UK fintech funding round-up: Apron, Vega and Mintago
This week’s handy Friday funding round-up includes three UK-based fintech start-ups – Apron, Vega and Mintago.
Apron, the fintech start-up providing invoice processing solutions to small businesses, has secured $15 million in its Series A funding round led by Index Ventures, and joined by Bessemer Venture Partners and Visionaries Club.
Apron secures $15 million Series A funding
Founded by former Revolut executive Bogdan Uzbekov in 2021 and soft-launched six months ago, Apron claims it is already processing “millions of pounds of transactions” every month, having onboarded “hundreds” of client companies.
With sign-up taking under three minutes, customers can use Apron to manage invoices, pay multiple suppliers at once, get quick approvals and enable automatic reconciliation, without the need to replace accounting software.
With the new funding, Apron plans to expand its current team of 20 employees, expand its offering to SMEs and their accountants, and roll out new products including automatic invoice capturing features in early 2024.
New wealthtech start-up Vega has launched from stealth with over $8 million in equity investment.
The funding was led by Motive Ventures, with additional participation from Picus Capital, Citi Ventures, No Label Ventures, GFC and over 60 senior financial services and fintech executives.
Vega’s founding team consists of financial experts from investment firms including Elliott, Blackstone, KKR, and Goldman Sachs, along with product and engineering specialists from fintechs such as Revolut and Trade Republic.
The London-based start-up provides a platform for high net-worth individuals and their advisors to help them manage their wealth just like institutional investors do.
“Unlike legacy platforms focused on single-fund access, Vega leverages technology to construct diversified portfolios that combine multiple leading alternative asset managers — enabling users to invest in private markets in an optimal way while complementing their exposure with public asset classes, all on a single platform,” it says.
Other than investment products, Vega also plans to roll out a suite of liquidity and financial planning solutions.
Financial wellbeing start-up Mintago, regulated by the UK’s Financial Conduct Authority (FCA), has closed a $4.75 million equity funding round.
Mintago raises $4.5 million
BlackLion Ventures was the lead investor, bringing in $3.75 million, with additional participation from Love Ventures and Cur8 Capital.
Mintago says it will use the funding to invest further in the technology, as well as expand its sales and marketing team to accelerate the growth of its client base.
Founded in 2019, Mintago’s platform helps employees deal with “their most pressing financial needs”, such as managing pension contributions and locating lost pension pots through its Pension Hunter tool.
Employees also gain free access to financial advisors, debt counselling, savings tools and “unbiased” financial education programmes.
