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.
UK lender Abound secures £500m in equity and debt financing
UK-based lender Abound has landed £500 million in fresh equity and debt financing as it aims to improve access to “accurate and affordable” consumer loans. The debt financing has been provided by Citi and clients of Waterfall Asset Management, while the equity investors include K3 Ventures, GSR Ventures and Hambro Perks. Founded in 2020, Abound’s platform (previously known as Fintern) makes use of artificial intelligence (AI) and open banking to look at borrowers’ complete financial picture, allowing it to offer loans without needing to rely on just credit scores. Read more
French fintech Aria bags €50m debt facility
French B2B lender Aria has bagged a €50 million ($53.3m) debt facility provided by M&G Investments, building on the €20 million facility it secured in 2022. Founded in 2020 and based in Paris, Aria offers an API-led B2B financing solution built to enable marketplaces and Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) companies to boost their growth by offering instant payments to providers while maintaining cashflow until their customers have paid. Read more
French fintech N2F lands €24m funding to fuel expansion plans
French expense management software provider N2F has landed €24 million in growth funding from PSG Equity. With the new financial and strategic support, N2F plans to “significantly” accelerate its European expansion plans and boost the development of new products. It also aims to recruit 200 new employees over the next five years. Read more
US student debt fintech Candidly raises $20.5m in Series B funding
US-based student debt and savings optimisation platform Candidly, formerly known as FutureFuel, has raised $20.5 million in a Series B funding round led by Altos Ventures, with existing investor Cercano Management also participating. Founded in 2016 and based in New York, Candidly provides tools that enable users to keep track of the full lifecycle of education expenses and manage their finances to simultaneously pay down student debt and build wealth. Read more
Lloyds invests £10m in digital identity firm Yoti
Investment will support development of tech to keep people safe online, tackle identity fraud and give people more control over their data. Lloyds Banking Group has invested £10 million in digital identity company Yoti. The investment will support the development of technology to keep people safe online, tackle the ever-growing risks of identity fraud and give people more control over their personal data. Yoti’s products include a free Digital ID app, which gives individuals a safe and instant way to prove their identity from their phone, with no need to show ID documents or share an excessive amount of personal data. Read more
Redeem raises $2.5m to support easy NFTs trading
Redeem, which leverages web3 technology to allow users to send and redeem non-fungible tokens (NFTs), has reportedly raised $2.5m in its pre-seed. Kenetic Capital, an investor aimed at blockchain, served as the lead investor, according to a report from Markets Insider. Other commitments came from Monochrome Capital, VC3 DAO, The Fund, Flyover Capital, CMT Digital, KCRise Fund and KESTREL 0x1. Following the close of the round, Redeem plans to bolster the efforts for its second-quarter product launch. Capital has also been earmarked to enhance the core technology. Read more
Forbes 30 under 30 led RegTech startup Naq raises $1.5m seed
RegTech startup Naq, an automated data compliance and due diligence platform, has secured $1.5m in its seed funding round. This investment capital will help Naq bolster its capabilities, with the aim of making it easier for suppliers to have the assurance and security required to protect their infrastructure. Axivate Capital led the investment, with capital also coming from unnamed angel investors. The company, which was co-founded by Nadia Kadhim and Chris Clinton in 2021, aims to turn compliance into a competitive advantage for European and British SMEs. Kadhim was named in Forbes 30 under 30. Naq leverages automated compliance and local data security experts to make cybersecurity, compliance and due diligence easy and accessible for SMEs, whilst providing enterprises and governments real-time visibility over their supplier’s security and compliance posture. Read more
Crypto tax declarations startup Divly bags $400k
Divly, a FinTech helping simplify tax declarations for the crypto market, has raised $400,000 in a new fundraise. The investment was joined by DHS Venture Partners, Greens Ventures and YEoS Ventures. Following the close of the round, the company plans to bolster its growth and expand its reach to more investors globally. While the market is in the middle of the Crypto Winter, Divly claims it has still managed to grow. It attributes this partly because it expanded its services to all Nordic countries, the Netherlands, Japan and Germany. It claims that less than 1% of cryptocurrency investors may have declared their cryptocurrency to tax authorities in 2022. Read more
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