This week saw a total of 27 deals take place in the FinTech industry. With the exception of the top two deals, these were mainly of modest value.
Synk, a Japanese CyberTech, and European FinTech Novicap were clearly in the lead this week, with $196m and $213m raised each, respectively.
After the two frontrunners, deal values diminished significantly, with the next biggest round amounting to $52m. This was raised by US artificial intelligence accounting company Vic.ai.
Many of the deals this week were also later-stage fundraises, with 50% of the top ten deals being Series B or further.
The lack of high-value deals is hardly surprising given the tough economic climate. This trend has also meant we are seeing fewer companies reaching the highly coveted unicorn status.
Recently, FinTech Global research reported that last year investments poured into the tech markets, driven by the increased demands from the pandemic. Out of the 457 new unicorns recorded last year, a third were FinTech businesses.
However, this year with the increased talks of a recession looming and a collapse in public market valuations, the number of new unicorns has fallen off a cliff.
Nothing illustrates this better than the recent FTX collapse given the company was the highest-valued new unicorn in the FinTech sector in 2022. Those trends have spooked investors and as a result, new unicorn births have collapsed in the second half with just one being recorded in November.
Zero, a provider of carbon credit scoring, risk assessments, and analysis, was the only FinTech company to enter the unicorn club last month. The company raised $50m in a Series B transaction led by US investment firm Quantum Energy Partners.
Here are the deals that took place this week.
CyberTech unicorn Snyk sees slight dip in valuation
CyberTech unicorn Snyk has slightly dropped to a $7.4bn valuation following the close of its Series G funding round of $196.5m.
The company’s previous funding round was a $75m Series F in 2021. It had raised the capital at an $8.6bn valuation.
QIA (Qatar Investment Authority) served as the lead investor in Series G, with existing investors bold start ventures, Sands Capital and Tiger Global, also deploying funds. The Series G also welcomed first-time Snyk investors, Evolution Equity Partners, G Squared, and Irving Investors.
Snyk has earmarked the capital to drive ‘noteworthy’ product innovation, with the team looking to enhance and expand its offering. It will grow both organically and inorganically via strategic acquisition, it said.
The CyberTech unicorn has experienced a strong 2022. One of these milestones includes exceeding 2,300 customers, including AB InBev, Comcast, Dun & Bradstreet, Manulife, and Salesforce. In the past year, Snyk customers fixed more than 5.1 million vulnerabilities, it added.
Other notable milestones include 70% of current customers now leveraging multiple elements of Snyk’s Developer Security Platform, the launch of its SnykLaunch event, and aiding user remediation of over 11.5 million security issues in 2022.
Novicap lands €200m debt facility
Novicap, a European FinTech providing end-to-end working capital solutions, has raised a €200m debt facility from Fasanara Capital.
According to Novicap, the capital raise, which enables the company to further accelerate its growth and deliver more impact for thousands of SMEs, mid-market firms, and public administrations, will be used to bolster its credit portfolio and support the development of new market-leading solutions for its customer base.
The funding comes at a time when Novicap’s technology platform has exceeded the €1bn milestone in transaction volume as of Q3 2022 and follows the firm being listed as one of the 1,000 fastest-growing European companies, according to the Financial Times and Statista, for the third year in a row.
The new funding agreement with Fasanara implies an additional capacity of over €1bn of financing volume per year for Novicap.
It also reinforces Novicap’s message to its target customer segments that while the traditional banking sector may be tightening credit availability in today’s market environment, Novicap’s technology-enabled credit solutions are a reliable alternative.
Vic.ai scores $52m in Series C raise
Vic.ai, an AI accounting firm, has landed $52m in a Series C investment round led by GGV Capital and ICONIQ Growth.
Also participating in the round were Cowboy Ventures and Costanoa Ventures. Following this round, Vic.ai has raised a total of $115m since its inception.
The company claims its AI platform has already helped thousands of accounting firms and enterprise companies revolutionize their accounts payable operations by automating invoice processing.
Vic.ai said that by processing invoices 24/7 with up to 99% accuracy, it is boosting customers’ total productivity by 500% and providing key data insights through its intelligence dashboard.
The firm said that in its next phase of growth it will expand its AI solution to include corporate credit cards, bill pay, and purchase orders, providing a holistic spending intelligence offering that helps customers optimize their non-payroll costs and make more informed spending decisions.
Vic.ai will also offer new capabilities for secure and optimized payment execution as well as AI-based three-way PO matching in early 2023, with card transactions following later in the year.
Darwin CX nets $38.4m to expand operations
Darwin CX, a Toronto-based provider of a SaaS platform for the subscription economy, has scored $38m in funding.
The round was headed by First Ascent Ventures and Felicitas Global Partners with participation from Metropolitan Partners Group and Liam Lynch.
According to FinSME, Darwin CX provides a SaaS platform for the subscription economy that helps brands accelerate acquisition and retention— and increase loyalty— through customized check-out pages, targeted audience offerings, real-time A/B testing, and best-in-class analytics.
The solution platform enables clients to control customer data in order to tailor the best possible customer experiences.
In addition, the Canadian Darwin CX integrates with third-party applications and fulfillment providers.
Darwin CX intends to use the newly raised capital to expand operations, build strategic channel partnerships, and continue investing in its product roadmap.
Digital lender NeoGrowth lands $36.2m
NeoGrowth, a Mumbai-based digital lender focusing on medium to small enterprises, has raised $36.2m in a Series D equity round.
According to a report from VC Circle, the round was led by the Dutch development bank FMO as well as existing investors.
NeoGrowth is also backed by investors, namely Omidyar Network, Light rock, Khosla Impact, Accion Frontier Inclusion Fund – Quona Capital, IIFL Seed Ventures Fund, WestBridge, and Leapfrog Investments.
The company provides small businesses with loans through the analysis and underwriting of daily digital payments sales data to assess risk. The platform helps to finance companies that might not have access to traditional banks.
NeoGrowth’s application can be completed online and allows lending products for both online sellers and in-person retailers.
Its lending activities also focus on the financial inclusion of first-time entrepreneurs, women business owners, and underserved small businesses. The company offers loans to companies across a multitude of segments and has a presence at around 25 locations in India.
NeoGrowth reportedly has an AUM (assets under management) of Rs 1,600 crore, and claims to have connected with over 1,50,000 MSMEs since its inception and disbursed around $1bn in loans.
Cybersecurity SaaS platform Field Effect bags $34.5m
Global cybersecurity SaaS platform Field Effect has secured $34.5m in a funding round from Edison Partners and Round13 Growth Fund.
Field Effect was founded to supply SMEs with cybersecurity tools, with most existing solutions aimed at large enterprises with huge budgets and deep security expertise.
Its Field Effect Covalence solution monitors detect and actively responds to cyber threats across endpoints, cloud services, and networks.
While its Field Effect Cyber Range is a simulation-based cybersecurity training platform used to grow individual skills, rehearse incident response, and train teams.
Speaking on the deal, Round13 Growth Fund general partner Alex Yanitsky said, “The shift to remote work along with the increase in cyber attack sophistication has created a new set of cybersecurity challenges for SMEs which Field Effect is uniquely positioned to help solve.
“We are extremely impressed by Matt and his team and believe that Field Effect can become the leading provider of cybersecurity software to SMEs.”
Field Effect claims that it has built the most sophisticated cyber threat monitoring platform in the world. Solutions offered by the platform include incident response, managed cybersecurity, phishing simulations, secure IT operations, simulation training environments, and virtual CISO service.
RegTech Acin receives big-name backing in recent Series B
Action, an operational risk control data network, has closed $24m in a Series B funding round backed by a flurry of multinational banks.
The round was backed by a strategic consortium of industry-leading banks, comprised of JP Morgan, BNP Paribas, Lloyds Banking Group, Citi, and Barclays.
Also taking part in the raise was other investors including Notion Capital, Fitch Ventures, and Talis Capital.
Acin claims its platform empowers financial institutions to digitize their operational and non-financial risk analysis, using ‘groundbreaking’ data analytic capabilities.
Acin has established a network that calibrates data and facilitates the sharing of best practices between firms, underpinned by a standardized library of risks and controls.
The results, Acin claims, revolutionize the understanding and management of firms’ operational and non-financial risk positions accelerating their journey to become safer and more efficient. Minimizing operational risk capital is a shared industry ambition and Acin’s solution is a key building block.
According to Acin, the funding will enable further strategic product development in partnership with investment banks and existing clients. It will also enable Acin to expand and accelerate into new areas across the financial services industry.
Payments automation firm Plooto snares $20m Series B
Plooto, an end-to-end accounts payable and accounts receivable automation software platform, has scored $20m in a Series B raise.
The round was led by Centana Growth Partners as well as participation from investors Luge Capital and FINTOP Capital.
While building their first company, the founders of Plooto experienced the pain of operating a growing business firsthand. In 2015, the firm began by building a payments platform for small businesses to achieve greater control, convenience, and visibility over their financial practices at a reasonable price point.
Today, over 8,500 finance teams as well as accountants and bookkeepers use Plooto’s cloud-based financial solutions. Turbocharged by the adoption of remote-first work, Plooto continues to grow at a rapid pace.
According to the company, the newly raised capital will be used to drive customer expansion, introduce new product lines, ramp up hiring and help Plooto customize its offering for more businesses, accounting and bookkeeping firms.
Trilio lands $17m and names new CEO
Trilio, a provider of cloud-native data protection, has secured $17m in funding to drive further innovation and growth in the cloud-native application resiliency market.
The round was led by SKK Ventures and saw participation from Genesis Accel, .406 Ventures, T-Mobile Ventures, Jack Egan, Raiven Capital, and Wayra Telefónica Innovation. This brings Trilio’s total capital raised to $36m million.
Trilio claims it is a leader in cloud-native data protection for Kubernetes, OpenStack, and Red Hat Virtualization environments.
The firm’s TrilioVault technology is trusted by cloud infrastructure operators and developers for backup and recovery, migration, and application mobility.
Trilio will use the capital to increase focus on product development, engineering, and customer operations.
The company also announced the appointment of enterprise software executive Massood Zarrabian as CEO. Zarrabian was formerly Chairman and CEO of BA Insight.
Bondaval secures $15m for the future of B2B credit
Bondaval, London-based B2B receivables and mini-bonds FinTech reimagining the future of B2B credit, has raised $15m in Series A funding, led by Talis Capital.
The Series A round, which brings the total raised to more than $25m, also saw participation from Bonaval’s existing investors, Octopus Ventures, Insurtech Gateway, TrueSight, and Expa, as well as its new partners Talis, FJ Labs, and Broadhaven Ventures.
Founded in 2020 by am Damoussi and ex-England Rugby 7s captain Tom Powell, Bondaval is on a mission to redefine the future of B2B credit.
The startup’s FinTech product allows B2B financiers to rationalize credit and insurance underwriting, processing, and cost.
Bondaval’s offering includes MicroBond, a no-cancellation financial instrument wholly underwritten through its digital platform without the customer putting down collateral. MicroBond is used by blue chip FTSE 100 and S&P 500-listed companies including oil majors Shell and BP to provide receivables coverage.
The company will use the funding to support a recruitment drive to extend its existing 20-person team, located across its branch offices in London and Austin, Texas. Proceeds will also help Bondaval enter more sectors and use cases while refining its core FinTech IP.
Following the Series A raise, Octopus Ventures investor Tosin Agbabiaka predicted Bondaval would become a “category-defining” credit and insurance B2B platform.
Talis Capital’s GP Thomas Williams will join the board of directors.
Crypto insurance company Evertas secures $14m
Everts, a crypto insurance company, has raised $14m in Series A funding to bring a “much-needed” risk transfer to the under-insured Web3 world.
The round was led by Polychain Capital.
Other participants in the round included SinoGlobal Capital, CMT Digital Ventures, Foundation Capital, Morgan Creek, Bloccelerate, Matrixport, and Hash key. Individual investors include Balaji Srinivasan, Andrew Keys, Colleen Sullivan, Tom Howard, Patrick McDonald, and David Roebuck.
In addition to $5.8m seed financing, this puts the company’s total outside investment at $19.8m. Everts said it will use the funding to expand underwriting capacity, add key personnel and further develop proprietary enabling technologies and standards.
Events were founded in 2017 by CEO J. Gdanski and president Raymond Zenkich. The company is focused on covering the full spectrum of crypto risks for institutional holders of crypto-assets and blockchain technology, including exchanges, custodians, traditional financial institutions, funds, family offices, corporations, miners, and ultra-high net-worth individuals.
Based in Chicago, veritas can write and service policies insuring custodial crypto assets and blockchain infrastructure.
