New week – new closed funding rounds! This week’s funding highlights cover personal finance, AI software, data, security, and many more! Take a look at some major investments of this week.
Schneider Electric-backed VC firm launches €500M fund to invest in climate, industrial tech startups (TFN)
California-based SE Ventures, the premier early-stage Venture Fund from multinational company Schneider Electric, has raised €500 million in funding for its second fund. SE Ventures’ Fund II establishes the firm as one of the largest VCs focusing on climate and industrial technology. Fund II builds upon the Fund I raised in 2018 and leaves SE Ventures with a total of €1 billion of committed capital. Fund II will begin deployment in January 2023, doubling down on SE Ventures’ track record of success as an accelerant for category-defining companies in climate tech, industrial AI, mobility, prop-tech, and cybersecurity. Read more
Viola Credit backs B2B PayTech Balance with $350m (Global Fintech)
Balance, a B2B payments company specialising in financing and e-commerce, has raised $350m in a credit facility from Viola Credit. The credit comes on the back of Balance’s $56m Series B funding round to help merchants and marketplaces scale ecommerce payments with instant financing and a B2B checkout. Launched early 2021, Balance provides an online checkout with omni-channel support for businesses. The company’s offering allows companies to process any payment method, offer flexible terms, and get paid instantly within one platform. Read more
SMB banking startup Novo raises $35m (Finextra)
Novo, a digital-only bank for US small businesses, has topped up its Series B funding round with a $35 million investment from GGV Capital. The extra funding brings Novo’s Series B to $125 million, and total equity funding to more than $170 million. Launched in 2018, Novo now services more than 180,000 SMEs, providing access to a free paperless business checking account with debit card access, all managed through a mobile app. Read more
Europe Fintech Funding: WeGift raises $30.9M in series B (Bank Automation News)
Digital payouts firm WeGift on Tuesday closed a $30.9 million series B funding round led by Element Ventures. The London-based platform automates the manual ordering and fulfillment process to allow businesses including Amazon and Apple to offer rewards with access via APIs to more than 1,300 digital gift cards, according to the WeGift website. Read more
Pay-by-bank fintech Banked raises another $15mn in funding (Fintech Magazine)
London-based fintech Banked, which allows people to pay through their mobile banking app at checkout, has raised US$15mn in an extension to its Series A funding round. The round extension was led by Insight Partners and supported by Citi, National Australia Bank Ventures and Rapyd, which also recently became a commercial partner of the firm. Banked claims the latest capital injection recognises its “traction and distinct approach to building a pay-by-bank global network”. Read more
French PropTech Virgil raises €15 million (Finextra)
Virgil, a provider of residential real-estate financing for young professionals, has raised €15 million, with the aim of financing €50 million worth of transactions each month in France and Europe. Virgil is targeted at young working professionals, offering a financial contributions of up to €100,000 to help them reach their home ownership dream. In exchange for an investment of 10% of the price, Virgil buys 15% of the apartment and is paid when the apartment is resold. Since its launch three years ago, Virgil has already financed €50 million of real estate in Paris and supported 10,000 people in their projects. Read more
Dutch VC Newion invests in €4.6M funding of Swedish SaaS startup Occtoo (TFN)
Occtoo, a Malmo, Sweden-based SaaS startup, has secured €4.6 million in a seed round led by Amsterdam-based Newion, with participation from 42CAP and Industrifonden. Last month, the Amsterdam VC launched Newion IV, it’s fourth investment funding to invest in about twenty new early-stage B2B software startups. The Swedish company will use the funds to accelerate expansion and grow the partner network and product development. Read more
KaiOS, the feature phone platform startup, raises a modest $3.4M to train its sights on growth in Africa (TechCrunch)
The Hong Kong-based feature phone startup, which has previously been backed by strategic investors like Google and TCL, has picked up $3.4 million from Finnfund, an impact investor out of Finland. Finnfund’s financing is coming in the form of a convertible note — meaning it could convert into equity in a potential future funding round. the feature phone operating system startup KaiOS, is getting a small financial injection that both speaks to that pressure, but also a chance to grow in what remains an opening in the market: selling cheaper and low-end, but ultimately still functional and usable devices, to the poorest consumers in developing economies in sub-Saharan Africa. Read more
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