ICYMI fintech funding round-up: GenTwo, Momnt, myZoi, Treyd, Firstcard & 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.
GenTwo raises $15m
Swiss securitisation fintech GenTwo has raised $15 million in a Series A round led by US venture capital firm Point72 Ventures.
As part of its investment, Point72 Ventures has appointed Pete Casella, its senior partner and co-head of fintech investments, to GenTwo’s board of directors.
Founded in 2018, GenTwo delivers investment portfolio diversification and management services to asset managers and their clients through its GenTwo PRO platform solution and AssetRush event series.
It currently has over $3 billion in assets under service (AUS), and to date, has served more than 250 clients in 26 counties.
The fintech plans to use the funding to power its international expansion in conjunction with further developing its financial engineering platform.
Momnt, an Atlanta-headquartered fintech specialising in B2B payment and lending solutions, has secured a new $15 million investment led by TruStage Ventures.
The round saw additional participation from existing investors as well as Saluda Grade Ventures and Rockefeller Asset Management.
The investment adds to the $16.5 million the fintech has raised to date, taking its total funding up to $31.5 million since its launch in 2020.
CEO and co-founder Barclay Keith says that the new cash will be applied to “drive transformative changes in lending and financing” by investing in its people, processes and technology.
myZoi raises $14m
UAE-based fintech myZoi, which connects the country’s migrant workers and underserved communities with affordable remittance services, has raised $14 million from SC Ventures and SBI Holdings.
Backed by two licences from the Central Bank of the UAE for stored valued facilities and retail payments services and card schemes, the fintech says it will apply the funds to “expand its inclusive and differentiated proposition for the underbanked and their families” as it prepares to launch commercially by the end of this year.
Developed by co-founder and chief product officer Christian Buchholz, the fintech is a wholly-owned subsidiary of Standard Chartered Bank, and was incubated through the bank’s fintech investment, innovation and ventures arm SC Ventures.
It specifically seeks to deliver on elements of the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals 2030, including reducing the transaction cost of migrant remittances to less than 3%.
Treyd, a Stockholm-headquartered fintech providing pay-later solutions to the global supply chain, has raised $12 million in a Series A extension led by Swedish investment company Nineyards Equity.
Other investors included Singapore-based start-up accelerator Antler, Nordics-focused early-stage venture capital firm Zenith VC and Swedish venture capital firm J12 Ventures.
The funding builds upon its initial Series A round of March 2022, which was also led by Nineyards Equity, and brings the total amount raised by the fintech to $25 million.
It intends to apply the fresh capital to boost its growth in its existing markets in the Nordics and across Europe, where it has delivered $149 million in SME financing to date, while also seeking to “invest in the core product offering” as it works towards achieving profitability.
Strise raises €10m
Oslo-based anti-money laundering (AML) intelligence software company Strise has raised €10 million in a Series A funding round led by Atomico.
The round saw additional participation from angel investors including Camilla Giesecke of Klarna, Phil Chambers of Peako, former Depop CFO Francois Callens, Marcus Krylborn of Snap, Riya Grover of Sequence and former Gainsight COO Allison Pickens.
As part of its investment, Atomico has appointed its partner, Don Hoang, a former Revolut and Uber executive, to the fintech’s board.
Counting Nordea, Handelsbanken, Vipps MobilePay, EY and US law firm Orrick as clients, Strise says it will use its new funding to expand both its presence in Europe and customer base across multiple sectors, starting with the UK, while also enhancing its AML offering.
Firstcard, a fintech servicing college students with banking services, has raised $4.7 million in a seed funding round.
The round, which saw participation from venture capitals and angels including the AngelList Early Stage Quant Fund, builds upon the fintech’s $3 million pre-seed fundraise of June 2021 and brings its total amount raised to $7.7 million.
The fintech says it plans to leverage the funding to “double down” on its student banking offering and scale its technology infrastructure and college campus presence.
The firm recently launched its Credit Builder Card, which seeks to enable students to access credit and build their credit scores. The fintech is also due to introduce additional features in the near future, including a financial advisory service powered by artificial intelligence (AI).
Anchor raises $2.4m
Banking-as-a-Service (BaaS) provider Anchor, which is based in Lagos, Nigeria, has secured $2.4 million in a seed investment round led by Goat Capital.
The round also saw participation from FoundersX and Rebel Funding, as well as from the fintech’s existing investors Y Combinator and Byld Ventures.
The funding succeeds its $1 million pre-seed funding round, which allowed the company to emerge from stealth in August of last year.
Reporting that it now processes an annualised transaction volume of over $550 million and that its revenue has grown 30% month-on-month, Anchor says that it will apply this latest round of funding to invest in its compliance infrastructure, launch new products and expand into new markets.
Nairobi-based crypto payments start-up Kotani Pay has raised $2 million in a pre-seed funding round led by San Francisco-based seed investor P1 Ventures.
The round, which saw additional participation from DCG/Luno and Flori Ventures, will enable the start-up to expand into the neighbouring markets of Rwanda, Senegal, Tanzania, Nigeria and the Ivory Coast.
Launched in 2021, Kotani Pay seeks to connect Africa’s underserved and unbanked communities with access to financial services, namely by using blockchain and stablecoins to facilitate cross-border transactions.
The start-up reports that it is actively collaborating with numerous regulatory bodies to ensure that its services are both compliant and intertwined with regulatory developments concerning the governance of digital asset firms.
