From cybersecurity startups to challenger banks, let’s take a deep dive into the FinTech companies raising money over the past week.
Challenger banks have raised a lot investment in the past five years, with neobanks like Revolut, Monzo, Chime and Nubank having picked up the majority of investment going into the WealthTech sector, according to FinTech Global’s research. This week saw the established digital banks face new competition as US neobank Aspiration picked up $135m in a Series C round. It’s safe to say that the competition in this segment will only become more fierce.
In what has become a common theme in these weekly roundups, the past seven days also saw several cybersecurity startups raise more capital, with the cyber insurance platform Coalition’s $90m round being chief among them. As we have reported in the past, cybersecurity has long led the RegTech industry’s investment rounds.
In the first quarter of 2020, it represented a whooping 53.4% of the total investment going into the RegTech space, according to RegTech Analyst’s research. Given the threat of cyber crime has only risen in the face of the coronavirus crisis, it seems likely that cybersecurity will continue to lead the way int the RegTech industry.
With that in mind, let’s take a closer look at the 31 rounds we have reported on this week.
Brex has closed a $150m round
Corporate credit card company Brex has bagged $150m in funding, which will help the company grow its engineering and product design efforts. DST led the round, with contributions also coming from TransferWise backer Lone Pine Capital.
The close of the round strengthens the Brex’s balance sheet and its position across its lenders and financial partners. Brex has said it use the money to fund the development of its engineering, product and design functions and to bolster its expense management, procurement and software tools.
To support its growth, the company will look to make small acquisitions that compliment its hiring and product development. Brex offers corporate cards, rewards and travel programmes tailored to different industries. The corporate card and rewards system were initially launched in 2018 and aimed at startups.
Aspiration has netted $135m in a Series C round
US neobank Aspiration has scored $135m in its Series C round to help it provide its customers with more financial products and services.
The company has more than 1.5 million users who are spending, saving and investing their money while supporting the plant. Anytime an account holder completes a transaction with the Aspiration debit card, they will be responsible for one tree being planted. Users can even compare their daily impact with their friends.
In addition to plant trees, when users spend money they can earn up to 10% cashback. Investing through Aspiration will also mean a customer’s money will never be put into fossil fuel projects such as pipelines or oil drilling.
States Title has raised $123m in Series C round
PropTech platform States Title has scored $123m in its Series C equity round. Greenspring Associates led the raise, which also saw participation from Horizons Ventures, Eminence Capital, Assurant, FifthWall Ventures, Lennar Ventures, SCOR Global P&C Ventures and HSCM Bermuda, as well as previous States Title backer Foundation Capital.
Sates Tiles will use the money to offer enhanced support to lenders, real estate agents and homeowners. It will also look to deepen its technology development.
Coalition secured $90m in new round
Cyber insurance platform Coalition has bagged a $90m equity investment to support its rapid growth and global expansion.
Valor Equity Partners led the round with additional support coming from Felicis Ventures, Greyhound Capital, as well as, a number of the InsurTech’s existing investor base.
BetterCloud collected $75m in funding round led by private equity firm
BetterCloud, which helps businesses build and protect their cloud applications, has bagged $75m in a funding round led by private equity firm Warburg Pincus.
The capital injection was also backed by previous BetterCloud investors Accel, Bain Capital Ventures, Flybridge Capital Partners, New Amsterdam Growth Capital, Greycroft, and e.ventures.
With the fresh funds, the company is hoping to bolster its development to better service its clients. This includes deepening its product development and expanding the number of supported SaaSOps use cases.
Cyberbit has raised $70m in a new round
Cybersecurity training platform Cyberbit has received a $70m investment from Charlesbank Capital Partners.
This investment was made of a combination of a primary investment and a secondary purchase from Elbit, with participation from existing investor Claridge Israel.
The capital injection will help the cybersecurity startup to enhance its product capabilities and accelerate its growth. Funds will also be used to support the rise in demand for its services.
Lendingkart $42.1m Series D
SME lending platform Lendingkart has reportedly raised a total of INR 319.2 Crore ($42.1m) in its Series D round, after closing a new extension investment.
The round was backed by Fullerton Financial Holdings Pte Ltd, Bertelsmann India Investments, Sistema Asia Fund and IndiaQuotient.
Lendingkart had earlier raised INR 233 Crore ($30m) in its initial Series D round back in August 2019 and has now secured an additional INR 86.2 Crore (12m).
Fly Now Pay Later has closed a £35m funding round
Flexible payment solution Fly Now Pay Later has secured £35m in a funding round which was comprised of both debt and equity. Revenio Capital, Shawbrook Bank and BCI Finance, supplied the money.
Capital from the round will be used to enhance its technology and support the launch of a consumer payments app. The consumer payments app will make flights more accessible post the coronavirus with adjustable payment options.
Aqua Security has netted €30m in a new capital injection
Cybersecurity company Aqua Security has netted $30m in its Series D round, supporting a strong growth period, which has seen it double its revenue in 12 months.
The investment was led by Greenspring Associates, with support also coming from Insight Partners, Lightspeed Venture Partners, and TLV Partners.
The cybersecurity company, which was founded in 2015, helps firms to protect their infrastructure. Its Cloud Native Security Platform offers full visibility and security automation throughout an application lifecycle to better detect and prevent online threats.
Aqua has more than 400 clients spanning the finance, energy, aerospace, internet, media, travel, retail, pharmaceutical and hospitality industries.
The funding comes after Aqua Security has seen strong growth. In the past 12 months, the cybersecurity company has doubled its revenue and headcount.
Digital identity company Truework has collected $30m Series B round
Truework, a consent-based identity platform, has collected $30m in its Series B round which was led by Activant Capital.
Contributions to the round also came from Sequoia Capital and Khosla Ventures. The investment also witnessed support from a number of angel investors including LinkedIn CEO Jeff Weiner, Docusign founder Tom Gonser, Plaid co-founder William Hockey and Checkr co-founder and CEO Daniel Yanisse.
Spruce has collected $29m in a new round
Online real estate transaction startup Spruce has raised $29m in an investment round led by Scale Venture Partners and with participation from Zigg Capital and Bessemer Venture Partners.
It will use the Series B money to expand its team, create a better solution for its clients and to create better integrations with clients.
CLARA has netted $25m Series B round
CLARA analytics, an AI-powered solution for the commercial insurance space, has scored $25m in its Series B round. Aspen Capital led the round, with participation also coming from previous backer Oak HC/FT, as well as others.
With the fresh funds, the company will extend its product suite, hire more staff and increase its international expansion. To meet rising demand, the company is looking to expand its sales, support and product teams and enter new parts of property and casualty insurance.
Confluera has netted a $20m Series B round
Confluera, an autonomous detection and response platform for cyberattacks, has closed its Series B round on $20m.
The round was led by Icon Ventures and as part of the deal, the investment firm’s general partner Preeti Rathi will join the company’s board of directors.
Funding to the Series B also came from Harpoon Ventures, Lightspeed Venture Partners, John W. Thompson and Lane Bess.
Lendahand has netted €17.5m in fresh capital
Lendahand, which is a crowdfunding platform for impact investing, has hit the target €1m of its own crowdfunding campaign. The Netherlands-based company has raised the money on Seedrs at a pre-money valuation of €17.5m.
Source Defense secures $10.5m in its Series A+
Client-side web security platform Source Defense has scored $10.5m in its Series A+ round to meet rising market demands.
The extension investment was supplied by Capital One Ventures, who joins previous backers JVP, Allegis Cyber, Global Brain and NightDragon.
With the close of the round, the company hopes to accelerate its growth and enhance its client-side web security platform to meet growing customer demand.
Spark Systems has raised $10.5m in a Series BB round
The capital infusion was supplied by Citi, HSBC and OSK Ventures, according to a number of reports in the media. Previous Spark Systems backers Vickers Ventures, Dymon Asia Ventures and Goldman Sachs also contributed to the round.
Human Interest raised a $10m round
Automated 401 (k) provider Human Interest has extended its Series C round with an additional $10m.
Credit Mantri $7.9m round
India-based Credit Mantri has seemingly collected INR 6 crore ($7.9m) from IDG Ventures, Elevar Equity and Accion.
As part of the deal, IDG has acquired 34,990 preference shares in Credit Mantri and Elevar has picked up 27,992, according to a report from Inc 42. Accion made the investment through three separate divisions Accion Frontier Inclusion Mauritius, Accion Africa-Asia Investment Company and Accion Venture Lab which picked up 34,990, 4,899 and 9,097 preference shares, respectively.
Skyflow has scored $7.5m in new seed capital
Skyflow, which offers an API for privacy, has netted $7.5m in its seed funding round. Foundation Capital led the round, which also saw participation from Mitsui’s MSAD venture firm and several angel investors. Founded in 2019, Skyflow enables companies to manage, access and govern their sensitive data. Its technology is API-based making it easy for companies to integrate with their existing infrastructure.
Sensibill has secured in $5m in a debt financing round
Having been forced to sack several employees because of COVID-19, Sensibill has raised $5m in debt financing from CIBC Innovation Banking. The exact number of employees laid off by the receipt management app Sensibill is unclear.
Regulus Cyber has closed a $4m round
Cybersecurity firm Regulus Cyber has netted $4m as part of a future Series B round led by SPDG Ventures, the holding company of the Périer-D’Ieteren family, owners of Belgium’s largest automotive business.
Curu has raised $3m in new seed funding round
Colorado-based Curu has netted $3m in a seed funding round led by Vestigo Ventures. Other investors backing the raise included Harlem Capital, Matchstick Ventures, Carolina Fintech Ventures, Techstars Ventures, Holt Accelerator, Chingona Ventures and Upscale Fund.
Curu has said that it is looking to use the money to scale its solution via integrations with banks, credit unions, and online lenders across North America.
CapBridge has raised $2m in a new round
Singapore-based FinTech CapBridge has reportedly picked up new money in an investment round from SGInnovate and Cyberport Macro Fund. While the release we have seen at FInTech Global didn’t involve any amount, Crunchbase has listed that it picked up $2m.
Bikmo has raised £1.8m in a Series A round
Bike insurance startup Bikmo has allegedly netted £1.8m in its Series A funding round as it looks to move its head office to Wales after the coronavirus pandemic clears.
Development Bank of Wales led the investment, with additional contributions coming from Hiscox and a number of unnamed angel backers.
Unifimoney has raised $1m in a round
Digital banking platform Unifimoney has reportedly picked up $1m from a selection of angel investors and venture capitalist firms. The investors include Plug and Play, Oriza Ventures, Kurt Bilager, Accenture managing director Anand Swaminathan and Sanjay Sathe.
Ziina has raised $850,000 in a new round
UAE-based P2P payments app Ziina has reportedly closed a pre-seed funding round on $850,000. The investment was led by Class 5 Global, with additional support coming from Jabbar Internet Group and a number of angel investors.
ShuttleOne collected $500,000 in new raise
Blockchain-powered FinTech ShuttleOne has bulked up its financial muscles to improve its technology after picking up a round of funding led by Sirius Venture Capital. It raised $500,000 in the round.
Brickowner has raised more on a crowdfunding campaign
Having reaped huge success with crowdfunding in the past, Brickowner has now returned to Seedrs for an additional cash injection.
Last time, about six months ago, it netted £282,015, according to Crowdfund Insider. This time it aimed to collect £150,000. However, it has already smashed that target. By the time of writing, Brickowner has collected £170,610.
Trust Stamp has bagged $100,000 in a new round
AI-powered identity platform Trust Stamp has collected $100,000 in a Series A investment from the OnRamp Insurance Accelerator. The investment also comes with access to gener8tor’s global network of mentors and investors.
Trust Stamp has joined the second cohort of the OnRamp accelerator programme, which is based in Minneapolis and support the insurance space.
CompariSure has raised a new round
South African InsurTech startup CompariSure has closed a funding round to support the increased adoption of its solution. The round was supported by Umkhathi Wethu Ventures and angel investor Alan Gray, according to a report from Disrupt Africa.
Bizzi has raised an undisclosed amount in a new round
Vietnam-based Bizzi has collected an undisclosed amount of capital in a new investment round led by 500 Startups and supported by angel investors.
The company has created an accounting automation tool, which enables automation of things like bill payments, compliance, bookkeeping and receipt scanning.
Copyright © 2020 FinTech Global
