Fintech funding round-up: 4 December 2017
Coming straight after Friday’s (1 December) fintech funding action, here’s another round-up to take the Monday blues away. This round-up features Oakam, KeyBank, Snapsheet, Payrailz and Elsen.
Digital micro-lender Oakam has secured a £35 million debt investment from Victory Park Capital Advisors (VPC), an investment firm focused on private middle market debt and equity investments.
With its digital service and use of alternative data in its underwriting process, Oakam has been able to evaluate more applicants at a lower cost than traditional doorstep lenders. Since launching in 2006, it has disbursed £320 million to help financially excluded consumers gain access to credit. According to Oakam, the investment will enable it to accelerate its lending activity in the UK by more than 180% year on year and continue to “disrupt” the micro-lending industry.
KeyCorp has revealed its investment and partnership with Snapsheet, the self-service claims solution provider for insurance carriers. The investment follows their joint launch of Snapsheet Transactions, a payment platform on the backend of Snapsheet’s existing solution.
According to Snapsheet, its transactions platform offers a payment hub featuring a variety of options, without adding “complexity or risk” to insurance carriers’ backend processes. KeyCorp and Snapsheet say they will continue to partner with each other to support the roll-out and execution of enhancements related to Snapsheet Transactions. The partnership marks the most recent in a series of investments by KeyCorp. The terms of the investment were not disclosed.
Payrailz, a digital payments company that offers bill payment and money transfer solutions to banks and credit unions, reveals that First Data, Live Oak Ventures, Woodforest National Bank, Webster Bank and TTV Capital have collectively invested $6.1 million into the company.
According to Payrailz, its solutions address the industry’s outdated approach to payments by offering a modern technology that automates tasks for users. Its technology bridges the gap between tech-enabled consumers’ expectations and the traditional approach to payments through digital channels. Those involved in investment are supporters of Payrailz’s idea of building towards producing “do it for me” solutions that leverage advancements in payments technology.
Finally, Elsen, a Platform-as-a-Service (PaaS) company for financial institutions, raised $2.4 million in a seed extension round led by Hyperplane Venture Capital with participation from Accomplice, Launch Capital alongside angel investors.
With the latest investment totalling its funding to $2.9 million, funds from the round will be used to bolster sales and marketing, expand its engineering team, extend support services for existing customers, and integrate more premium financial data into its PaaS. MD of Hyperplane Venture Capital, Jack Klinck will also join the company’s board of directors as chairman. Founded in 2014, Elsen says its nPlatform enables financial institutions to build applications that let any user analyse data in minutes, not days, allowing for the transformation of investment workflows, strategies and results.
