Robinhood Raises $280M at $8.3B Valuation; Revolut Launches Licensed Bank in Lithuania; N26 Nets $100M; Banked is Ready to Challenge Visa & MasterCard

This week (4-8 May) was really interesting and super exciting one in the world of FinTech. Revolut has formally launched as a licensed bank in Lithuania, enabling its 300,000 customers in the country to deposit their salaries and other funds in deposit-protected bank accounts; Robinhood has closed a $280 million Series F funding round led by Sequoia Capital; Visa and BRI Ventures have backed Nium; N26 has raised more than $100 million from existing investors keeping its valuation at $3.5 billion, and much much more!

Without further ado, let us dive into what has happened in the financial technology sector this week.

Hong Kong Virtual Bank ZA Launches Insurance Platform

ZA, the first virtual bank to go live in Hong Kong, has branched out into insurance after obtaining a digital-only insurer license from the Hong Kong Insurance Authority under its Fast Track pilot scheme.

ZA Life, operating under the trade name ZA Insure, will eliminate intermediaries through a digital-only insurance platform that fulfills quotations, underwriting and claims. Established in collaboration with Fubon Life Insurance, ZA Insure will launch in the near future, with products including life insurance and critical illness insurance to cover different needs. 

Paddy Choy, Chief Actuary of ZA Insure said:

Technology plays an important role in ZA Insure’s endeavor to improve user experience. ZA's self-developed eKYC technology will be fully applied to our underwriting process, substantially reducing the time required for purchasing coverage. We will also employ multiple security, risk control and anti-fraud technologies to ensure the safety of user information.

ZA, established by ZhongAn Technologies International, launched the city's first digital-only bank in December as a pilot, and is offering 6% for three-month deposits up to HK$200,000 ($25,000), which includes a 4% top up.

Revolut Launches Licensed Bank in Lithuania

Revolut has formally launched as a licenced bank in Lithuania, enabling its 300,000 customers in the country to deposit their salaries and other funds in deposit-protected bank accounts. 

Existing customers are able to upgrade from e-money accounts to bank deposit accounts from their Revolut app with just a few taps on their mobile. Revolut plans to offer consumer lending services in the coming months, including loans and credit cards, alongside 'Junior Accounts' for 7-17 year olds. 

Revolut received its European banking license in late 2018 from the Bank of Lithuania and the European Central Bank (ECB). In June 2019, the firm appointed former SEB Bank and Scotiabank alumni Virgilijus Mirk?s as CEO for Revolut Bank. 

Revolut says it will passport its Lithuanian banking license to other Central and Eastern European countries later in the year, with Lithuania acting as a hub for the region. The company currently employs more than 170 people in banking operations, customer support and marketing from its offices in Vilnius.

GoBear Moves Into Consumer Lending with Acquisition of AsiaKredit

Singaporean financial comparison site GoBear is extending its regional influence and business remit with the acquisition of consumer lending platform Asiakredit, which has processed over one million loan applications in the Phillippines.

GoBear says it will use the AsiaKredit platform to provide its 100 banking and insurance partners with a lending-as-a-service facility for underserved consumers in South East Asia and Hong Kong. 

With Covid-19 decimating the workforce in South East Asia, providing underbanked consumers with access to credit is expected to grow in importance. 

Adrian Chng of CEO of GoBear, commented:

With AsiaKredit as part of the GoBear family, we will be in a stronger position to fulfill our mission of improving the financial health of the underserved across Southeast Asia and Hong Kong. GoBear and AsiaKredit, together with our banking partners, will be able to offer millions of consumers access to an alternate source of credit and ethical lending.

As well as opening up a new corridor to the Phillippines, Chng believes the insights gained from transactional data captured by AsiaKredit will enable it to get a better handle on pricing risks across its own platform.

Last year, GoBear raised US$80M from the Netherlands-based asset management company Aegon and Dutch VC firm Walvis Participaties. 

Financial terms of the transaction were undisclosed.

Robinhood Raises $280M at $8.3B Valuation

Robinhood has closed a $280 million Series F funding round led by Sequoia Capital that values the stocktrading app at $8.3 billion.

NEA, Ribbit Capital, 9Yards Capital, and Unusual Ventures joined the round, which was widely trailed and follows a $323 million raise last July.

With traditional retail brokerages such as E*Trade charging fees of anything up to $10 a trade, Robinhood has been a hit since launching in 2015, making it one of fintech's most valuable startups.

The firm has added three million funded accounts just this year and in recent weeks it has seen record revenue growth, with investors keen to take advantage of market volatility during the Covid-19 pandemic.

However, the increased demand has put strain on Robinhood's systems, with the app experiencing several outages during March. The company has promised to compensate investors affected by outages on a case-by-case basis. However, at least one person has already filed a lawsuit.

The new money will be used for "scaling our platform, building new products, and accelerating build-out of our operations," says a statement.

N26 Raises $100M

Berlin-based mobile bank N26 has raised more than $100 million from existing investors, extending its Series D funding round to $570 million and keeping its valuation at $3.5 billion.

The startup initially raised $300 million for its Series D back in January 2019 before topping it up by $170 million in July. The latest extension was joined by all of N26's major investors and will be used for product development and to "strengthen its footprint in core markets".

Launched in Germany and Austria in January 2015, N26 began as a current account with a Mastercard. It now operates as a fully-featured bank across Europe, with about five million users.

Last year it entered the US, quickly racking up 250,000 users. A move into the UK has fared less well, with the company recently pulling out, blaming Brexit.

James Fitzgerald from VC Valar Ventures said:

This funding extension will help an already well-funded and successful business take the lead at a time when people are embracing digital banking more than ever.

Alpian Raises CHF12.2M for Digital Private Bank

Swiss startup Alpian has raised CHF12.2 million in a Series A funding round for the creation of a digital-first private bank aimed at the country's mass affluent market.

Alpian, incubated by Swiss banking group Reyl & Cie, is planning to launch in 2021, targeting a sizeable demographic in Switzerland - those with investible assets of between CHF100,000 and CHF1 million.

The venture's core offerings will include tailored investment boutique products, secure digital face-to-face access to experienced financial advisors, and simplified, transparent everyday banking services. 

It is promising a "modernistic digital interface", with proprietary technology to develop scalable, personalised private banking.

Schuyler Weiss, CEO of Alpian, said:

With Alpian, we will introduce a new way for affluent clients to bank that is attuned to how they want to manage their wealth. Our approach is client-centric first and foremost, with technology and innovation underpinning everything we do.

Visa and Bank BRI invest in Nium

Visa and BRI Ventures, the corporate venture arm of Bank BRI of Indonesia, have invested an undisclosed amount in cross-border money transfer operator Nium.

The new funding comes in after a round of $45 million kick-started in 2018 with a $20 million capital raise from MDI Ventures, the VC arm of Indonesia’s Telkom, and Beacon Venture Capital, the VC arm of Thailand’s Kasikornbank.

Formerly known as InstaRem before a rebranding exercise last year, the firm says it will direct the cash towards product development and tuck-in acquisitions in markets like Europe, India, UK and US.

Prajit Nanu, CEO and co-founder of Nium, said:

We are interested in tech infrastructure players with capabilities in issuance, local payment rails etcetera, which complement our own and can help us ship faster in markets we are bullish on.

A former graduate of the the Visa Fintech Fast Track program in Asia Pacific, the latest raise follows the addition of Japan and Indonesia to the ten licenced markets in which the firm operates.

Bank API Developer Treasury Prime Lands $9M in Funding

Treasury Prime, a US startup that provides banks and FinTechs with an API overlay for legacy infrastructure, has raised $9 million in a Series A funding round.

Treasury Prime's API suite integrates directly with a bank's core banking system to provide a modern interface for digital onboarding. The firm also provides fintechs with a means to ease the friction posed by interaction with legacy systems for managing FDIC-insured accounts in the provision of payments and fraud detection. 

Chris Dean, co-founder and CEO of Treasury Prime, said:

We're thrilled to help banks grow and add more deposits with a new customer base, and to help growing technology companies find homes at institutions that suit their unique needs.

Led by Amias Gerety of QED Investors and with participation by Jason Lemkin of SaaStr and Hans Morris of NYCA Partners, the round builds on Treasury Prime's previous $2.5m seed sound, bringing its total funding to date to $11.5m.

Banked Moves Out of Beta to Take on Visa and Mastercard

Account-to-account payments startup Banked has moved out of public beta after securing ￡2.35 million in seed funding.

Set up to challenge the dominace of card schemes Visa and MasterCard, the London-based firm says it payments software lets consumers, businesses and banks process payments in real-time, more securely, and for one-tenth of the traditional cost. 

It has now raised a total of ￡5.35million and the latest investment was led by Force Over Mass, with participation from Backed, Acrew Capital (San Francisco based) and high net worth partners including the family office of serial investor and co-founder of indeed.com, Paul Forster.

The software suite includes a checkout API for businesses to embed on their Websites and a P2P banking app for consumers.

The company charges a flat fee of 0.1% to process payments. Its software also transfers money without sharing customer bank details, with a claimed 96% reduction in fraud.

Banked CEO Bard Goodall says the latest funding round will be used to build more commercial relationships and support its rollout across Europe.

“The current payments systems used by credit card companies and most traditional banks were designed 40 years ago and have become archaic, not to mention costly and inefficient for businesses to use," he says. "It’s time we welcomed the future of payments and given the current state of the economy, businesses need this now more than ever.

Symend Raises $52M for Financially-at-Risk Customer Engagement Platform

Symend, a Canadian startup that helps companies such as financial institutions and utilities identify and assist customers struggling to pay bills, has raised US$52 million in a Series B funding round led by Inovia Capital.

Ignition Partners, BDC Capital Inc., Impression Ventures, Mistral Venture Partners, and angel investor Markus Frind joined the round for Calgary-based Symend.

Symend's white-label digital engagement platform uses behavioural science and AI to help firms identify at-risk customers, offering insight into their situation and behaviour.

It then provides evidence-based recommended actions to help create unique treatment strategies that promise to ensure that customers are both treated with empathy and are more likely to be able to make payments and stick with the company.

The firm says it has treated over 10 million at-risk customers to date and is on track to treat 100 million by the end of 2020.

The funding will be used develop Symend's platform and expand into new verticals and geographies while building out the firm's team in Canada and the US.

Hanif Joshaghani, CEO of Symend, commented:

We created Symend to help individuals who have fallen behind on payments with understanding at a time when they need it most. Our solution transforms how companies think about and interact with at-risk customers.

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About: I am a business developer, sales professional, FinTech strategist, as well as Cryptocurrency and Blockchain enthusiast. I'm highly passionate about Financial Technology and Digital Innovation, and strongly believe that it will change the world for the better. Apart from my daily job at a global payments startup where I'm leading company's expansion into Europe , I'm an active member of FinTech community and a TechFin evangelist.

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