“Most of the insurance brokers are in their harvesting phase, so they have to reduce their liability risk and work on their portfolios to have a high automation rate in place. Insurers/MGAs have a lack of talent, especially when it comes to sales & underwriting capacities, so it requires an efficient & standardized process to identify profitable insurance portfolios.”
This week we feature a Q&A with Maximilian Würz of Policentransfer, a marketplace for insurance broker portfolios.
Happy holidays and see you after a two week break!
Deal Highlights
Here are the early stage financing rounds and new funds to watch this week:
Ayan Capital, a London-based Islamic fintech, has secured £2.8 million in equity funding to expand halal car finance and other Islamic finance products in the UK.
NAO, which recently won the FinTech Germany Award, is an app-based co-investment platform for alternative investments, opening the door to alternative asset classes such as private equity, infrastructure, or hedge funds, previously reserved for a financially strong elite or institutional investors.
Superform Labs, the onchain wealth app to effortlessly grow your crypto portfolio, announced today it has raised $3 million in a strategic round led by VanEck Ventures.
Read on for more on the founders and investors in the news last week. If you are a startup, investor or corporate building or backing “what’s next in finance” and want to spread the word with our network of over 20k, reach out to Frank Schwab and Samarth Shekhar.
Q&A with Maximilian Würz of Policentransfer- marketplace for insurance broker portfolios
Tell us a bit about yourself.
Max has a strong technical and business background with a degree in business administration. He worked in the last decade for consulting firms and multinationals, mostly in the field of insurance within EMEA. Furthermore, Max got elected to be part of an insurance association (BiPRO) to standardize APIs within the insurance industry.
What problem or opportunity do you address, and for which target customers?
Most of the insurance brokers are in their harvesting phase, so they have to reduce their liability risk and work on their portfolios to have a high automation rate in place. Insurers/MGAs have a lack of talent, especially when it comes to sales & underwriting capacities, so it requires an efficient & standardized process to identify profitable insurance portfolios.
VENTURE FINANCING
Islamic fintech startup Ayan Capital secures £2.6 million in equity funding
Ayan Capital, a London-based Islamic fintech, has secured £2.8 million in equity funding to expand halal car finance and other Islamic finance products in the UK.
The round has been led by Cur8 Capital, a UK-based platform that offers ethical investment opportunities.
The team behind Ayan previously built Alif, a banking and fintech group in Central Asia, that has over 1,300 employees and serves 3.8 million customers.
Uzair Ali, principal at Cur8 Capital, says: “With 85% of Gen Z Muslims seeking to bank in line with their values, Ayan is going after a massive market. They have scaled impressively from car finance to broader solutions in line with their vision to build a digital Islamic neo-bank. With Abdullo’s proven track record and the team’s deep expertise, we are very excited for what comes next.”
Perena completed approximately $3 million in Pre-Seed funding, led by Borderless Capital
ChainCatcher news, according to Coindesk, the stablecoin infrastructure protocol Perena has completed a Pre-Seed funding round of approximately $3 million, led by Borderless Capital. The protocol was founded by Anna Yuan, the former stablecoin head at the Solana Foundation.
Anna Yuan stated that Perena is building an exchange pool that allows traders of seven different stablecoins to swap between assets. Stablecoin holders will be able to earn additional yield by lending their assets into the pool.
In addition to the mining pool infrastructure, Perena also plans to establish a “synthetic currency,” which Yuan claims will be more resilient than the fiat currency most people hold in traditional bank accounts. This will take the form of a “collateralized debt position” (CDP) stablecoin backed by other stablecoins. Perena has not finalized its design yet, but Anna Yuan hopes that building the CDP alongside stable exchanges will create more “synergies.”
https://www.chaincatcher.com/en/article/2156526
Superform Raises $3M to Launch SuperVaults, Intelligent Onchain High-Yield Products, Led by VanEck Ventures
With $9.5M in total funding, Superform launches SuperUSDC to deliver optimized stablecoin yield with onchain simplicity.
Superform Labs, the onchain wealth app to effortlessly grow your crypto portfolio, announced today it has raised $3 million in a strategic round led by VanEck Ventures with participation from Polychain Capital, CMT Digital, Amber Group, Node Ventures, BlockTower Capital, Heartcore Capital, Maven11 Capital, and UpTop Capital. This follows its $6.5 million Seed round in November 2022, bringing Superform Labs’ total funding to $9.5 million.
The new funding coincides with the launch of SuperVaults, Superform’s flagship native yield products designed to redefine onchain earning with simplicity, security, and optimization and Season 2 of their rewards program, offering boosted rewards for SuperVault depositors. Acting as intelligent onchain high-yield savings products, SuperVaults empower users to earn more with their assets through automated, non-custodial yield management. These single-asset vaults seamlessly maximize returns while combining the reliability and accessibility of traditional finance with the earning potential of onchain finance.
“We’re excited to support Superform’s mission to redefine onchain wealth as one of the first investments from our new fund,” said Wyatt Lonergan, General Partner at VanEck Ventures. “We strongly believe a major platform opportunity will emerge in aggregating interest-bearing products in the open, ultimately catalyzing the next wave of innovation in wealth management. SuperVaults take this a step further by turning assets like USDC into optimized yield products leveraging blue chip protocols under the hood.”
Berlin-based WealthTech startup NAO raises €3.4 million
Berlin-based WealthTech startup NAO has raised €3.4 million in a seed funding round from various family offices, private investors and existing investors, including FinTech veteran Jakob Schreyer and VC Zeitgeist X Ventures.
NAO, which recently won the FinTech Germany Award, is an app-based co-investment platform for alternative investments, opening the door to alternative asset classes such as private equity, infrastructure, or hedge funds, previously reserved for a financially strong elite or institutional investors.
Launched in mid-2023, the firm has struck up partnerships with banks and asset managers such as Baader Bank, Chartered Investments, FERI, UniCredit, UBS, and Vontobel, and expanded into Austria.
The firm claims that ‘several thousand’ customers now use the NAO investment app and invest an average of around €10,000.
NAO founder and CEO Robin Binder says: “Everyone should be able to invest in alternative asset classes like private equity as easily as they do in stocks or ETFs. That’s why we’ve created the first broker for private and alternative investments. The trust of our investors is helping us realize our vision. With the fresh capital, we want to attract even more top asset managers as partners, expand our customer base internationally, and use our technology to make a previously illiquid market liquid.”
https://www.finextra.com/newsarticle/45183/berlin-based-wealthtech-startup-nao-raises-34-million
Double crosses $10M in AUM + $3.9M Seed Round
Double is proud to announce we crossed $10M in AUM within 3 months of our beta launch. This achievement underscores the demand for Double’s unique approach to zero expense ratio index investing.
“Reaching $10 million in AUM so quickly is a testament to the hard work of our team and the trust our users have placed in us,” said JJ Maxwell, CEO. “This is just the beginning of our journey to make investing more accessible and affordable for everyone”
We’re also happy to announce our $3.9 million seed round. This funding will enable us to deliver on our vision of bringing zero expense ratio funds to the masses. We’re proud to be backed by some of the best entrepreneurs in the business, including Ilya Sukhar (co-founder of Parse and now at Matrix), Garry Tan (co-founder of Posterous and now at YC), Jawed Karim (co-founder of YouTube), Jon Xu (co-founder of FutureAdvisor acquired by Blackrock), JJ Fliegelman (co-founder of WayUp), Rich Aberman (co-founder of WePay acquired by JP Morgan Chase), Nick Elledge (co-founder of DataFleets acquired by LiveRamp), Jason Freedman (42Floors acquired by JLL), and Roger Dickey (co-founder of Gigster) among others.
Double is an investment platform that allows you to invest in 50+ broad stock market indexes with zero expense ratios. Unlike traditional financial advisors or ETFs that charge a fee based on a percentage of your assets, Double charges a flat $1/month. Double works by buying fractional shares of the individual stocks that make up popular indexes (SPY, VOO, etc.), allowing for customization and tax-loss harvesting.
With Double, you can easily create and manage your investment strategy, deposit funds, and let the platform handle the rest, including rebalancing and tax-loss harvesting. Our goal is to bring the low-fee trend pioneered by Robinhood to ETFs and mutual funds, potentially saving each customer thousands of dollars over the long term.
https://double.finance/blog/10M-AUM
Blockchain platform Haven1 completes $4.6 million private fundraising, with participation from Animoca Brands and KuCoin Ventures
ChainCatcher news, according to TechiInasia, the blockchain platform Haven1 has completed a $4.6 million private fundraising, with participation from Animoca Brands and KuCoin Ventures. The funds will be used to enhance Haven1’s blockchain infrastructure, which focuses on improving decentralized finance and tokenized real-world assets.
Additionally, the Web3 asset data platform RootData shows that Haven1 is a purpose-built, EVM-compatible Proof of Authority (PoA) blockchain that provides a secure environment for on-chain financial transactions. Haven1 is built by Yield App
https://www.chaincatcher.com/en/article/2155453
YC-backed Finny is using AI to match financial advisors with prospects
Financial advisors have a big hurdle when it comes to finding new clients: Cold outreach rarely works. Often, the only way to find a good prospect is to tap your network for warm intros, or trawl platforms like LinkedIn, Pitchbook or ZoomInfo in hopes of landing a meeting, which may or may not convert.
Eden Ovadia says she learned that when she was working at Boston Consulting Group, helping big financial institutions with their growth strategies: “[Financial advisors] have no way to qualify these leads or reach their particular niche at scale, with the result that they spend an average of 58 hours going after unqualified prospects before converting a single one,” she told TechCrunch in an interview.
The problem’s apparently even worse for independent advisors, who often don’t have a big team doing outreach or finding qualified leads. Ovadia saw an opportunity there, and with the help of her two co-founders, Victoria Toli and Theo Janson, started Finny with a simple goal: To build an AI agent that could match advisors with prospects who meet their search criteria.
After a financial advisor signs up and provides what they’re looking for, Finny trawls through its database to narrow down potential clients in the advisor’s target niche. The startup also provides a prioritization score that’s essentially like a compatibility score because it is based on the predicted chances of a client converting.
In essence, then, Finny has the potential to provide what could almost be qualified as a “warm” lead, helping advisors find customers who they have the most chance of converting.
In addition, the platform suggests optimal channels to reach out to high-priority prospects, handles follow-ups, and schedules meetings.
Soon after it was founded in late 2023, Finny got into Y Combinator and joined the Summer 2024 batch. The company launched an MVP in May 2024 and has now raised $4.2 million in a seed round co-led by Maple VC and HNVR, with participation from Crossbeam Ventures, Liquid 2, and Y Combinator. Angel investors Morningstar CEO Kunal Kapoor, Gusto CPO Tomer London, and Deel COO Dan Westgarth also invested.
“Our target base is comprised of more than 90% RIAs [registered investment advisors], but we are in the process of setting up trials with some of the larger banks,” Ovadia said.
Its competitors include ZoomInfo, LinkedIn Sales Navigator, Crunchbase, and Pitchbook. Other peers could be marketplaces that match clients with advisors. Platforms like Farther, Savvy Wealth, and Robinhood provide wealth management services.
https://techcrunch.com/2024/12/11/yc-backed-finny-helps-financial-advisors-find-new-clients/
AML firm Themis raises £7.25m
Financial crime prevention platform Themis has raised £7.25 million in scale-up funding.
With offices in London and the Middle East, Themis has developed know your customer and anti-money laundering technology to help clients manage their financial crime exposure.
The company says it has recently won contracts with regulators, sovereign wealth funds and investment managers, and has secured a UK Innovation grant to advance its AI capabilities and launched an AML registered firm in Saudi Arabia.
Matthew Hurn, chairman, Themis, says: “We’ve worked hard to identify the right strategic partners to scale Themis and showcase its superior AI technology. This funding positions us perfectly to accelerate innovation.”
https://www.finextra.com/newsarticle/45204/aml-firm-themis-raises-725m
Interlace Secures $10 Million in Series B1 Funding, Expands Leadership Team to Accelerate Global Growth
SINGAPORE, Dec. 4, 2024 /PRNewswire/ — Interlace, a global card issuance and digital asset management platform based in Singapore, announced today that it has raised $10 million in its Series B1 funding round. The round was led by Bitrock Capital, with participation from prominent individual investors in the fintech industry, including early employees and senior managers from leading companies such as Klarna and Robinhood.
To date, Interlace has issued over 4.5 million cards, partnered with 100+ integrated partners, and processes over 60 million transactions annually. The new funding willo support Interlace’s continued global expansion into key markets such as Asia-Pacific (APAC), the United States, and the United Kingdom. A significant portion of the investment will be allocated to building an international team, enhancing the company’s ability to serve a diverse and global client base.
Founded in 2019, Interlace delivers the most efficient and cost-effective cross-border, cross-currency, and cross-system financial solutions for Web3, cross-border e-commerce, B2B trade, developers, and more. Operating in strict compliance with global regulations, Interlace holds the highest security certification in the international card payment industry, PCI-DSS Level 1, and is licensed in the United States, Hong Kong, and Lithuania.
HongShan, Peak XV back stablecoin-powered neobank KAST
Peak XV and HongShan, the Indian and Chinese investment firms that split from powerhouse Sequoia last year, have co-led a $10 million seed investment in KAST, a dollar-denominated neobank-like platform that lets customers hold and spend stablecoins through traditional payment avenues.
Kast also issues credit cards that work with standard merchant networks, enabling users to spend their stablecoin holdings at merchants who don’t support crypto transactions.
The startup is targeting emerging markets, where access to USD is restricted and remittance costs are high. KAST does not operate in India or China due to regulatory constraints, but it serves the large offshore workforce from these markets.
Co-founder Raagulan Pathy, who previously ran Circle’s Asia Pacific operations, told TechCrunch that banking infrastructure in many countries severely lacks cross-border capabilities. The platform aims to reduce friction in making international payments by bypassing traditional banking networks.
KAST’s launch comes as stablecoin adoption sees rapid growth. More than 20 million people use stablecoins every month across the world, and much of that is concentrated in emerging markets. Stripe’s $1.1 billion acquisition of stablecoin infrastructure provider Bridge in October has further signaled growing mainstream corporate interest in the technology.
The startup faces competition from both crypto-native firms and traditional fintech companies expanding into stablecoins. PayPal has launched its own dollar-pegged token, while Revolut and Ripple have announced plans to issue stablecoins. The sector is also heavily concentrated, with Tether controlling roughly three-fourths of supply.
The startup plans to launch savings products and expand its remittance services while maintaining a focus on stablecoin-based infrastructure.
Because KAST only works with stablecoins, it also offers its customers “a safe haven for hard-earned income when local currencies decline,” said Alex Svanevik, co-founder and chief executive of analytics platform Nansen.ai and an early-backer of KAST.
“As more digital nomads receive salaries in stablecoins, they can now bypass the hassle of legacy rails. International transfers that once took weeks can now be completed instantly and at virtually no cost,” he said in a statement.
Their former parent Sequoia is in advanced stages of deliberation to back fintech Vance, TechCrunch reported late last month. If the deal goes through, it would be the firm’s first investment in India since the separation.
https://techcrunch.com/2024/12/11/kast-stablecoin-neobank-hongshan-peak-xv/
Bitcoin Buy and Sell App Relai Raises $12M for Europe Expansion
Relai, a bitcoin (BTC) buy, sell and self-custody application, has raised $12 million Series A funding. The Switzerland-based company’s Series A was led by Ego Death Capital, a bitcoin only VC, which committed $4 million to the raise. Other participants included Plan B Bitcoin Fund, Timechain, and Solit Group. Following the maxim of “not your keys, not your coins,” trusted self-custody has proved popular in Switzerland, even among newcomers to crypto, according to Relai, which has had over 400,000 downloads. The plan is to use the new funding to expand further into Europe and become licensed under the new Markets in Crypto Assets regime (MICA), Relai said in a press release. “Despite the tough market conditions, our financing round was heavily oversubscribed. This fresh capital will massively accelerate our growth and support our mission to educate and onboard millions of Europeans to Bitcoin.” said Julian Liniger, co-founder and CEO of Relai, in a statement.
https://finance.yahoo.com/news/bitcoin-buy-sell-app-relai-110000438.html
Accounting startup TrueWind raises $13M Series A
TrueWind, an accounting AI startup with a bookkeeping co-pilot, has raised $13 million in Series A funding led by Rho Capital and Thomson Reuters Ventures.
Why it matters: Regulations restrict AI usage in some corners of financial services, but investors believe accounting opportunities add up.
By the numbers: Founded in 2022, TrueWind sells to smaller companies and accounting firms, which CEO Alex Lee says has grown the company’s ARR four-fold in the past year to over $1 million.
It previously raised $4 million in funding by pitching itself as a co-pilot that would automatically pull financial information from a companies various data sources — and allow a human to make the final check.
https://www.axios.com/pro/fintech-deals/2024/12/11/accounting-ai-truewind-13-million
Lava Raises $10M to Enable Bitcoin-Backed Dollar Loans
Lava has secured $10 million in Series A funding from major VC firms Khosla Ventures and Founders Fund.
Lava, a New York-based Bitcoin lending platform, has secured $10 million in Series A funding from major VC firms Khosla Ventures and Founders Fund, according to a recent report from Fortune.
Founders Fund has maintained cautious activity in the crypto space. This has primarily been through partner Joey Krug, who joined from blockchain-focused Pantera in 2023.
Khosla Ventures Stayed Away From Crypto After Worldcoin Investment
Khosla Ventures, however, has largely stayed away since its high-profile $100 million investment in Sam Altman’s Worldcoin project in 2022.
Keith Rabois, who recently returned to Khosla Ventures from Founders Fund, told Fortune that the Lava investment was based on the entrepreneur and specific opportunity rather than signaling a broader pivot toward crypto.
Lava enables users to borrow dollars against their Bitcoin holdings. This aims to address a common challenge for crypto investors who want to leverage their assets without liquidating them.
“Our tagline is save in Bitcoin, spend in dollars,” Lava’s founder and CEO Shehzan Maredia said.
Swedish fintech Mynt secures €22M Series B
The company is now valued at €175M.
Mynt, a provider of corporate credit cards and spend management software, has raised a €22M funding round at a valuation of approximately €175M.
The round was led by Vor Capital, with participation from existing investors CNI, Incore and others. The Series B round brings Mynt’s total funding to over €50M.
With the incoming capital, Mynt plans to expand into the UK and other European markets, broaden its product offering and capitalise on growing demand for spend management among SMEs.
Mynt’s cutsomer base is made up largely of Nordic SMEs, to whom it offering corporate cards integrated with accounting systems. Mynt reached profitability on a month-over-month basis in September, while expanding its customer base from 3,000 to 12,000 SMEs during the past year.
During its next phase, Mynt will scale its spend management-as-a-service offering, the Mynt Platform, across the UK and Central Europe. This platform is designed for banks, ERPs, and fleet and mobility companies to enable them with proactive spend management and corporate card issuing capabilities. With curent notable partners such as Fortnox and Accountor rolling out card solutions to customers, Mynt hopes to translate the same success in central European markets.
https://tech.eu/2024/12/11/swedish-fintech-mynt-secures-eur22m-series-b/
Atlas Card Raises $27M in Series B Funding
Atlas Card, a NYC-based members-only concierge service and charge card provider focused on delivering access to coveted experiences through a seamless spending experience, raised $27M in Series B funding.
The round was led by Michael Gilroy and Gokul Rajaram’s Marathon with participation from angel investors including Eric Schmidt, Olaf Carlson-Wee, and Anton Levy.
The company intends to use the funds to expand operations and its business reach.
Led by CEO and Founder Patrick Mrozowski, Atlas offers members a charge card, mobile app, and text-based concierge service. Members get access to benefits including hard-to-secure reservations at peak times, upgrades and preferred rates at luxury hotels, and invitations to experiences such as concerts and sporting events. The spending experience is anchored by a mirror-finished metal card and software-enabled features like no pre-set spending limits, virtual cards with configurable limits, and support for multiple user profiles, including personal staff, business managers, and family members.
In 2025, the company aims to surpass $1 billion in purchase volume, expanding its offerings to provide cardmembers with access across new markets and categories.
FinSMEs
12/12/2024
https://www.finsmes.com/2024/12/atlas-card-raises-27m-in-series-b-funding.html
Jiko Secures $29 Million in Series C Funding, Strengthens Its Board and Advisory Committee
Jiko, the technology platform and bank that provides seamless access to U.S. Treasury bills, announced today the completion of a $29 million Series C funding round led by existing investors Upfront Ventures, with the participation from Airbus Ventures, Red River West, Radicle Impact and other undisclosed investors.
This latest investment strengthens the company’s operating capital as it continues to establish itself as a major player in the institutional and enterprise market.
The Jiko platform provides clients with the flexibility to open and manage digital corporate pockets of cash in real time. Jiko’s foundational innovation, Jiko Pockets, allows clients to conveniently purchase and sell T-bills programmatically, 24/7, offering a safer alternative to traditional investment vehicles like leveraged bank deposits and money market funds. Jiko’s uniquely integrated digital trading desk, banking charter, and cloud-based infrastructure have helped clients trade over $10 billion in T-bills.
As a result, treasury teams can for the first time access, configure, and manage digital pockets of sensitive corporate cash through Jiko’s online corporate dashboard, Jiko’s secure enterprise API, and Jiko’s cutting-edge integrations into a growing list of world-leading Treasury Management platforms.
“This funding round is a testament to the trust our investors have in Jiko’s mission,” remarks Stephane Lintner, Jiko Founder and CEO. “By connecting corporate treasurers directly to the US government’s yield and full faith, we are witnessing an unparalleled unlocking of financial flexibility and control for our globally-operative clients. We love to see our platform help treasury teams innovate beyond existing workflows–with the peace of mind that their investments earn the risk-free treasury rate at all times.”
“As a founder in the cloud and treasury space, I understand the need for modern, robust infrastructure that supports secure storage and seamless transfers,” said Jean-Luc Robert, former CEO and founder of Kyriba. “Corporate Treasury has long been underserved with outdated systems, and Jiko addresses a critical gap with its innovative digital platform. I’m thrilled to bring my experience to this mission and support Jiko as they modernize treasury management with the technology and agility that today’s companies need.”
Current raises first new funding since 2021
Current, the neobank startup valued at $2.2 billion in 2021, raised $30 million in equity and $175 million in additional financing as it aims for profitability in the second half of 2025, CEO Stuart Sopp tells Axios.
Why it matters: Some neobanks are coming up for air again after a challenging post-pandemic, post-ZIRP period.
Driving the news: This raise marks Current’s first since it was given that $2.2 billion valuation in 2021.
The equity came from existing investors Andreessen Horowitz, Wellington Management, and Avenir.
https://www.axios.com/pro/fintech-deals/2024/12/12/current-new-funding-equity-debt
Stigg makes it easy to change your SaaS pricing
Stigg (not The Stig, just Stigg) describes itself as “the first scalable monetization platform for the modern billing stack.” There’s a lot going on in that sentence, but what it comes down to is that the startup, which on Wednesday announced a $17.5 million Series A round, helps SaaS companies model pricing, create pricing pages, decide (and change) which features and usage allotments should go with which pricing plan, manage customers, and more. One nifty aspect of Stigg is that it does all of this with an SDK that is available in most popular languages and aims to stay out of the developer’s way.
The company was founded by Dor Sasson and Anton Zagrebelny, who previously worked together at New Relic.
As with all good startup founding stories, the founders saw this as a gap in the market and decided to tackle it themselves. The team raised a $6.4 million seed round in 2021 (announced in 2022) from institutional investors like Unusual Ventures and Emerge Ventures, as well as a number of prominent angel investors. Today, Stigg counts the likes of AI21labs, Cloudinary, PagerDuty, Miro, and Webflow among its users.
The new funding round was led by Red Dot Capital Partners, with participation from Unusual Ventures, Emerge Ventures, Redseed, and Cerca Partners.
https://techcrunch.com/2024/12/11/stigg-makes-it-easy-to-change-your-saas-pricing/
Embedded investment API Upvest raises €100 million
Investment API Upvest is set to double its 170-strong team after closing on a €100 million Series C funding round.
The round was led by Hedosophia, and joined by Sapphire Ventures, alongside backing from existing investors including Bessemer Venture Partners, BlackRock, Earlybird, HV Capital, Motive Ventures, and Notion Capital.
Founded in Berlin in 2017, Upvest enables fintechs to offer end users access to fractional exchange-traded funds (ETFs), stocks, mutual funds, and soon derivatives, ELTIFs, and bonds in any currency.
In 2024, Upvest processed over 20 million orders on behalf of its clients, who include the likes of Revolut, Raisin, N26, and bunq.
The firm says it is now processing over one million trades per week, with revenue growing 25% per month on average.
https://www.finextra.com/newsarticle/45209/embedded-investment-api-upvest-raises-100-million
Zest AI Announces $200 Million Growth Investment from Insight Partners
Leader in AI lending technology to further accelerate product innovation and take aim at high impact M&A opportunities
BURBANK, Calif., Dec. 13, 2024 /PRNewswire/ — Zest AI, a leader in AI lending technology, announced a $200 million growth investment from global software investor Insight Partners to support the company’s next phase of transformation. The growth capital will enable Zest AI to double down on its current product portfolio, continuing to advance fraud protection and generative AI – all to build the future of lending through AI.
Zest AI transforms credit underwriting by using AI to provide more sophisticated and accurate scoring methods while also making the technology easy to use and explainable for all financial institutions. Unlike other credit scoring methods, Zest AI’s technology analyzes thousands of data variables—far surpassing traditional credit models that rely on 15–20 variables. With over 50 patents, Zest AI has developed and deployed over 500 active proprietary AI consumer credit models that help lenders make smarter lending decisions. https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/zest-ai-announces-200-million-growth-investment-from-insight-partners-302330883.html
Report: Walmart and Ribbit Lead FinTech One’s $300 Million Funding Round
Walmart and investment firm Ribbit Capital are reportedly leading a funding round of more than $300 million for FinTech startup One, which is majority-owned by Walmart.
The round, which has not closed, would value One at $2.5 billion before the new money is raised, Bloomberg reported Thursday (Dec. 12), citing an unnamed source.
One aims to provide financial services to Walmart’s hundreds of millions of customers and its 1.6 million employees, according to the report.
The FinTech fully rolled out its products in Walmart’s stores about two years ago and now offers installment loans, debit cards, payments services and, for the retailer’s employees, early wage access, the report said.
One will launch Walmart’s credit card when the retailer issues that card with a new banking partner in 2025, per the report.
It now has a run-rate revenue of over $200 million and processes more than $15 billion in payment flow, according to the report.
M&A
Mambu Acquires Numeral
Mambu, an Amsterdam, the Netherlands-based provider of a cloud banking platform, acquired Numeral, a Paris, France-based payment technology provider for banks and fintechs.
The amount of the deal was not disclosed.
The acquisition strengthens Mambu’s position as an industry leader.
Founded in 2021, Numeral is a payment technology provider that offers financial institutions a universal gateway to connect to partner banks and access schemes and a modern payments hub to automate payment processing. The firm processes more than €10 billion in payments annually and has established a strong presence in Europe, having expanded its operations to the UK last year. Launched in 2021, Numeral provides the payment infrastructure for the most innovative European banks and fintechs like WorldFirst, Argentex and Alma and partners with Europe’s leading banks, including BNP Paribas, Barclays, BPCE, HSBC and LHV.
Led by CEO Fernando Zandona, Mambu is a provider of a SaaS cloud banking platform. Launched in 2011, it fast-tracks the design and build of nearly any type of financial offering for banks of all sizes, lenders, fintechs, retailers, telcos and more. Its composable approach means that independent components, systems and connectors can be assembled in any configuration to meet business needs and end user demands.
FinSMEs
05/12/2024
https://www.finsmes.com/2024/12/mambu-acquires-numeral.html
Capitolis acquires Capitalab for $46M to expand derivatives optimization offering
The acquisition by the fintech unicorn comes one week after it announced a $20 million funding round from leading global financial institutions Citi, Morgan Stanley, State Street, and UBS.
Fintech unicorn Capitolis has acquired British company Capitalab, which specializes in optimization and compression services to reduce the counterparty risk, size and costs of maintaining derivatives portfolios, from the BGC Group for $46 million. This acquisition will enable Capitolis to expand its offerings within the optimization industry. Capitolis reports that it has already facilitated the offsetting of over $10 trillion in interest rate derivatives.
“Optimization of interest rate derivatives is a significant and crucial area of the capital market, and executing it effectively is essential for the financial system and its participants,” said Gil Mandelzis, CEO and founder of Capitolis.
As part of the deal, Gavin Jackson, CEO of Capitalab, will join Capitolis’ management team. This acquisition follows recent investments in Capitolis by leading global financial institutions, including Citi, Morgan Stanley, State Street, and UBS. It also builds on Capitolis’ previous acquisition of LMRKTS in 2021.
Capitolis announced last week that Citi and State Street, both existing investors in the company, as well as new investors Morgan Stanley, and UBS, will invest $5 million and will join other existing investors including Andreessen Horowitz (a16z), Index Ventures, Sequoia Capital, S Capital, Spark Capital, SVB Capital, Canapi Ventures, 9Yards Capital, Standard Chartered and J.P. Morgan.
Capitolis raised a $110 million Series D at a $1.6 billion valuation in March 2022. The company did not disclose its valuation in the latest funding round. Capitolis, which has raised a total of around $300 million to date, employs 130 people in Israel and the U.S.
Founded in 2017, Capitolis has developed a software as a service (SaaS) platform that provides financial resource optimization for capital markets, and enables financial institutions to allocate their capital more efficiently and in line with the constantly changing regulatory landscape.
https://www.calcalistech.com/ctechnews/article/syreeyh7kl
FUNDS
OpenAI Startup Fund raises $44M in its largest SPV yet
The OpenAI Startup Fund, the early-stage AI investor affiliated with OpenAI, recently disclosed in a financial filing that it has raised over $44 million for its fifth Special Purpose Vehicle (SPV) — its biggest so far.
Launched in 2021, the Fund has an unusual structure. It uses OpenAI’s name, but says OpenAI is not an investor. Originally legally controlled by OpenAI cofounder and CEO Sam Altman, it has raised money from outside LPs, including Microsoft, a big OpenAI backer, and “other OpenAI partners,” according to its website. Altman gave up legal control to general partner Ian Hathaway earlier this year.
Despite the flurry of activity, its website is sparse, with its most recent news posted a year ago. The website discloses only a few of its investments, like legal AI startup Harvey and AI note taking app Mem.
However, the fund is more active than its website indicates. Notable investments this year include include Thrive Health, an AI health venture between Sam Altman and Ariana Huffington, and warm outbound startup Unify.
The fund is also a seed investor in Anysphere, which is currently in the middle of a VC bidding war thanks to its AI code assistant Cursor.
These SPVs are all on top of the Fund’s original capital of $175.25m, which was raised back in October 2021.
https://techcrunch.com/2024/12/09/openai-startup-fund-raises-44m-in-its-largest-spv-yet/
Fly Ventures sets its eyes on technical founders with a fresh €80M fund
Fly Ventures, the Berlin-based VC that invests in seed-stage European startups within enterprise and deep tech, has launched its third fund at €80 million. The firm raised its last €53 million fund in 2020.
Aiming at technical founders, the firm claims Fund III was oversubscribed and raised in a single closing. Meanwhile, the small increase in fund size reflects the firm’s desire to operate as a boutique firm.
Founded by Gabriel Matuschka and Fredrik Bergenlid, Fly Ventures invests €1 million to €4 million in rounds of €2 million to €10 million at the inception stage.
Matuschka told TechCrunch: “We like doing things that at the time, other people think, what the … material science and AI?! These days, more people do it, but our game plan is to do these kinds of investments two or three years before anybody else cares.”
With Matt Wichrowski, Marie Brayer, Bergenlid, and Matuschka, the firm operates in an equal-GP model of four partners each distributed across Berlin, London, Paris, and Zurich.
“I think the Berlin/London thing specifically is also plus Munich, because from Berlin you can cover Munich. And for the more technical stuff, Munich tends to be a bit stronger. But it was always clear you had to do Germany and the UK. Then I guess over the last four years or so, Paris, on the more technical side, also really accelerated, which is the reason why we also added Marie, who is based in Paris,” said Matuschka.
Heartcore Capital closes $180M fund to pivot toward infrastructure, synthetic biology, climate
Back in the heady days of 2021, Heartcore Capital planned to focus on consumer technology with a $200 million fund. Fast-forward to 2024, and its latest fund will now “leaven the bread” of that thesis, with a fresh $180 million (€170 million) to go broader and more generalist than that earlier thesis.
Some 17 years into the game, Heartcore’s Fund V will continue to be an early-stage fund and now counts companies like Boozt, Neo4j, Peakon, Tink, GetYourGuide, TravelPerk, and Podimo in its portfolio.
Aiming to be the first institutional money into startups, it is also ranked the 9th best VC globally in the HEC Paris-Dow Jones VC ranking.
Jimmy Nielsen, partner and co-founder, told TechCrunch over a call: “Basically, this fund is broader [than the last fund]. … We did a lot of consumer at the tail end of fund three and the beginning of fund four. The pendulum swung to the question of ‘Where does technology really pick up?’ So this fund is more generalistic in focus, more focused on productivity, software, infrastructure.”
That includes more of a focus on the compute stack, synthetic biology, productivity/AI, software infrastructure, travel, and climate tech. They plan to make 25 to 30 early-stage investments with Fund V and have so far put money into LLM compute infrastructure, database software, software for carbon capture, and consumer travel.
LPs in the fund include repeat investor Industriens Pension. It also has a smaller, dedicated, web3 fund.