The funding never stops in the UK as TrueLayer, Wiserfunding and Hicomply have all got some financial assistance for their different tech plans.
They are a varied bunch of open banking, credit risk assessment for SME lenders and an information security management software platform.
TrueLayer Becomes a Unicorn
Hot on the heels of the launch of its Payouts solution, London-based open banking platform TrueLayer has closed a $130 million (£95 million) fundraising round.
This was led by new investor Tiger Global Management, the New York-based technology investor, with participation from payments technology provider Stripe.
The latest investment gives the business a post-money valuation of more than $1 billion (£730.9 million) and takes it into the realm of unicorns.
It has been a good year for the fintech firm as TrueLayer says it has processed “billions” in payments, experiencing 400% growth in monthly payment volume and 800% growth in monthly payment value as the company expanded across Europe and doubled its customer base.
Consumers and businesses use TrueLayer to pay for goods and services. For instance, investing through Freetrade or banking with Revolut.
The rise of open banking is well known and a lot of companies have prospered on the back of it. According to TrueLayer, some merchant partners are seeing more than 70% of their customers choosing to pay with their bank account over cards or digital wallets.
TrueLayer says its network provides 95%+ coverage across the UK and major European markets, and accounts for more than half of all open banking traffic in the UK, Ireland and Spain.
The new funding will be used for product development, such as the PayDirect solution. There are no specifics, but the fintech company also plans geographic expansion and more staff for its engineering, product and commercial teams.
Wiser Heads Prevail
Staying in London, Wiserfunding has secured a £3 million investment from investment company BGF.
Wiserfunding provides credit risk assessment for SME lenders, and has more than 60 customers across three continents – a mix of bank and non-bank lenders, insurance firms, payment providers and asset managers. Combined, Wiserfunding’s clients have lent almost almost £3 billion to SMEs in the last year.
As with TrueLayer above, it is a bit vague as the funding will be used for international expansion, and to create new products for the supply-chain and procurement world.
Wiserfunding was founded in April 2016. Customers include Revolut Business; Bank North, a new business lender; peer-to-peer lenders Assetz Capital and ArchOver; and Fasanara Capital, an asset management company.
Wiserfunding’s proprietary risk assessment platform uses AI to provide credit risk assessment to ascertain the credit quality of SMEs and private firms. It makes use of financial history as well as publicly available structured and unstructured data including corporate governance, management experience and macroeconomic indicators.
Hicomply on a High
It’s not all about London as Durham-based software platform Hicomply has got a £3 million investment from BGF. The latter has been busy.
Hicomply enables SMEs to protect business data and manage information security compliance against standards such as ISO 27001 and SOC. Hicomply provides companies with the tools to build their information security management system (ISMS), which secures data in the supply chain.
The funding will be used for investment in sales and marketing, and developing its technology.
Hicomply CEO Ed Bartlett says: “The rapid acceleration of digital transformation in a remote working world and the consequent increased cyber risk has seen data security rising to the top of the agenda for many businesses.”
This is the third North East technology investment for BGF in the past 12 months, following its £14 million funding for tech-enabled procurement platform Bloom and its investment in Stockton-based Datum360 last November.
