Validis secures strategic investment from Citi and Barclays

By Gloria Methri

Validis, the UK-based FinTech specialising in financial data collection and standardisation, has secured strategic investments from Citi and Barclays.

The announcement marks a milestone in furthering efforts to modernise business lending through automated data standardisation, encompassing corporate, commercial and working capital finance products, including invoice finance, receivables finance, and asset-based lending.

Citi and Barclays will leverage Validis’ platform to automate financial monitoring, deliver underwriting-ready data faster, and reduce application and credit review time significantly. This standardised approach will support existing robust decision-making processes, which is important for managing risk in today’s dynamic lending environment.

Michael Turner, CEO of Validis, added, “We are eliminating historically time-consuming and high-cost data processes, particularly for complex commercial clients, enabling lenders to make faster, smarter decisions based on clean, reliable data. The investment enables Validis to accelerate its growth while benefiting from the strategic guidance of two global lenders. The investment will fund continued product innovation and expanded sales and marketing efforts.

James Binns, Managing Director, Global Head of Trade & Working Capital at Barclays, said, “By automating data collection and standardisation, we can not only deliver faster decisions and better service but also offer client-focused working capital funding products at scale. This enables us to meet our customers’ unique needs while still meeting our credit assessment standards.”

Validis’ technology has proven equally transformative beyond lending. Working with over 100 lending and accounting firms, Validis delivers the granular, transaction-level data required for audit processes. This same depth of data, unprecedented in lending, enables financial institutions to make more robust decisions based on audit-grade financial information.

Andrew Murray, Head of Institutional Strategic Investments at Citi, said, “The depth and quality of Validis’ data enables real-time access to standardized financial information, enabling proactive financial support to our commercial bank clients. Improving credit process automation and the scope and timeliness of data available helps capital flow more freely into businesses of all sizes and close critical funding gaps across the market.”