Fintech funding round-up: 25 October 2017
More of the latest stories from the fintech funding world. Features Verrency, Countingup, Finn.ai and Bud.
Starting with payments platform, Verrency, which has unveiled a $15 million Series A funding round to further expand its international operations. Verrency’s previous funding round raised $4 million and the company is looking to get a further $15 million to expand into key international markets. Verrency aims to close the round in 2018, and says it is already in discussions with investors.
Headquartered in Australia with offices in both Melbourne and Sydney, Verrency provides “payments innovation-as-a-service that enables issuers to deliver the latest payment capabilities, fast and cost-effectively”.
Moving on up to fintech start-up, Countingup, which has raised $750,000 in funding led by Frontline Ventures with participation from Will Neale (Founder of Fonix & Grabyo), Ben Grol (Partner at Atomico), Ben Heald (Chair of Sift, Edo, eFiling & Bristol Pound), Andy Chung (AngelList) and other private investors, to build an accounting bank for one million entrepreneurs.
Countingup’s banking app allows small businesses to open a current account on their smartphone. The account comes with a UK sort code, account number and a contactless Mastercard. Its banking app will also do users accounting; it will submit VAT returns, generate a profit and loss report and create invoices. Using machine learning it will also automate bookkeeping.
In the artificial intelligence space, Finn.ai, an AI-powered virtual assistant built for banking and personal finance, unveiled its $3 million institutional financing round. The round was led by venture capital firms, Yaletown Partners and Flying Fish Partners, and John Livingston, former CEO and chairman of Absolute Software.
Finn.ai says it will use the new funding to grow its team of data scientists, engineers, and banking industry experts to meet the needs of its rapidly-growing customer network and to support its continued expansion into the US and global markets.
Finally, Investec and Banco Sabadell (owner of UK high street bank TSB) has backed the funding of UK fintech start-up Bud. Bud raised £1.5 million from a funding round led by the FTSE 250 asset manager and InnoCells, a Spanish digital business hub. Bud is said to be using the funding to go forward with the creation of platforms to help the management of finances.
Previously, HSBC revealed its working with Bud to build a new app for its digital-only bank First Direct. Bud is also one of the fintech firms chosen to participate early in Open Banking initiative, which sees banks open up its data with collaborators.
