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Weekly Funding News Highlights – 21 December 2022

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.

South Korean tech firm behind super-app Toss raises $405m Series G funding (Fintech Futures
Viva Republica, the South Korean technology firm behind financial super-app Toss, has secured a $405 million Series G funding round valuing the company at $7 billion, TechCrunch reports. Tonic Private Equity led the Series G round along with existing investors including Korea Development Bank (KDB), Altos Ventures, Goodwater Capital, Greyhound Capital, Aspex Management, Bond Capital and Dumac. In June 2021, Viva Republica raised $410 million at a valuation of $7.4 billion – nearly three times the valuation it achieved after its previous cash injection in August 2020. Founded by CEO Seung-gun Lee, the company’s super-app offers services including banking, P2P lending, stock trading and investing and insurance. Read more

London fintech Updraft raises £108M to offer customers their financial freedom (TFN)
Updraft, the London-based financial app, has raised £108 million Series A funding round in debt and equity to help fuel its growth. NatWest, who led Updraft‘s last £72m debt and equity round, is leading the debt portion of this latest raise, while LC Nueva, Auluk Investments, and Faber Capital are leading the equity portion. Recently, the firm also backed Oneiro Solutions and BuiltAI in their funding rounds. Founded in 2017 by Aseem Munshi, Matt Millar, and David Yalland, utilising Open Banking technology, Updraft builds a full picture of a users’ spending on credit cards, overdrafts, loans and recently introduced Buy-now pay later (BNPL) products. Updraft’s technology harnesses behaviour science and machine learning to deliver human, empathic and mindful experiences to help its members make changes that pay off in the long term. Read more

Moneyhub funding round hits £55m (Business Cloud)
Open finance, open data and payments platform Moneyhub has secured £15 million in funding from Phoenix Group to take its latest round of investment to £55m. The savings and retirement business has joined Legal & General and Lloyds in backing the Bristol company, which also revealed investment from Direct Line and Esure founder Sir Peter Wood in 2021. An additional £5m debt facility is to be provided by Shawbrook Bank, partially subject to regulatory approval. Phoenix Group will join existing lead investors Legal & General and Lloyds Banking Group with a minority stake in the business. Standard Life, part of Phoenix Group, already has a strong and long-standing commercial relationship with Moneyhub through a financial wellness proposition for Workplace pension customers – Money Mindset, which utilises Moneyhub’s Open Finance platform. Read more

Digital mortgage lender Nesto raises over $50mn to expand (Fintech Magazine)
Canadian digital mortgage lender Nesto has secured CA$80mn (US$58mn) as part of an ‘oversubscribed’ Series C funding round led by IGM Financial. The company, which is based in Montreal, is on a mission to empower partner lenders to improve and streamline their mortgage lending through the Nesto Mortgage Cloud. Nesto intends to offer the Mortgage Cloud to financial institutions in order to support their ongoing modernisation efforts and search for greater efficiency. Nesto hopes the move will diversify its customer base and revenue streams, strengthening its position within digital mortgage lending. The Series C funding round will enable the firm to further develop its proprietary technology, expand its marketing capabilities across Canada and launch the Mortgage Cloud in full. As well as IGM Financial, a mix of new and existing investors – including Diagram Ventures, Portage, BMO Capital Partners as well as the National Bank of Canada’s corporate venture capital arm. Read more

Top banks back $24 million round in operational risk fintech Acin (Finextra)
A consortium of top US, European and UK banks have backed a $24 million Series B round in operational risk network Acin. The consortium of banks comprise JPMorgan, Citi, BNP Paribas, Barclays, and Lloyds Banking Group. The funding round was also supported by existing investors Notion Capital, Talis Capital and Fitch Ventures. The firm currently counts double-digit Tier 1 banks as clients, using its network to quantify their operational and non-financial risk and controls through a standardised, industry-wide inventory. The net result promises significant balance sheet benefits by reducing the operational risk capital that banks are required to hold in the future. Read more

Rest Less: UK’s fast growing digital community for the over 50s secures £6M funding (TFN)
Rest Less, a UK-based digital community, advocate and financial services platform for people aged over 50, today announced it has secured £6 million in a latest funding round. The investment was led by Moneta Venture Capital, an Israeli fintech fund with additional new investment from Sony Financial Ventures/Global Brain and Exceptional Ventures. Existing investors such as QED Investors, Viola Fintech, Octopus Ventures, MTech Capital and 1818 Venture Capital contributed to the round. Founded by Stuart Lewis (Chief Executive) and Sara Stephens (Chief Technology Officer), Rest Less launched in early 2019 targeting people aged over 50. As a work and career site, Rest Less initially matched age-inclusive employers with its members. Over the past few years, Rest Less has rapidly expanded to offer thousands of tailored articles, guides, and advice to assist members in navigating the midlife transitions of work, health, pensions, relationships, and money. Read more

Primary Portal lands £5.3m in funding (Fintech Global)
Primary Portal, a UK-based provider of a platform for deal information, has scored £5.3m in investment. The round was led by Dutch Founders and Fund also saw participation from investors such as Flow Traders. Founded in 2020, Primary Portal provides a digital platform that aggregates and digitises equity capital market deals for fund and flow traders. When clients look at the dashboard, they can see live IPOs, recently priced ABOs, rights issues and convertibles. The firm has established itself with over 50 banks and 1,000 active users throughout Europe and Asia and launched its offering in the US market at the beginning of November. Read more

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