ICYMI funding round-up: Credit Fair, Plooto, Xclaim, Weavr & 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.
There have been plenty of new funding deals this week
Indian consumer lending start-up, Credit Fair, has raised $15 million in a seed funding round led by angel investors Anand Ladsariya and Alok Agarwal of Striver Capital Advisors.
Founded in 2018, Credit Fair focuses on both businesses and private individuals. Founder Aditya Damani says the goal of his company is to empower Indians without credit scores or history.
The firm plans to use its new capital to improve its technology team and add to its underwriting models.
Toronto-based Plooto has raised CAD 8 million in a Series A funding round led by Fintop Capital. The fintech says it’s on a mission to remove all manual processes for payments between businesses and individuals.
Plooto claims to have already accrued more than 5,000 small business customers in Canada and the US.
“Poor cash flow management is responsible for approximately 82% of SMBs failing,” says CEO, Hamed Abbasi. “At Plooto, our mission is to empower finance teams so they can ensure their businesses thrive.”
The Nethone team
Polish firm Nethone has raised $6.7 million in a Series A round led by Atmos Ventures and Aria. Other participating investors include Innovation Nest, Plug and Play Ventures, Firlej Kastory, and a collection of angel investors.
Nethone is a machine learning-based fraud prevention company that allows online merchants and financial institutions to “holistically understand their end-users”.
With its proprietary online user profiling technology, the firm says it can detect and prevent payment fraud and account take-overs.
Xclaim, a Los Angeles-based digital trading marketplace, has raised $6.6 million in a seed funding round led by General Catalyst.
The firm says it’s creating the “first ever” marketplace for e-trading the debt of bankrupt companies. Founded in 2018, it has raised a total of $11.4 million.
“It’s not often that an opportunity arises to revolutionise an entire financial market,” says CEO of Xclaim, Matthew Sedigh.
“We started Xclaim to build an enduring company and solve the inefficiencies plaguing all market participants.”
London-based start-up Weavr has closed a £7 million seed funding round, an extension of a £3 million raise from late 2020.
Weavr offers API services that it says can make it simple for service sector companies to integrate new banking products. The firm has raised £10.4 million in total since its foundation.
“Embedded banking offers extraordinary potential for the future of work,” says CEO Alex Mifsud, “[as well as] the move away from cash, and the integration of financial services into all manners of digital businesses.”
Germany-founded and Brazil-based embedded finance start-up Dinie has raised $3.8 million in a seed funding round led by Accion Venture Lab.
The firm says it wants to use its cash to accelerate its embedded credit infrastructure and expand the use of its APIs among Brazil’s e-commerce industry.
It offers the Dinie Credit Account, an overdraft for businesses, and DiniePay, a buy now, pay later (BNPL) service for companies and corporates.
Fintech messaging and business automation tool MeChat has raised $3 million in seed funding which it plans to use to “transform” the way Black-owned businesses and start-ups gain access to finance.
The firm says it provides software to support “business intelligence, business execution, streamlined business processes, workflows, and people”.
Its self-service business automation tools can help businesses organise and use big data, as well as gain access to local town halls, regulators, and lawmakers.
Limina founder, Kristoffer Fürst
Limina, a Stockholm-based provider of investment management services, has raised $3 million in Series A funding. The investment was led by Nordic venture capital firm Industrifonden.
The firm says it works with clients to “modernise the fund management industry for the future”, starting with a “best-of-breed solution” for order-raising workflows
Limina will invest the fresh capital into scaling its offering, including further product development.
UK-based payments acceptance start-up KodyPay has raised $3.25 million in seed funding, bringing its total raised since launching in 2018 to $6 million.
The start-up promises to create an easy method of payment acceptance for businesses. Payment options include e-wallets, BNPL providers, open banking and card payments.
KodyPay says it removes the need for bulk hardware such as tills and receipt printers, reducing the cost for businesses to accept payments.
Danish onboarding start-up HellowFlow has raised €1.3 million in seed funding from PreSeed Ventures and Seedcamp.
Launched in 2020 by founders Mikkel Skarnager and Ciprian Florescu, HelloFlow operates a no-code platform to create easy onboarding solutions. The firm claims it can reduce the traditional costs of onboarding by as much as 90%.
It plans to use its new capital to expand the functionalities of the platform and accelerate product development.
