ICYMI fintech funding round-up: Ballerine, Trébol & more
At FinTech Futures, we know that it can be easy to let funding announcements slip you by in this fast-paced industry. That’s why we put together our weekly In Case You Missed It (ICYMI) funding round-up for you to get the latest funding news.
US and Israel-based open source risk decisioning platform Ballerine has raised $5 million in a seed funding round led by Team8.
Ballerine raises $5m seed
The round also saw participation from Y Combinator, Vera Equity and executives from Brex, Trulioo, Venmo, Melio and Coinbase.
Founded last year, the start-up provides an open-source platform that integrates global data sources and tools to automate decision-making processes for onboarding, underwriting and transaction monitoring.
Hadar Siterman Norris, partner at Team8, says the funding will help Ballerine “create the first open source and developer-centric compliance infrastructure”.
UK banking giant Barclays has invested £3 million in lendtech Trade Ledger.
Barclays will also be implementing Trade Ledger’s working capital orchestration platform to provide end-to-end credit management automation for the bank’s corporate clients in the UK and globally.
Through the Trade Ledger platform, Barclays will enable its clients to unlock cash flow with “convenient, quick” access to working capital, client-centric onboarding and loan management experience and access to real-time data.
Trade Ledger will use the funding to continue scaling globally and onboarding new clients. It has raised £16.6 million to date.
Mexican fintech start-up Trébol has secured $3 million in seed funding.
The funding round was led by Better Tomorrow Ventures and Canaan Partners along with participation from
Y Combinator, SOMA Capital, Unpopular Ventures, and angel investors.
Founded in 2021, Trébol automates business identity verification and underwriting decisions allowing banks, lenders, and insurers to quickly onboard its customers. It claims to have automated the verification of more than 8,000 businesses for banks, lenders, and expense management platforms in Mexico and Colombia.
Trébol plans to use the funding to expand the product into new markets and grow the team. Currently, the service is available in Mexico and Colombia.
US-based fintech start-up Plenty has launched with $2.75 million in a pre-seed funding round.
Plenty raises $2.75m
Investors include Phenomenal Ventures, Kevin Durant and Rich Kleiman’s 35V, former CEO of Wealthfront, Adam Nash, ex-Stripe angels, and Inovia Capital.
Founded in 2022 by an early Stripe employee, Plenty offers a financial platform that helps couples discuss, manage and invest their money together.
Its goals-based investing platform is available via membership, and simplifies and automates the financial forecasting and investing process for couples who want to plan toward life milestones.
Swiss climate finance platform Pyrpose has raised $1.1 million (CHF 1 million) in its angel round, including institutional investment from CV VC and angel investors.
The Pyrpose platform allows consumers to understand their own carbon footprint and allow them to directly invest in climate solutions and generate returns. It also provides SME climate innovators with access to working capital.
Based in Geneva, Pyrpose launched the private beta of its platform in February 2023.
The funds will be used to complete the private beta and continue developing its product to launch its minimum viable product (MVP) in Q3. The start-up says it is also looking to open its seed round in the coming weeks.
UK fintech Freemarket, which operates a platform for regulated B2B cross-border payments and currency exchange, has received an undisclosed amount of investment from Baird Capital.
With the funding, Freemarket intends to propel its growth and international expansion, as well as provide a partial cash-out to existing shareholders.
Through its proprietary technology platform, Freemarket enables businesses to send payments/funds to over 100 countries in 140 currencies, “removing cross-border payments complexities, improving transparency and increasing efficiency”.
