ICYMI fintech funding round-up: Tuum, DigiMaaya, Youverify, Trampay 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.
D2X raises $10m Series A
Netherlands-based D2X has raised $10 million through a Series A funding round led by Point72 Ventures.
GSR Markets also participated in the round, joined by existing investors Tioga Capital, Fortino Capital, Jabre Capital Partners, Picus Capital and TRGC.
The crypto derivatives exchange operates as a trading venue for cash-settled crypto futures and options with the aim of increasing adoption of the asset class among institutions.
The firm will leverage its latest capital raise, alongside the MiFID MTF licence it recently received from the Dutch Authority for Financial Markets (AFM) for crypto derivatives, to launch in Q2 this year.
UK fintech SAPI has closed a £7.5 million equity fundraising round to power its emergence from stealth, according to a Tech.eu report.
The round was reportedly powered by venture capital firm Passion Capital and a series of angel investors including Monzo and GoCardless founder Tom Blomfield, co-founder and CTO of TrueLayer Luca Martinetti, and Lendable founder Martin Kissinger, among others.
Sources claim the embedded finance platform will leverage the funds to enhance its product offering, onboard new partners and further establish its presence in the European market.
DigiMaaya raises $7m seed funding
DigiMaaya, a digital assets exchange and bank, has secured a non-binding commitment of $7 million in seed funding to power its launch.
Promoting itself as a “financial super-app”, the Egypt-based start-up is set to release an offering comprising of banking products and functions to store, earn and trade digital assets.
In a statement, Utsav Dar, founder and CEO of DigiMaaya, explains that the start-up’s mission is to “create a user centric, global, regulated and compliant financial super-app”, fuelled by a seed funding commitment from MIRAI Capital Global.
MIRAI Capital Global is a Silicon Valley-headquartered investment management firm formed last year through a partnership between Japanese advisory and consulting firm MIRAI JMAC and the family office of Sheikh Ahmed Bin Faisal Al Qassimi.
Reseda Group, which operates as a credit union service organisation (CUSO) under MSU Federal Credit Union (MSUFCU), has made a total investment of over $6.2 million in its fintech partnership ecosystem.
The recipients of this investment are US-based lendtechs CU LIFT Fund and Origence, consumer-focused CUSO CURevl, debt specialist fintech Debbie, commercial mobile virtual network operator Members Mobile, digital loan origination, decisioning, and monitoring platform Ranqx, data platform Ascent and debt repayment platform Changed.
Ben Maxim, COO of Reseda Group and CIO of MSUFCU, explains that the purpose of both this investment and its wider ecosystem is to “empower credit unions and community banks to be in a better position to serve their consumers”.
Youverify secures $2.5m
Nigeria’s Youverify has received a $2.5 million strategic investment from Saudi-based joint stock company Elm, which is owned by the Public Investment Fund.
The fintech, headquartered in Lagos, says it will leverage the capital to scale its AI-driven anti-money laundering (AML) solutions beyond the 12 countries it currently claims to serve, as well as “accelerating the production” of what it describes as “AML 2.0 products”.
The company says its solutions are designed to help businesses “reduce costs, increase operational efficiency, and navigate the complex landscape of global compliance standards with ease”.
Trampay, a Brazilian fintech start-up serving the gig economy, has landed a $250,000 pre-seed investment from US venture capital fund Potencia Ventures.
Founded in 2020, the fintech currently offers payment advances, worker insurance, a discount network and brick and mortar “supporting points” to 20,000 registered gig workers in Brazil.
With its latest capital injection, Trampay is set to invest in its technology to launch physical payment cards with the aim of increasing its user base to 50,000 customers, according to a LatamList report.
British bank NatWest has made a “strategic minority investment” in its payments partner Icon Solutions.
The London-based paytech operates a low-code payment framework that enables banks to deploy payment systems via an IPF software development kit.
It says its technology “underpins payments orchestration solutions, and sits at the heart of the core payments architecture of banks such as Citi, UBS, NatWest and BNP Paribas”.
NatWest selected the solution last September as a means to modernise its payment workflows. The bank views its investment in the company as “fundamental to the delivery of our modernisation in payments technology”, according to Mark Brant, chief payments officer at NatWest.
Citi Ventures invests in Tuum
Core banking vendor Tuum has received a strategic investment from Citi Ventures, the venture capital arm of Citigroup.
Tuum says its new investor has extended its €25 million Series B from last month by an undisclosed amount, adding that it is set to meet “key stakeholders” within the US-headquartered bank to gauge interest in “commercialisation opportunities”.
The additional support will be leveraged to expand its international presence, particularly in Germany, Austria and Switzerland and other markets in Southern Europe and the Middle East.
