Jul 21, 2023

21st July 2023 At FinTech Futures, we know that it can be easy to let funding announcements slip you by in this fast-paced industry. That’s why we put together our weekly In Case You Missed It (ICYMI) funding round-up for you to get the latest funding news. US-based private markets fintech Anduin has secured $15.6 million in a Series B funding round led by 8VC, with participation from existing investors and GC1 Ventures. Founded in 2014 and based in California, Anduin’s platform helps connect LPs and GPs efficiently. Its Fund Subscription and Data Room ecosystem has helped over 27,000 investors onboard at more than 510 funds who have raised over $55 billion in capital globally. With the new funding, Anduin plans to fuel the next phase of its growth by investing further in its core platform and expanding beyond onboarding to support the connection between GPs and LPs and partners across asset classes, around the world. Global B2B payment infrastructure platform Thunes has extended its Series C funding round by $12 million. Thunes raises an additional $12m The round saw the addition of three investors – Visa, EDBI and Endeavour Catalyst. The investment brings the total Series C funding to $72 million, coming shortly after Thunes announced an investment of $60 million led by London-based hedge fund Marshall Wace with support from Bessemer Venture Partners and Southeast Asian private equity firm 01Fintech. “By leveraging the insights and support of our investors, we will expand our network and offer businesses and consumers an unparalleled cross-border payments experience,” says Peter De Caluwe, CEO, Thunes. Artificial intelligence (AI) start-up Portrait Analytics has secured $7 million in funding to launch its generative AI research platform for investment analysts. The fresh funding follows a $3 million pre-seed round held in April, bringing the start-up’s total capital to $10 million to date. Through its platform, Portrait aims to reduce the time needed to research and understand firms before investing in them, with its first product being a Q&A type of application for public market analysts. The platform is currently in private beta and the company plans to roll out access to analysts on the waitlist in the following months. Egypt’s new cashless payment app Flash has raised $6 million in a seed round led by Addition with participation from Flourish Ventures and other strategic angel investors. Flash raises $6m This funding will be used to accelerate the startup’s product development and customer and business acquisition in Egypt. Flash has also obtained approval from the Central Bank of Egypt in partnership with Banque Misr to operate as a technical payment aggregator. Founded in 2021, Flash is a payment application that provides cashless payment solutions for consumers and businesses through a scan and pay service. Businesses can accept payments directly from consumers without the need for point-of-sale (POS) systems or technical integration. Global fraud and identity decisioning platform Bureau has raised an additional $4.5 million from GMO Venture Partners, GMO Payment Gateway, and existing investors to complete its series A funding round at $16.5 million. With the completion of the latest round, total funding for the startup has reached $20.5 million to date. Founded in 2020, Bureau is a global identity decisioning platform for fraud prevention and compliance management. Its clients include those from banking, fintech, insurance, the gig economy and real money gaming, among others. It has offices in the US, India, UAE and Singapore. In addition to the funding round, Bureau has completed the acquisition of inVOID, a YC-backed identity verification startup and agreed a strategic partnership with GMO Payment Gateway. With this, the company intends to enhance its global coverage, widen its IP scope and broaden its tech stack. European real estate fintech start-up Piece has secured €650,000 in a pre-seed funding round. StartupGym led the funding round, with participation from East Ventures and Gaiax, and a number of angel investors. Headquartered in Italy, Piece aims to democratise access to real estate investments, simplifying the process and making it accessible to a wider audience. It offers a platform for individuals to purchase real estate, fractionalise properties, and propose them to private investors. With Piece, investors can start investing in real estate with as little as €50, receiving monthly dividends and benefiting from potential capital appreciation. Piece will use the funding to build a “robust” real estate investor community, establish its technological foundations, and expand its operational capabilities. Lendscape, a technology provider to the global secured commercial finance market, has received an undisclosed investment from Bowmark Capital. The money will be used to invest in innovative technology solutions for what the investor calls a growing sector of the financial market, and help the company expand organically and by acquisition. Lendscape counts over 120 banks and financial institutions worldwide as its clients, and its platform supports the management of over $200 billion of lending annually.