Fintech Highlights - 9/21/2021

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Varo Bank, which last year became the first U.S. neobank to be granted a national bank charter, announced last week that it has raised a staggering $510 million in a Series E funding round at a $2.5 billion valuation.

in the 13 months since obtaining its bank charter, the company has doubled its number of opened accounts to four million and tripled its revenue.

At the time of its last raise, in February, Varo touted 3 million opened accounts. Doing the math we can deduce that the startup has added one million new accounts over the past seven months.

The neobank is growing quickly, has a number of power brokers as investors, and is looking at the public markets to fund more growth and take on the big national incumbents.

Fintechs

Neo Financial is furthering its push to become a full-stack digital bank to compete with Canada’s financial giants. The three-year-old startup closed a $64 million CAD Series B round this summer. More here ->

Aurelia, a financial automation platform that bills itself as a sort of “IFTTT for finance” has raised a $3M seed round. The platform aims at small businesses that want to integrate their bank accounts with financial tools, Aurelia says this then gives them greater control over cash flow, taxes and more to automate normally manual tasks, with no knowledge of code needed. More here ->

HoneyBee, a startup that aims to help companies provide access to financial support to their employees, announced today it has raised $5.7 million. The Los Angeles-based Certified B Corp describes itself as a B2B financial technology company that is on a mission to give employees — and their families — free access to financial support in the workplace as a benefit. That support could come in the form of employer-sponsored “no-cost rainy day funds” and on-demand financial therapy with the goal of “creating a healthier workforce environment.” More here ->

Prospa, a Nigerian finch has raised $3.8M to offer small businesses banking and software services. In Nigeria, there are more than 40 million micro-businesses underserved in some form or another regarding banking services. Although some of these businesses have registeredbank accounts, gaps exist in how banks use the data available to serve the needs of each business. More here ->

OurPass, a Nigerian based "one-click checkout platform" has raised $1M. OurPass provides a mobile application that enables consumers to shop with one click. The first time consumers sign up on the OurPass platform, they enter their names, email and shipping addresses. OurPass then creates an identity for each customer, which is passed across every online store they shop. More here ->

FloBiz, an Indian neobank for SMEs, raised $31 million. The startup’s marquee offering — called myBillBook — helps small- and medium-sized businesses digitize their invoicing, streamline business accounting and automate workflows of their enterprises. More here ->

AvidXchange, a Charlotte-based provider of accounts payable and payment automation software, filed for an IPO. It plans to list on the Nasdaq (AVDX) and reports a $92 million net loss on $114 million in revenue for the first half of 2021. More here ->

Self Financial, a fintech company that aims to help consumers build credit and savings at the same time, announced today it has raised $50 million. The company, as many fintechs these days, aims to make building credit and savings more accessible, regardless of a person’s financial history. It requires no hard credit check to get started. More here ->

Enfusion, a Chicago-based provider of investment management SaaS, filed for an IPO. It plans to list on the NYSE (ENFN) and reports $8 million of net income on $51 million in revenue for the first half of 2021. More here ->

Insuretechs

Vouch, a provider of business insurance to startups and high-growth companies, announced it has raised $90 million in new funding. While there are many insurance technology companies out there that serve consumers, there are far fewer that offer it to companies, much less startups. Vouch describes itself as “a new kind of insurance platform” for startups that offers fully digital, “tailored coverage that takes minutes to activate.” More here ->

Ascend, an insurance payments platform that combines financing, collections and payables, has announced a $5.5 million seed round. This is the first funding for the company that is live in 20 states. It developed payments APIs to automate end-to-end insurance payments and to offer a buy now, pay later financing option for distribution of commissions and carrier payables, something co-founder and co-CEO Andrew Wynn, said was rather unique to commercial insurance. More here ->

From the Stash

Frost Bank returning to mortgage lending through tech partnership | American Banker — www.americanbanker.com After exiting the business roughly 20 years ago, the San Antonio bank is working with tech consultant Infosys to help it build out a digital consumer lending business that will include home loans.

Electric Vehicles Turn Cold in SPAC Market, While Fintechs Are Hot — www.theinformation.com After a frenetic beginning to 2021, the special purpose acquisition company market has cooled off in recent months, with fewer SPACs filing to go public and many pre-deal shares trading below their $10 issue price. And we’re now seeing the aftereffects of the SPAC meltdown: in particular, an ...

The Fintech Startups Plaid, JPMorgan and Stripe Could Buy Next — The Information — www.theinformation.com Fintech startups have targets on their backs. Big banks and payment processing companies, propelled by the jump in online commerce during the pandemic, are snapping up software firms that help consumers pay, trade and borrow online. And the summer’s deal making is far from over, investors and ...

Robinhood and Coinbase Top List of Tech’s Fastest-Growing Employers — The Information — www.theinformation.com Two fintech powerhouses that went public this year, Robinhood Markets and Coinbase Global, both hired new employees at among the fastest clips in the tech industry in their most recent quarters, according to an analysis by The Information of publicly traded tech companies. Each of the two ...

Sweden's EQT walks away from $2 billion bid for Australia's Iress | Reuters — www.reuters.com Swedish private-equity firm EQT has ended talks to buy Australia's Iress Ltd for $2.3 billion, sending shares in the financial software company spiralling lower on Friday.

Debt Collection Fintech TrueAccord Introduces Retain, a Digital-First Solution for Early-Stage Collections — www.crowdfundinsider.com TrueAccord Corporation introduces Retain, a new, client-branded product that aims to address early-stage collection challenges for lenders.

Podcasts

The Leadership in Insurance Podcast with George Beattie — preview.mailerlite.com This week Alex and George discuss all things from deconstructing innovation and the industry-wide struggle for continued relevance to discussing whether insurance experience is necessary when hiring.

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