Fintech Fundings: 18 Companies Raise a Cool $1 Billion Week Ending April 24
FINOVATE: The alternative lending sector, especially in China, is soaking up funds at an unprecedented pace. This week alone, more than $750 million went to startup lenders, 80% earmarked to China (Lufax $485 million and Jimubox $84 million), while Funding Circle (London, $150 million), EZBob (London, $45 million), Smava (Germany, $16 million), and Assetz (London, $4.5 million) rounded out the sector’s inflow. Across the total fintech sector, 18 companies raised $1.03 billion this week. And three new unicorns were officially unveiled: Lufax, Funding Circle, and Oscar, a U.S. health insurance startup.
In addition to EZBob ($45 million), two other Finovate alums brought in new cash this week: eToro which added $12 million to its already-announced $27 million round and SigFig took in another $1 million.
Here are the fintech funding rounds by size between April 18 and April 23:
Lufax
P2P consumer loans
HQ: Shanghai, China
Latest round: $485 million (at $10 billion valuation)
Total raised: Unknown
Tags: Peer-to-peer lending, crowdfunding, investing, Ping An Insurance (investor)
Source: Wall Street Journal
Funding Circle
P2P consumer loans
HQ: London, UK
Latest round: $150 million Series E (at $1 billion valuation)
Total raised: $273.2 million
Tags: Crowdfunding, loan marketplace, peer-to-peer, unicorn, P2P, underwriting, investing
Source: Crunchbase
Oscar
Health insurance
HQ: New York City
Latest round: $145 million Series A (at $1.5 billion valuation)
Total raised: $295 million
Tags: Insurance, analytics, healthcare, medical payments
Source: Crunchbase
Jimubox
P2P small business & consumer loans
HQ: China
Latest round: $84 million Series C
Total raised: $131.2 million
Tags: SMB, peer-to-peer lending, underwriting, investing
Source: FT Partners
EZBob
P2P small business loans
HQ: London, UK
Latest round: $45 million
Total raised: $66.5 million (which includes $11 million of debt)
Tags: Crowdfunding, marketplace lender, underwriting, SMB, investing, Finovate alum
Source: Crunchbase
CompareAsia
Asian financial comparison site
HQ: Hong Kong, China
Latest round: $40 million Series A
Total raised: $46 million
Tags: Financial lead generation, sales, insurance, banking, investing, MoneyHero, MoneyMax, MoneyGuru, Money101, www.singsaver.com.sg, MoneyHalo (brand names)
Source: Crunchbase
Perseus
High-speed global network for trading and other financial services
HQ: New York City
Latest round: $20.5 million
Total raised: $20.5 million
Tags: Network, connectivity, trading, infrastructure, Goldman Sachs (investor)
Source: Crunchbase
Smava
P2P consumer loans
HQ: Berlin, Germany
Latest round: $16 million Series B
Total raised: $29.1 million
Tags: Loan marketplace lender, underwriting, investing
Source: FT Partners
Gravie
Health insurance services for employers
HQ: Minneapolis, Minnesota
Latest round: $12.5 million Series B
Total raised: $25.6 million
Tags: Enterprise, employee benefits, health insurance
Source: FT Partners
eToro
Social trading and investment network
HQ: Limassol, Cyprus
Latest round: $12 million (addition to $27 million round in Nov 2014 of which $10 million is debt)
Total raised: $72.9 million
Tags: Trading, sharing, currency, fx, investment management, investing, CommerzBank (investor), Silicon Valley Bank (creditor), Finovate alum
Source: Finovate
SureCash
Mobile banking platform in Bangladesh
HQ: Bangladesh
Latest round: $7 million Series B
Total raised: $7+ million
Tags: Mobile banking, payments, Hong Kong (investor)
Source: Crunchbase
Assetz Capital
P2P business loans
HQ: London, UK
Latest round: $4.5 million
Total raised: $4.5 million
Tags: Lending, crowdfunding, peer-to-peer, SMB, underwriting, investing
Source: Crunchbase
Cardfree
Mobile point-of-sale technology
HQ: Scottsdale, Arizona
Latest round: $4 million Series
Total raised: $14 million
Tags: Merchants, payments, acquiring, mobile, POS
Source: FT Partners
OpenFin
Financial services development platform
HQ: New York City
Latest round: $3 million Series B
Total raised: $9.6 million
Tags: Dev tools, desktop financial services, investment management, IT
Source: Crunchbase
New Media Insight
Mobile payments (mPaay)
HQ: Phoenix, Arizona
Latest round: $2 million
Total raised: $2 million
Tags: Payments, SMB, acquiring, mobile
Source: FT Partners
CoinTent
Micropayments
HQ: San Francisco, California
Latest round: $1.1 million Seed
Total raised: $1.1 million
Tags: Payments, mobile, micropayments, SMB, digital content
Source: Crunchbase
SimplyInsured
Group health insurance quotes
HQ: San Francisco, California
Latest round: $1 million Seed
Total raised: $1.8 million
Tags: Insurance, healthcare, SMB, lead gen, Y Combinator
Source: Crunchbase
SigFig
Online portfolio/investment manager
HQ: San Francisco, California
Latest round: $1 million Series
Total raised: $16 million
Tags: Robo-advisor, ETF, asset allocation, investing, Finovate alum
Source: Finovate
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Related
Not a technology company, but a part of the fintech ecosystem (not included in total funding amount)
untapt
Fintech software developer recruiter
HQ: New York City
Latest round: $3.1 million Series A
Total raised: $4.2 million
Tags: Developers, builders, recruiting, headhunter
Source: Crunchbase
