ICYMI fintech funding round-up: Theia Insights, Lettuce, StackOne, Synnax and 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.
Theia Insights bags $6.5m investment
UK-based Theia Insights has completed a $6.5 million fundraising round led by Unusual Ventures, with participation from Clocktower Ventures, Fidelity International and Strategic Ventures, alongside several angel investors.
The deep tech start-up says it will leverage its latest cash injection to “attract industry-leading talent” from traditional classification and risk management companies, amid “ongoing investment in ambitious commercial projects and research initiatives”.
Theia Insights, which was launched by former Amazon Alexa scientist Dr Ye Tian, says it is looking to develop three core technologies for the investment space: dynamic industry classification, portfolio analysis and thematic risk models.
“The shortcomings around legacy industry classification systems and the lack of dynamic insights on risk factors driving investment decisions is a pressing issue,” asserts Lars Albright, general partner at Unusual Ventures.
Lettuce, a tax and accounting automation platform for solopreneurs, has announced a $6 million seed funding round led by Zeev Ventures, with participation from several industry angel investors.
The funding will be used to fuel the company’s product development, investment in AI research, and further its Solopreneur Accelerator programme.
The San Francisco-headquartered fintech says its solopreneur scheme will help assess an individual’s business structure, expenses, healthcare, retirement planning and tax analysis.
StackOne lands $3.6m seed funding
London-headquartered embedded Integration Platform-as-a-Service (IPaaS) provider StackOne has raised $3.6 million in seed funding.
The fintech will use the investment to supercharge its use of AI in developing a unified API solution for the enterprise Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) sector. In addition, the funds will be utilised to continue the firm’s expansion plans in the US, Australian and EU markets.
The round was led by Episode 1, a UK-based venture capitalist firm that specialises in B2B software start-ups, with participation from Charlie Songhurst, Sequoia’s Scout fund, Playfair Capital, Portfolio Ventures, and others.
StackOne adds that the round was joined by several notable angel investors, including execs at Hacajob, Google, Microsoft, Salesoft, Tessian, and the co-founder of Github.
Credit rating standards start-up Synnax has obtained $1 million in a pre-seeding funding round led by No Limit Holdings.
The UAE-based fintech says the funding will allow the firm to “propel the development” of its AI-powered credit intelligence platform.
The financing round also included participation from Ausvic Capital, Bitscale, Drops Ventures, Edessa Capital, Everstake Ventures, Kenetic Capital, Ryze Capital, MH Ventures, Moonvault and Typhon Ventures, among others.
Anatoly Kondiyakov, a partner at No Limit Holdings, claims Synnax is “building a platform for the debt issuance market that will benefit both borrowers and lenders”, an endeavour that has “the potential to grow the entire SMB loan industry worldwide”.
Nuke From Orbit secures £500k funding
Nuke From Orbit has raised £500,000 in a pre-seed funding round as the UK-based start-up prepares to take its mobile security product to market.
The firm says that the round was joined by several UK-based companies, alongside notable angel investors such as Jordan Hallows, founder of Wey Bridging Finance and Ballinger Group’s co-founder and COO, Oliver Bridgen.
In the event of someone’s mobile being stolen, Nuke From Orbit claims its solution will block the device’s SIM, cancel bank cards, and secure digital accounts in a single action – i.e. banking apps, digital wallets, and emails.
The start-up will use the pre-seed funding to expand its workforce and prepare its technology for public beta testing in late 2024.
“This investment is not just a financial boost, but a propelling force that will catapult us towards expanding our partner base as we gear up to launch our dynamic partner portal,” explains James O’Sullivan, CEO and founder of Nuke From Orbit.
Sibstar, the dementia-friendly debit card and app, has raised £125,000 after gaining investment from two ‘Dragons’ on the hit UK television show Dragons’ Den.
BBC Dragons’ Den investors, Sara Davies and Deborah Meaden, both invested £62,500 each for a 5% share of the company, with the funding being earmarked to fuel further financial inclusion.
Launched by Jayne Sibley, who has personal experience in caregiving for close family members with dementia, in 2023, Sibstar offers a pre-loaded debit card that, along with its companion app, offers control over how and where funds are utilised.
“Sibstar is the best kind of investment, one that has an important reason to be and makes a big difference to people’s lives,” explains Meaden.
WineFi bags an investment from Coterie Holdings
Launched in late 2023, Wine investment start-up WineFi has landed an undisclosed sum investment from Coterie Holdings, a UK-based wine-specialist holdings company.
Michael Saunders, CEO of Coterie Holdings, claims that the firms will explore how “Coterie’s network and ecosystem can further support WineFi’s mission and bring more emerging fine wine lovers onto this intuitive and user-friendly platform to grow their collections”.
In addition to the undisclosed funding, which WineFi did not reveal the purpose of, the fintech has also announced that Saunders is set to join its board of directors.
The recent investment will add to WineFi’s pre-seed round, which was led by SFC Capital and saw participation from Founders Capital and several angel investors.
