Fintech funding round-up: 28 February 2018
Following yesterday’s frolic through the fields of funding, welcome to another round-up. Features Babb, Payslip and a global reminder.
Nobody puts Babb in a corner, which is why they’re at the start of this report. The London-based blockchain banking start-up has raised $20 million in a funding round to build its platform. The latter is decentralised and uses blockchain, biometrics and artificial intelligence (AI) technologies. The firm’s plan is to offer a bank account, payment card, and access to its global peer-to-peer network.
The funds will be used to support software development of the platform, mobile app, and decentralised payment card. Babb will launch its app in Q4 2018, having already begun development following a prototype in 2017. By Q4, the firm says it will also aim to have obtained a banking licence in the UK and “one other European country”. The start-up says it has a second meeting with the Bank of England scheduled, with the expectation of beginning its application for a licence “imminently”. Babb is a busy bunny as it also has patents pending for face and voice biometrics and that decentralised payment card.
Moving west, Irish start-up Payslip has let slip it got €1 million in investment. The funding round was led by AIB and venture capital firm Frontline Ventures. Other investors included Enterprise Ireland, Hban Bloom Equity and Tribal. The firm plans to use the money for expansion – including recruiting 12 new employees this year.
As the name suggests, Payslip provides software for payroll management for businesses with staff in multiple jurisdictions. It offers a cloud-based Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) platform – and says it’s ready for the incoming General Data Protection Regulations (GDPR) in May.
By the way, in a separate report published today (28 February), global investment in fintech ventures reached another all-time high in 2017, with financing rising by 18% to $27.4 billion.
According to Accenture’s analysis of data from CB Insights, the healthy state of affairs was buoyed by a surge in funding for start-ups in the US, UK and India.
