Banking Technology June 2021 issue out now
The only one in the room: why diversity among executives is still a problem
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The latest edition of our flagship magazine – Banking Technology – is out now, packed with news, analysis and insights, case studies, research and expert commentary.
The past month has been a mammoth one as investment poured into the tech start-ups around the world that cater for the financial services industry.
Germany-based stock trading firm Trade Republic raised $900 million in a Series C investment round, dwarfing its other three fundraises to date and putting its valuation at more than $5 billion. Prior to this, the 2015-founded fintech had pulled in about $95 million. Co-founder Christian Hecker says Trade Republic is building “the bank of the future” (it already carries a German banking licence).
US-based Forter landed $300 million in a Series F funding round, valuing it at $3 billion. The latest round comes just six months after completing the $125 million Series E, and Forter claims it is now the world’s most valuable privately held fraud prevention company.
Another US tech provider, Zeta, secured $250 million from SoftBank. This Series C funding round – one of the largest single investments in a banking tech start-up globally – values the vendor at $1.45 billion.
Zeta has ten banks and 25 fintechs in eight countries on its client list. Among them is India’s HDFC Bank and France’s Sodexo, an issuer of employee benefits and rewards (and a minority investor in Zeta). Ramki Gaddipati, Zeta’s CTO and co-founder, says the banking industry “needs systems reinvented with security, privacy, scalability and reliability as the core foundations”.
In the UK, smaller – yet notable – funding was raised by card start-up Curve. The paytech, which describes itself as a “financial super app”, closed the largest ever equity raise on crowdfunding platform Crowdcube – raising nearly £10 million from 11,795 investors. Curve’s initial target of £1 million was smashed within ten minutes of the round opening on 25 May; in just under three hours, it had raised £6 million.
Curve says the last year has been “transformational”, with its customer base doubling, the volume of processed transactions increasing by more than £1 billion to £2.6 billion, and more than 100 new staff hired.
Check out our funding round-up on page 28 for other lucky recipients of funds.
As always, there is lots more from the world of banking and tech on the pages of the magazine. We hope you find this edition interesting, informative and useful!
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In the past five-odd years, the emergence of fintech has threatened the established order in the banking and finance industry. Long-established banks still enjoy the trust of the customers, which is a major advantage. But customer behavior is changing—and the pandemic accelerated that change. People stopped going to ATMs, and digital wallets took off. Specialist lending firms—such as those focused on housing or car finance—that were conceived to serve customers digitally, gained ground. Insurance and mutual funds services aggregators increased their market share.