering, which involves attackers harvesting exposed public information to effectively research and attack people, companies and supply chains.
Its platform empowers organisations to see what attackers see and predict who might be targeted, with emulations of attacks powered by 1,000 data sources.
The platform also neutralises and eliminates data beyond the firewall that could fuel attacks. Its intelligence enriches existing security investments by making them more predictive and removing exposed information.
Finally, Picnic continuously monitors publicly available data and the latest attack vendors.
Piñata bags $13m
Piñata, a rewards and credit building membership program for renters, has bagged $13m from a Series A round.
The round was led by Wilshire Lane Capital and saw participation from a number of venture groups as well as Ron Moelis, who is the chairman and co-founder of housing developer L+M Development Partners.
According to FinTech Finance, the funding comes amid Piñata’s huge 1100% year-over-year growth as of January 2022.
Piñata claims it is on a mission to improve the financial lives of the more than 100 million renters in the US and improve the tenant-landlord relationship in the process.
The company is looking to democratise credit access for renters and putting thousands of dollars back in their pockets every year. Members of Piñata are able to earn rewards for everyday goods and services and exclusive discounts from leading brands, as well as boosting their credit scores.
NayaPay raises landslide $13m seed
Pakistani FinTech NayaPay has raised $13m from a seed funding round that is one of the largest ever seed rounds in South Asia.
The round was led by Zayn Capital, MSA Novo and VC Graph Ventures. Also taking part in the round were Maple Leaf Capital, the Lakson Group and Empower Finance CEO Warren Hogarth.
According to FinTech Finance, NayaPay is the first FinTech of its kind in Pakistan having recently secured the first EMI licence from the Pakistan central bank, the State Bank of Pakistan.
NayaPay claims it is on a mission to make financial services simpler and more accessible to millions of Pakistani users and aims to be at the forefront in the digitisation of Pakistan with its platform for the underbanked.
Netacea inks $13m
Netacea, an early-stage bot detection and mitigation firm, has inked $12m from a Series A funding round.
The financing raise was led by Mercia Asset Management and included participation from a vast range of private investors who held experience in the cybersecurity industry.
Established in 2018, Manchester-based Netacea introduces a new layer of security dedicated to bot detection and mitigation based on behavioural analysis and machine learning engines.
The company intends to build out its anti-fraud technology platform as well as to expand its market presence in both the UK and the US. It also plans to expand its team by hiring new talent in development, data analysis, threat research and data science.
Sweater to scale with $12m seed funding
Sweater, which claims to be creating the first fully-managed venture capital fund for retail investors, has raised $12m in its seed funding round.
Motivate VC and Akuna Capital led the round, with commitments also coming from Acorns co-founder Jeffrey Cruttenden, Betterment co-founder Eli Broverman, Liquidity, MRTNZ Ventures, Bison Venture Partners, Spacestation, First Chair Ventures, Zilliqa Capital, Monsen Ventures, Nick Perez, Jeb Bush Jr., Ryan Holtzman and Aaron Wolko.
The round was also backed by high-profile YouTube content creators, including Peter Hollens, Andrei Jikh and Nate O’Brien.
This funding will help Sweater scale its operations and hire more staff to its investment team and marketing division.
Sweater is aimed at boosting generational wealth creation through venture investing. It hopes to empower retail investors to take part in venture capital. The company is targeting the $10trn industry of retail investors and currently has over 50,000 people on its waitlist.
Cyble secures $10m
Cybersecurity intelligence company Cyble has secured $10m from a Series A financing raise led by Blackbird.
The round also saw participation from Cendana Capital, VentureSouq, Spider Capital and January Capital. Following this raise, Cyble has raised a total of approximately $14.5m, after it previously raised $4m from a seed round in April 2021.
Founded in 2019, Cyble is an AI-powered cyber threat intelligence firm that helps global organisations with dark web, cybercrime monitoring and mitigation services.
The Georgia-based company claims it aims to help customers stay protected from exposure to the surface, deep and dark web by offering real-time visibility into their digital risk footprint through continuous monitoring of dark and surface web data from both open and closed sources.
According to Cyble, it intends to use the new funding to widen its product roadmap, as well as to expand to new markets and amplify the capabilities of Cyble Research Labs.
Hubuc secures $10m in seed funding
Barcelona-based embedded finance firm Hubuc has secured $10m from a seed funding round co-led by Runa Capital and WndrCo.
Hubuc labels itself as the ‘AWS for financial services’ and has promised to enable any companies to add managed financial services – from payments, virtual and physical cards to bank accounts – to their product offering through a single API.
The company has said it can cut onboarding processes from up to a year to just a few weeks due to its in-house compliance, ledger and processing platform. This means contracts, regulatory requirements, integrations and risk are all managed by Hubuc, enabling its customers with instant access to a full-suite of services.
In relation to the AWS comparison, Hubuc said that like the cloud giant, it allows its customers to ‘forget about buying computing infrastructure and removes the need to worry about finding banking partners, compliance, card manufacturers, and identity verification’.
Nous on growth mission with $9m seed
Nous, a London-based FinTech start-up, has raised $9m in seed financing to build out its service that helps households navigate the imminent cost of living crisis.
The round, led by Mosaic Ventures, involved participation from more than 65 leading angel investors, including renowned tech entrepreneurs such as Tom Blomfield (co-founder of GoCardless & Monzo), Marc Warner (co-founder & CEO of AI pioneer Faculty.ai), Dan Hegarty (founder & CEO of leading digital mortgage company Habito), Eamon Jubbawy (co-founder of FinTech unicorn Onfido), serial entrepreneur Brent Hoberman, ActiveHotels (Booking.com) co-founder Andy Phillipps, ex-number-10 strategist John Gibson (one of the original architects of OpenBanking), Christopher North (the former head of Amazon UK), and John Fingleton (former head of the Office of Fair Trading, now CMA), among many others.
Nous’s proprietary tech platform – available on mobile, tablet and desktops – aggregates first and third party data feeds to power a real time personalised dashboard of a household’s finances along with actionable insights.
Nouse said the new capital will be used to scale up the product team. With a greenfield tech stack, the company is currently hiring senior full stack engineers who share its passion for building products from the ground up to improve people’s lives.
Savvy snares $7.3m
Savvy, a wealth management firm that provides wealth managers with enhanced software and marketing automation, has raised $7.3m from a seed round.
The round was co-led by Index Ventures and Thrive Capital and also saw participation from the founders of Flexport, Opendoor, Newfront, Iconiq, Plaid, Instacart, Figma, Jordan Park, A* Capital, Operator Partners, GFC and more.
According to Savvy, it was formed to address the lack of technology adoption and fragmentation of services in the wealth management industry. Its technology assists wealth managers in thriving so they are better able to focus on growing their client base and assets under management.
Savvy will use the financing to acquire wealth management firms, hire wealth managers, grow the product development team and invest in research and development. The company also aims to expand its digital platform to further bolster the quality of client service and wealth manager efficacy.
6Estates closes $6.2m Series B+
6Estates, an AI-powered document processing solution, has reportedly raised $6.2m in its Series B+ funding round.
The deal was led by Sinar Mas Group, with commitments also coming from Djarum Group and Central Capital Ventura, according to a report from Tech in Asia.
With this capital, the company plans to enhance its intelligent document processing (IDP) solution to better serve companies in banking, finance, trade, insurance, shipping and logistics.
Based in Singapore, 6Estates leverages natural language processes and machine reading to understand business documents. Its AI is able to automate and simplify operational processes and help with regulatory compliance.
Its IDP can support digitalisation, information extraction, metrics analysis, compliance rules checks, report generation and more.
Plinqit lands $5m Series A
Plinqit has closed its Series A round on $5m to support the development of its platform, which it claims is the only platform to pay users to learn about personal finances.
US-based venture capital firms Fintop Capital and JAM FINTOP, with commitments also coming from Invest Detroit, Michigan Rise4, Front Credit Union and others. With the close of the round, the company has raised a total of $10m in funding.
Proceeds from the round will help Plinqit expand its platform to meet rising customer demand.
Plinqit supplies financial institutions with a cost-effective customer acquisition strategy. Unlike other savings platforms, Plinqit’s Build Skills product is aimed at paying users for engaging with content that improves their financial literacy.
AlgoTrader picks up $4.9m
AlgoTrader, an automated quantitative trading and trade execution platform, has picked up $4.9m in its pre-Series B funding round.
Credit Suisse Entrepreneur Capital and C3 EOS VC Fund co-led the round. Other contributions came from SBI Investment, Fenbushi Capital, Verve Ventures, Quonota Investments, NeueCapital and more.
This equity burst will help AlgoTrader to further deploy its digital asset trading platform globally. Capital will also be used to expand its position in the market and boost team development.
The company has experienced a strong past year, with an ARR increase of 200% in Q4 2021, alone.
AlgoTrader is an institutional trading technology developer for digital assets. It covers the entire trade lifecycle, from pre-trade risk checks to order generation, automated settlement and custody reconciliation.
With the close of the round, the FinTech company has raised a total of $12m in funding. It previously raised $3.8m in a funding round back in January 2020.
Squirro sources $4m
Squirro, an augmented intelligence platform that helps assess risks to banks, has reportedly raised $4m in funding and acquired US deal sourcing platform open.exchange.
It acquired open.exchange from BuildGroup and hopes the deal will expand its reach in the US, according to a report from Tech.eu.
As part of the deal, open.exchange will integrate with Squirro’s existing applications to build a rounded offering. It also hopes it can boost the speed and flexibility of its platform.
Alongside this, Squirro has signed an agreement with the European Central Bank (ECB), which sees it supply the bank with its Engine and Insights solution. Squirro is already working with central banks, including the Bank of England and German Bundesbank.
The company’s Insight Engine improves access to information by connecting all data sources and applying natural language and machine learning to deliver the right information to users at the right time.
This is then augmented by the Squirro Risk Insights solution, which monitors and contextualises all relevant risk factors. Teams are given insights and best-action recommendations to assess and mitigate ongoing risk levels.
InsurTech Stable bags $3.3m
Stable, an InsurTech that claims it is creating fit-for-purpose insurance for owners of rideshare and carshare vehicles, has bagged $3.3m from a funding round.
The round was co-led by MLTPLY and Brooklyn Bridge Ventures and also saw participation from Dave Delaney of Lancer Insurance, Christopher Cavallaro and John McKenna from ARC Excess and Surplus, Harry Campbell of The Rideshare Guy and VJ Dowling of Dowling & Associates.
Stable highlighted that through its platform, not only do customers digitally secure insurance with features specifically tailored to their use, but also have the access to tools that allows owners to run their businesses more profitably and efficiently.
Alongside insurance, Stable also offers tools and analytics so that owner operators and growing fleets can run their businesses more effectively. The analytics that are available on Stable’s dashboard offer a holistic view of risk levels and profitability metrics, which enables owners and operators to make better and more informed decisions.
StockViva gets $3m backing
Hong Kong-based StockViva, which offers a financial real-time analytics platform, has reportedly raised $3m in its Series A funding round.
The investment was backed by Farquhar VC, Kharis Capital, Hong Huan Group, Angelhub and a group of unnamed angel investors, according to a report from Tech In Asia.
With the funds, StockViva plans to support its community, improve its user experience and hire more staff. It claims its revenue increased by 122% in 2021 and trading volume grew by 932%.
StockViva provides users with real-time analysis from financial key opinion leaders within trading. It supports Hong Kong and US stocks, FX, warrants, options, bonds and commodities.
The platform is available in China, Taiwan, Singapore and New Zealand – where it is known as MeowMeow.
StockViva previously raised $2m in funding from Alibaba Hong Kong Entrepreneurs Fund, K3 Ventures and others.
Phishfirewall nets $2.5m
CyberTech company PhishFirewall, which offers AI-driven cybersecurity awareness education and threat emulation, has netted $2.5m in its seed funding round.
The Cox Group, which offers technology-driven solutions for the transportation, warehousing and distribution companies, led the round. As part of the deal, Cox Group president Barry Cox will join PhishFirewall’s board of directors.
PhishFirewall leverages automated and individualised social engineering and training to create a “human firewall.”
It was founded by ethical hacker and cybersecurity consultant Joshua Crumbaugh, who spent decades protecting global enterprises. PhishFirewall was created after Crumbaugh noted the need for a scalable tool that educates staff about cybersecurity problems efficiently. Current solutions, he claimed, were underperforming and employees would click phishes and expose a company.
KarmaLife bags $2.2m
Real-time credit solution provider KarmaLife has reportedly netted $2.2m in its pre-Series A funding round.
The investment was led by Artha Venture Fund, an India-based venture firm aimed at supporting local companies, according to a report from New York Tech. Other investors to the round include Netgraph Investment, LV Angel Fund and Singularity Ventures.
Several angel investors also joined the round, including CDC Group managing director Abhinav Sinha, Global Equity London CEO Amit Jain, Vodacom South Africa managing director Balesh Sharma, Hesa founder Vamsi Udayagiri, Mytrah Energy CEO Vikram Kailas and ex BharatPe CBO Prateek Agarwal.
With the funds, the FinTech company hopes to bolster product development, hire more staff and form more partnerships.
The KarmaLife platform offers gig workers with subscription-based finance. Users access digitally integrated real-time credit to better manage their day-to-day cash flows and become financially resilient.
Acuminor picks up $2m
Sweden-based Acuminor has picked up SEK 19m ($2m) in an investment round to help it push into new markets.
The investment was backed by Swedish investment firms Zenith Group and Edastra.
With the funds, Acuminor is planning to bolster its development efforts, hire more staff and enter new markets.
Acuminor was founded in 2018 and launched its first product in 2020. Powered by one of the world’s largest money laundering and terrorist financing threats and risks databases, its machine learning technology enables authorities and companies to address financial crime risks.
Its platform is now used by 750 companies spread across 13 countries. Its clients include major international banks, gaming companies, law enforcement, real estate agents and payment service companies.
Late last year, the company updated its ThreatView platform to improve financial crime support. The new version of its solution has a redesigned interface that enables precise threat and risk analysis. Furthermore, its new reporting features allows users to document their findings.
FinTech EdfaPay in $1.6m seed
Saudi-based FinTech EdfaPay has raised $1.6m in a pre-seed round led by Nuwa Capital, InspireUs VC and Wallan Investment Group.
A report by WAYA revealed the details of the funding round. EdfaPay’s softPOS system allows any merchant to accept payments using their smartphones as opposed to a traditional POS system.
The company, which was founded this year, has also developed a suite of tools to help merchants access additional data post-payment. For example, merchants can now access transactional and historical data via a dashboard, which also allows them to manage user access across branches and stores.
Umazi bags $1m
Umazi, a due diligence platform that automates enterprise identity verification, has bagged $1m in investment.
The company secured the funding from Innovate UK and a range of other angel investors.
Umazi has developed a distributed ledger technology that drastically reduces the complexity of the compliance process by creating secure digital identities feature due diligence credentials. Such credentials are then verified and validated by regulated entities and housed on an open-source permissioned blockchain platform. This allows for a real-time and transparent audit process that allows financial institutions to manage their client data more effectively.
According to Umazi, the funding will help fuel the RegTech’s ambition to set the global standard for cross-industry digital identity and compliance.
tZERO receives strategic backing
tZERO, a marketplace to trade private digital securities, has received a strategic investment from group of investors.
The capital was supplied by ICE, Overstock.com, Medici Ventures and others.
tZERO operates an alternative trading system and broker-dealer in the digital assets space. Its platform connects issuers and financial firms looking for a transparent, automated and digitally enabled marketplace.
Alongside the funding round, tZERO has named David Goone, the former chief strategy officer of Intercontinental Exchange, as its new CEO.
Semsee lands Series B
Semsee, a commercial insurance platform, has raised Series B funding led by Dick Costolo and Adam Bain’s 01 Advisors.
The round also saw participation from existing investor the D. E. Shaw group, through its venture studio DESCOvery.
The funding will accelerate Semsee’s expansion into new markets and fuel the addition of new technology features that help insurance agents and carriers deliver more insurance policies to business owners. Former insurance executive Jonathan Crystal, managing partner, Crystal Venture Partners, is also joining Semsee as an advisor.
Semsee’s platform helps agents identify small businesses, finds the best coverage and value, and matches them with insurance companies and products in real-time. Semsee connects 5,000 agents and is working with more than 40 insurance companies on its platform, having grown 400% in the past year.
Lipa Payments raises $660,000
Lipa Payments, a South African FinTech company, has raised R10m ($660,000) in fresh funding.
The capital was supplied by Imvelo Ventures, which is backed by Capitec Bank.
Lipa teams up with banks and FinTech companies to offer affordable and fast payments to merchants. Its technology means a merchant can accept either phone-to-phone payments through Bluetooth or a bank-card payment to their phone through NFC tech.
In its statement, Lipa claimed there is currently limited infrastructure for digital payment support at local shops, hair salons and fast-food stores, and most micro-merchants cannot afford POS devices. Lipa was designed to resolve this gap.
The company plans to roll out its platform across South Africa and Nigeria in 2022.
Chimney bags seed funding
Financial guidance provider Chimney has rebranded from Signal Intent to better align with its mission to offer “exceptional, consumer-facing solutions.”
In addition to this, the FinTech company closed its seed funding round. The size of the deal was not revealed. The investment round was backed by Fintech Meetup founder and CEO Anil Aggarwal, Fin VC and Converge.
Over the past year, Chimney claims to have experienced a period of strong growth and hopes its funding round will continue this. As part of this, it plans to hire more staff in multiple key positions over the coming months.
Chimney supplies financial institutions with the tools and technology to engage with customers via web and digital banking to fund more loans. It claims clients experience a 15% lift in conversions. It also claims the embedded services help reduce acquisition costs.
It offers calculators that help customers assess the term of potential loans. It has calculators for mortgages, home equity, home buyers and other financing products. The company also offers financial guidance tools for retirement.
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