Griffin soaring after closing £6.5m round
Griffin, a banking-as-a-service provider, has announced a £6.5m round led by EQT Ventures with Seedcamp; Tribe Capital; Paul Forster; co-founder of Indeed.com; Matt Robinson, co-founder of Go-Cardless; and Carlos Gonzalez-Cadenas, chief operating officer of Cardless also participating.
The company will use the investment to develop its product, hire more staff and continue its bank authorisation process with the PRA and FCA.
Griffin was discovered by EQT Ventures’ proprietary AI platform, Motherbrain, which is built to discover new, rapidly-growing, or under-the-radar startups. To date, Motherbrain has driven more than $100m in portfolio company investments.
Investors come together to support incuto with £1.75m deal
incuto, “fintech for good” start-up which has developed a banking platform for credit unions and community banks, has secured a £1.75m investment from NPIF – Mercia Equity Finance, the government’s Future Fund, Ascension Ventures’ Fair By Design Fund and the North East Innovation Fund.
The funding will allow the Yorkshire-based company to roll out its platform to more UK credit unions and prepare for overseas expansion.
Fair By Design is dedicated to ending the poverty premium they collaborate with regulators, government, and businesses. The venture fund provides capital to help grow innovative ventures that are developing products to make markets fairer.
ITCH more than scratch the surface of pet market after £7.25m investment
ITCH, a subscription-based pet wellbeing firm, has secured £7.25m in early stage investment, paving the way for it to expand into the £4.5bn global pet insurance market.
The round was led by YYX Capital, and further supported by Accel Partners and Seedcamp, taking the companies total investment to £12.25m.
Unbound Tech free up capital after £15.1m investment deal
Unbound Tech, a firm specialising in cryptographic key management and protection, has raised $20m (£15.1m) in a Series B funding round led by Evolution Equity Partners, joining existing investors Innovation Endeavors, Goldman Sachs, Citi and BlueRed Partners, to help further fuel its global growth.
Evolution Equity Partners is an international venture capital investor managed by investment and technology entrepreneurs that helps develop cyber-security and enterprise software companies.
Investors let money do the talking with £1.2m FinChatBot investment
FinChatBot, the creator of conversational AI solutions for the financial services industry, has attracted £1.2m from Saviu Ventures, a French investment holding company which focuses on African startups, Mauritius-based Compass Venture Capital and leading South African venture capital firm Kalon Venture Partners.
Flown lifted by £1.2m pre-seed investment
Entrepreneur Alicia Navarro’s latest venture Flown, a new online platform that aims to help knowledge workers be more productive, has closed a £1.2m pre-seed investment round with the money coming from a number of angels and entrepreneurs, including Taavet Hinrikus (Transferwise), Greg Marsh (OneFineStay), James Meekings (Funding Circle) and Pete Cashmore (Mashable) – with a third of the fundraise also coming from female investors.
Yubo connects with investors in £35.9m Series C round
Yubo, a platform for young people to socialise online, has secured a $47.5m (£35.9m) Series C round, led by existing investors Idinvest, Iris Capital, Alven and Sweet Capital as well as new investors, including Gaia Capital Partners. As a part of the round, Jerry Murdock, co-founder of Insight Partners, will also become an independent member of the Yubo board.
The company seeks to increase its international growth even further, with ambitions to expand its community in Southeast Asia, Japan, Taiwan, and South Korea.
Further reading
Deals of the Week, November 6 to 13 – Growth Business roundup
