Funding envelope: global investments marked by digital growth

The global economy was represented in FinTech investments, with international investors distributing money to startups aimed at bringing the world into the digital economy, increasing efficiency and automation.

Aspire Bank

In the biggest funding news this week, Singapore-based Aspire Bank raised a total of $ 158 million – $ 58 million in a Series B funding round and $ 100 million in equity, led by an undisclosed private equity firm with DST Global Partners, CE Innovation Fund, B Capital Partners and global hedge fund Fasanara Capital. Existing investors include AFG, Hummingbird Ventures, Mass Mutual Ventures and Picus Capital.

Aspire, founded in 2018, aims to build an end-to-end ecosystem. The challenger bank is working on building its payroll system and adding more features to its invoice management tool to make it easier to reconcile payments with account balances.

“We see a world dominated by integrated platforms across various business functions such as Salesforce for sales or Slack for communication. We believe the same is true of finance and we are here to build the operating system for Southeast Asia’s digital economy, ”said Andrea Baronchelli, CEO and co-founder of Aspire in a statement. “We create value for our customers by saving time, money and stimulating their growth. “

Alloy

Software developer Alloy has raised $ 100 million in a Series C funding round led by Lightspeed Venture Partners with participation from existing investors Avid Ventures, Bessemer Venture Partners, Canapi Ventures and Felicis Ventures.

The new round brings the valuation of the New York-based bank to $ 1.35 billion and the total amount raised to more than $ 150 million, the company said in a statement. Alloy plans to use the funding to expand the product offering.

Founded in 2015, Alloy has developed an identity verification platform used to detect fraud and make identity management efficient and simple for banks. Alloy raised $ 40 million last year in a Series B funding round and $ 12 million in 2019 in a Series A funding round.

“We want to make building a fintech product as easy as building an e-commerce product, and we’re excited to have Lightspeed on board to help us do that,” said the co-founder and CEO. Tommy Nicholas, in a statement. “Identity and the associated risks are not something companies should determine, they should just be something they install. As Alloy transforms into a multi-product platform for the full customer identity lifecycle, we can not only help make risks easier to understand, but also drive innovation in the industry by facilitating the creation of fintech products.

“We are delighted to support the Alloy team as their product and mission fits perfectly with our thesis that the proliferation of fintech, financial services and integrated fintech companies is driving increasing demand for tools like Alloy, ”said Justin Overdorff, partner at Lightspeed Venture Partners. “Alloy removes risk from its customers’ plates while maintaining operational efficiency throughout the customer lifecycle, making Alloy a critical part of the fintech infrastructure stack. “

Alloy currently serves over 200 clients, including Ally Bank, HMBradley, Gemini, Ramp and Evolve Bank & Trust.

Rize

Virginia-based startup Rize has secured $ 11.4 million in a Series A funding round led this week by California-based Alpha Edison and Morpheus Ventures.

Existing funders include Raptor Group, Revolution’s Rise of the Rest Seed Fund, Third Prime, Red & Blue Ventures, Graham Holdings, Walkabout Ventures, and Rucker Park Capital.

The fintech-as-a-service provider was founded in 2015 by Justin Howell, Kirk Voltz, Mizel Djukic and Rishi Kumar “originally as a business-to-business fintech company because consumers’ concerns about money were our expertise, but we found that building intuitive financial user experiences weren’t just a UI / UX issue – you couldn’t achieve “simple and intuitive” without first rebuilding much of it. the underlying financial infrastructure from scratch, ”the company said in its blog post.

Rize said he plans to invest some of that funding in commodities to further meet the needs of OEM customers, such as its recently launched developer toolkit that allows users to build a full banking app in less than 30 minutes.

For Motiv

ForMotiv, a digital behavior analysis startup, raised $ 6 million in a seed fundraiser led by Massachusetts-based Vestigo Ventures, California-based Plug & Play Ventures, and New York-based Dreamit Ventures.

“The pandemic has accelerated the digital transformation of several industries – insurance is one of them. With companies seeking solutions to better understand digital behaviors and improve the customer experience, ForMotiv has thrived and remained profitable, ”Bill Conners, CEO of ForMotiv, said in a statement.

Philadelphia-based ForMotiv, founded in 2017, plans to use the new funding to hire leadership roles in technology, product and sales. The company also has an office in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam.

ForMotiv provides businesses with real-time insight into customer intent as users engage with apps and forms without the need for Personally Identifiable Information (PII), such as full name or Social Security number. . Its software analyzes hundreds of unique behavioral data points (digital body language), according to a statement.

ForMotiv has analyzed over 300 million applications for clients, including State Auto, iPipeline, Unqork, HealthGorilla, and FTI Consulting.