Just 13 FinTech funding rounds were closed this week, as the industry settles down for the end of the year.
This week’s FinTech companies collectively raised $578m, with the ten biggest deals accounting for $571m. While there was only a baker’s dozen of deals, there were a number of sizable deals amongst them.
The biggest of the week was secured by US-based marketplace lending company Zest AI. It secured $200m in a growth investment supplied by Insight Partners, which will enable it to kickstart its next growth phase. As part of its expansion efforts, the FinTech plans to enhance its product portfolio and advance its AI technology, with a focus on fraud protection and generative AI.
Zest AI aims to transform the credit underwriting sector through its advanced AI technology that help to improve credit scoring and accessibility. It was also the only marketplace lending company to close a funding round this week.
The second biggest deal of the week went to UK-based digital bank Zopa, which raised £68m. A.P. Moller served as the lead investor, with contributions coming from several other existing backers. With the boost of the capital injection, Zopa plans launch its flagship current account in 2025 and a pioneering Generative AI (GenAI) product designed to transform how customers manage their finances.
This was also the only WealthTech company to raise funds this week.
The PayTech and CyberTech sectors led the week, in terms of deals, with each accounting for three deals. The PayTechs are Gigs, Ayan Capital and Torus, while the CyberTechs are Sublime Security, Astrix Security and Silent Push.
The only other sector to record more than one deal this week was the data and analytics space. These companies, which are helping financial services companies make better use of data, are Finny and Wald.ai.
Other sectors represented this week are infrastructure and enterprise software (Mynt), InsurTech (Players Health) and RegTech (Ethyca).
As for countries, the US housed over half of the deals with a total of 8. These are Zest AI, Gigs, Sublime Security, Players Health, Silent Push, Ethyca, Finny and Wald.ai.
The UK saw two deals (Zopa and Ayan Capital), while Israel (Astrix Security), Lithuania (Torus) and Sweden (Mynt) each saw one deal apiece.
It has been a tough year for the FinTech sector, with deal activity having halved from 2023, according to recent research from FinTech Global. The sector has been on a steady decline, in terms of deal activity and funding volume, since the colossal year of 2021.
Here are the 13 FinTech funding rounds covered this week on FinTech Global
Insight Partners leads $200m funding to propel Zest AI’s growth
Zest AI, a leader in AI-powered lending technology, has secured a $200m growth investment from Insight Partners, a global software investor.
This investment will drive Zest AI’s next phase of expansion, enabling the company to enhance its product portfolio and strengthen its position in the FinTech space.
The funding will allow Zest AI to continue advancing its AI technology, focusing on fraud protection and generative AI to redefine the lending industry.
Insight Partners, which has supported the company through multiple investments since 2020, highlighted Zest AI’s consistent growth and customer satisfaction as key drivers for this significant funding round.
Founded in 2009, Zest AI transforms credit underwriting by leveraging advanced AI technology to improve credit scoring accuracy and accessibility. Its proprietary models analyse thousands of data variables, significantly surpassing traditional methods. The company’s innovative platform automates up to 80% of loan applications, enhancing operational efficiency and expanding access to credit for underserved communities.
UK digital bank Zopa secures £68m ($85.8m) to drive GenAI and current account launch
Zopa, a UK-based digital bank blending innovative technology with over 20 years of lending expertise, has raised €80m (£68m) in an equity funding round.
The round was led by A.P. Moller Holding, alongside participation from existing investors.
The latest funding will support Zopa’s continued expansion, including the launch of a flagship current account in 2025 and a pioneering Generative AI (GenAI) product designed to transform how customers manage their finances.
Zopa has positioned itself as a leader in digital banking, offering solutions to over 1.3m customers in the UK.
It provides products aimed at improving financial health, such as market-leading savings accounts, affordable credit options, and innovative balance transfer tools to help users pay down credit more efficiently.
Since launching its bank in 2020, Zopa has secured £5bn in deposits, with £3bn in loans currently on its balance sheet.
The bank has achieved several significant milestones this year, including partnerships with prominent UK retailers such as John Lewis.
A recent collaboration with Octopus Energy allows Zopa to assist consumers in transitioning to green energy using its suite of regulated buy now, pay later (BNPL) and retail finance products.
Gigs secures $73m Series B to empower tech firms with mobile service integration
Gigs, a company that provides an operating system for mobile services, has raised $73m in a Series B funding round led by Ribbit Capital.
Existing investors, including Google’s Gradient Ventures, Y Combinator, and Speedinvest, also participated in this latest investment round.
The funding solidifies Gigs’ position as a leader in enabling tech companies to embed mobile services into their offerings. Since its founding in 2020, Gigs has been on a mission to democratise the telecom industry, making it accessible for companies to integrate mobile connectivity seamlessly and efficiently into their products.
Gigs offers a comprehensive platform that empowers tech companies to launch their own mobile services across global premium networks within weeks. The solution eliminates the challenges traditionally faced by businesses entering the telecom space, such as navigating fragmented vendor systems, dealing with inconsistent APIs, or committing substantial upfront capital to secure network rates. By bundling services like connectivity, billing, analytics, and AI-powered customer support, Gigs simplifies the process for tech brands to provide phone plans and travel data as part of their core services.
The new funding will be used to expand Gigs’ geographical presence and enhance its suite of products and services. The company aims to drive further innovation in telecom, enabling tech brands to create customised digital mobile experiences, increase customer engagement, and unlock new recurring revenue streams.
Sublime Security secures $60m in Series B to bolster email security tech
Sublime Security, a Washington, D.C.-based startup, has secured a substantial $60m in its latest Series B funding round.
According to Security Week, this substantial investment was spearheaded by a consortium of investors including IVP, Citi Ventures, Index Ventures, Decibel Partners, and Slow Ventures. This funding boost raises Sublime’s total capital to $93.8m, underscoring strong investor confidence in its innovative solutions.
Sublime is carving out a niche in the competitive email security market with its unique technology. The platform merges AI-driven detection capabilities with a programmable rules engine, providing robust protection against phishing, malware, and targeted Business Email Compromise (BEC) threats. These features are essential for companies operating in today’s digital-first environment, where email security threats are increasingly sophisticated.
The funds from this round will be employed to further enhance its security offerings and expand its market reach. Sublime’s focus will continue to be on developing advanced features for its platforms and scaling its operations to meet the growing demand for secure email solutions.
Since its last funding round seven months ago, Sublime has made significant strides in market penetration and client acquisition. It has quadrupled its customer base, adding notable enterprises such as Elastic, Benteler, and Cribl to its roster, joining established clients like Spotify, Reddit, and Brex.
Players Health raises $60m to enhance athlete safety and expand insurance solutions
Players Health, a leading provider of risk management and insurance solutions for sports organisations, leverages technology to address the ever-changing safety and compliance needs of amateur and professional sports.
The $60m Series C round was led by Bluestone Equity Partners, a private equity firm focused on the Sports, Media & Entertainment industry. Additional investors included Mosaic General Partners, RPM Ventures, SiriusPoint, and TriplePoint Capital. This latest investment brings Players Health’s total funding to over $100m.
Founded by former professional American football player Tyrre Burks, Players Health offers digital risk management services, reporting tools, and insurance products to over 440,000 sports organisations in the U.S. Its data-driven platform aims to foster a safer ecosystem for athletes at all levels, with solutions tailored for youth, collegiate, and professional sports.
Bluestone Equity’s Walker Brumskine and Jake Harris will join the Players Health board of directors, bringing expertise in scaling businesses. Brumskine commented, “With its expanded capabilities, Players Health will increase its support of the entire sports ecosystem, helping drive collaboration between all stakeholders, including standardization of best practices for athlete safety and risk management across the country.”
The company’s services already reach over 5.5m youth athletes nationwide, with clients including USA Softball, 3-Step Sports, RCX Sports, American Youth Soccer Organisation, and Orangetheory.
Astrix Security secures $45m to enhance identity protection in the AI era
Astrix Security, a leader in the cyber security space, announced a significant boost in funding with a $45m Series B round.
The investment was led by Menlo Ventures and supported by Workday Ventures, alongside contributions from existing investors such as Bessemer Venture Partners, CRV, and F2 Venture Capital.
The funds are earmarked for Astrix Security’s groundbreaking work in securing non-human identities (NHIs)—a critical area in cybersecurity. NHIs, which include API keys, service accounts, and secrets, are becoming increasingly vital as companies integrate more artificial intelligence into their systems.
Astrix Security is at the forefront of developing solutions that ensure trusted access to critical systems, expanding to cover all identities, both human and non-human. Their innovative technology aims to redefine how identities are managed and protected, providing robust security measures that keep pace with the evolving digital landscape.
The newly acquired funds will be utilised to enhance Astrix’s infrastructure and expand its capabilities. This will include advancing its agentless technology that allows for rapid discovery and management of non-human identities, addressing a significant gap in current cybersecurity measures.
Additional information from the release highlights Astrix’s recent achievements, including a 5x growth since their last funding round and tripling their team size. They’ve also garnered recognition as a SINET16 Innovator 2024 and a Gartner Cool Vendor in Identity-First Security.
Swedish FinTech Mynt clinches €22m ($23.1m) Series B for European expansion
Mynt, a provider of corporate credit cards and spend management software, has secured a substantial €22m in a Series B funding round.
According to Tech EU, the round, spearheaded by Vor Capital, also saw participation from existing investors CNI, Incore, and others. This latest financial boost pushes Mynt’s total funding to over €50m, valuing the company at approximately €175m.
Mynt is a significant player in the FinTech industry, primarily serving Nordic SMEs with its innovative corporate card solutions integrated directly with accounting systems. The company has demonstrated a robust growth trajectory, achieving month-over-month profitability since September, and expanding its customer base from 3,000 to 12,000 SMEs over the past year.
The newly acquired funds will be strategically used to further Mynt’s expansion into the UK and other European markets. Additionally, Mynt aims to broaden its product offering and respond to the increasing demand for spend management solutions among SMEs. The next phase for Mynt involves scaling its Mynt Platform, a spend management-as-a-service offering, across the UK and Central Europe. This platform is tailored for banks, ERPs, and fleet and mobility companies, providing them with proactive spend management and corporate card issuing capabilities.
With successful partnerships already in place with notable entities like Fortnox and Accountor, who are rolling out card solutions to their customers, Mynt is set to replicate its success in Central European markets.
Silent Push secures $10m in Series A to boost global cybersecurity efforts
Silent Push, a Reston, VA-based company, has recently completed a $10m Series A funding round.
According to City Biz, the cybersecurity intelligence firm is known for its innovative approach to preemptive threat detection.
This significant investment was led by Ten Eleven Ventures and Stepstone Group. Together with an early seed round, Silent Push’s total funding has now reached $22m.
The core of Silent Push’s operations involves providing a comprehensive view of emerging threats in cybersecurity. By exposing attacks and their intents through its Indicators of Future Attacks (IOFA) data, the company offers solutions that block threats at the perimeter.
Its platform, available via API, integrates seamlessly with various security tools including SIEM & XDR, SOAR, TIP, and OSINT, furnishing automated and actionable intelligence.
The newly acquired funds are earmarked for accelerating the company’s global expansion, particularly in the EMEA and APJ regions. Additionally, these resources will bolster Silent Push’s go-to-market efforts, enhancing its outreach and operational capabilities.
Silent Push serves a diverse clientele, including enterprises and government agencies, underscoring its critical role in national and corporate cybersecurity frameworks.
Ethyca secures $10m for advanced data privacy solutions
Ethyca, a prominent New York-based data privacy and AI governance platform, has successfully raised $10m in a new funding round.
According to Security Week, this investment increases the total capital raised by the company to over $37m since its inception.
The round was led by Aspenwood Ventures and AVP, with significant contributions also coming shortly after Ethyca expanded its client base to include notable names such as Axios, Mozilla, Ramp, and Remitly.
Founded in 2018, Ethyca has developed an enterprise platform that enhances data visibility and governance and seamlessly integrates with widely-used SaaS solutions. The company’s standout offering, the Fides open source platform, empowers organizations to identify personally identifiable information (PII) within their systems and create GDPR-compliant data maps for efficient privacy management.
The platform is specifically designed to assist organizations in managing their data inventories through automated system mapping. This helps maintain compliance with consent management across all data workflows and ensures that AI models adhere to privacy regulations. Furthermore, Ethyca provides streamlined, automated processes for privacy requests and offers easy-to-configure integrations for various systems and vendors, thereby reducing costs and minimizing risks.
With the fresh capital, Ethyca plans to enhance key product features and expand its team to meet the growing demand for its robust, enterprise-grade platform.
Finny bags $4.3m in seed funding to transform financial advisory with Gen AI
Finny, a New York City-based FinTech startup, has successfully closed a $4.3m seed funding round.
According to FinSMEs, the investment was spearheaded by Maple VC and HNVR, with notable contributions from Crossbeam Ventures, Liquid 2, Y Combinator, Morningstar CEO Kunal Kapoor, Gusto CPO Tomer London, and Deel COO Dan Westgarth.
The company specializes in leveraging generative AI to analyze publicly available data, pinpointing potential clients for financial advisors. By synthesizing a vast array of data points, Finny identifies key life events that suggest a need for financial advice, such as real estate transactions, marriages, divorces, and new business ventures.
The new funds will be allocated towards expanding Finny’s operations and further developing its sophisticated AI capabilities. Under the leadership of CEO Eden Ovadia, the company is dedicated to refining its three-step process of client acquisition, which includes prospect identification, prioritization, and engagement.
Additional features of Finny’s platform include the creation of an ‘F-Score,’ akin to a compatibility score, which assesses the potential success between an advisor and a prospective client. This system enhances over time, learning from each interaction to improve its predictive accuracy and outreach strategies.
Finny’s technology automates much of the client engagement process, allowing financial advisors to focus on delivering personalized advice rather than on the outreach itself. The AI chooses the most effective communication channels and manages follow-ups and meeting scheduling.
Wald.ai secures $4m in seed funding to enhance AI data protection
Wald.ai, a pioneer in contextual data loss protection for AI platforms, has successfully closed a $4m seed funding round.
The company, known for its innovative approach to safeguarding private business information across AI platforms, focuses on integrating AI tools such as ChatGPT, Gemini, Claude, and Llama into business environments while ensuring data security.
The seed round garnered support from Inventus Capital, Entrada Ventures, and several high-profile angel investors from top cybersecurity firms including Palo Alto Networks, Fortinet, and HackerOne. These investors are backing Wald’s vision to revolutionize data protection in AI interactions.
Wald.ai’s platform excels in creating a secure bridge between businesses and leading AI models. It enables companies to utilize generative AI for various functions such as content creation and document querying without risking exposure of personally identifiable information (PII) or other sensitive data. This technology not only redacts private information but also uses intelligent substitutions to provide optimal AI responses, maintaining data integrity and compliance.
The new funds will be directed towards scaling Wald’s operations, enhancing the platform’s capabilities, and expanding its reach to cater to industries with stringent compliance requirements. By integrating advanced AI technologies securely into daily workflows, Wald.ai aims to make generative AI both safe and accessible for a broader range of business applications.
Ayan Capital raises £2.8m ($3.5m) to expand Islamic FinTech solutions in the UK
SaaS platform Torus raises new capital to revolutionise card payment transparency
Lithuanian FinTech Torus, a SaaS intelligence platform for banks and PayTechs, has received funding from Goose Valley Ventures (GVV), a FinTech-focused venture capital firm dedicated to startups in the Nordic and Baltic regions.
Torus, which has developed a platform addressing the $13bn challenge in transparency around fees charged by card schemes such as Visa and Mastercard, is set to benefit from this strategic investment.
The company’s innovative platform analyses, optimises, and predicts scheme fees, helping issuers, acquirers, and merchants improve their profitability in a low-margin, high-volume card payment market. With 10 customers and an ARR of $1m, Torus is already demonstrating strong growth and market demand for its solutions.
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