Top 5 FinTech funding rounds in the Americas: November 2020

By Pavithra R

Investor interest in private FinTech companies in America has remained evergreen in the face of the economic downturn wrought by the COVID-19 pandemic. Below is a list of 5 FinTech funding announcements that were made in November.

Hippo (2015)

Hippo Enterprises, the high-growth InsurTech group transforming home insurance, has secured a capital investment of $350 mn from Mitsui Sumitomo Insurance Company, a subsidiary of MS&AD Insurance Group Holdings. The investment solidifies the strategic collaboration between the two companies, which started with MS&AD Ventures’ initial funding in Hippo’s Series E funding round. 

Hippo Insurance Services is on a mission to transform home insurance for the modern household. The firm offers accurate and affordable coverage by using technology and data integrations to develop a unique profile of a customer’s property during the onboarding process. It actively reviews changes to a customer’s property over time, using thermal and satellite imagery and layers in AI, machine learning and public records to keep customers’ properties protected, year after year. 

The firm is planning to use the finance to support its product roll out in additional states, to reach 95% of the United States’ homeowners population in the coming year, as well as providing additional capital for its insurance and reinsurance companies.

Conductor (1997)

Conductor, a leading payments & banking as a service platform in Latin America has raised $150 million in funding in a round led by Viking Global Investors (its first private investment in Latin America), with additional participation from investors including Advent International’s affiliate Sunley House Capital. The new shareholders will join the company’s existing institutional investors, Riverwood Capital and Visa.

Brazil-based Conductor is a next-gen payments processor and banking-as-a-service infrastructure provider enabling clients from various industries to offer payment solutions to their end customers. Conductor currently powers over 85 mn accounts and processes more than $20 bn in payment volume across LATAM.

The funding announcement comes on the heels of a number of milestones the company achieved, including the continued momentum in the company’s flagship issuer processing business, the acquisition of Muxi, the acceleration of its banking-as-a-service (BaaS) offering Dock, and the launch of Conductor’s international expansion across major markets in Latin America. The FinTech is planning to use the new investment to accelerate product development and international growth, and further cement its leading position in modern payment infrastructure technology.

Current (2015)

New York-based leading challenger bank Current aimed to serve Americans overlooked by traditional banks has raised $131 million in Series C funding round led by new investor Tiger Global Management.

Current focus on creating better financial outcomes for people and their unique lives. Its custom-built banking technology platform Current Core makes this possible by providing greater stability, faster money and cost efficiencies that are passed on to its community of members.

The new finance has brought the company’s total funding raised till now to over $180 million and has a valuation of $750 million. The year turned out to bring exponential growth for Current, which has doubled its member base in less than six months to surpass 2 mn members. Revenue has also increased over 500% year over year to firmly establish the challenger bank as an industry leader in the U.S.

Forter (2013)

Forter, a leading e-commerce fraud prevention provider, has raised $125 mn in Series E funding led by Bessemer Venture Partners, Felix Capital and Itai Tsiddon. The round propels its valuation to over $1.3 bn. The investment round saw participation from Sequoia Capital, NewView Capital, Scale Venture Partners, March Capital Partners and Commerce Ventures. 

Forter is a fraud prevention company whose real-time, fully automated fraud prevention platform is trusted by numerous merchants in diverse verticals including Boohoo, Sephora, ASOS, Hugo Boss and Adobe.

The company is planning to use the finance to accelerate its vision of establishing an ecosystem of trust across online merchants, payment providers and banks to block fraud and give consumers the confidence and convenience to shop freely. Forter will continue to fuel its suite of solutions and global data network, which has doubled in size in the past year to exceed $200 bn in annual online transactions protecting over 800 mn shoppers.

Addepar (2009)

Silicon Valley firm Addepar, a wealth management technology provider has closed a $117 mn Series E funding round, led by WestCap Group. The new investment has brought the company’s total funding to date to approximately $325 mn. 

Addepar was built with the goal of creating a more transparent financial system. The FinTech provides a wealth management platform that specializes in data aggregation, analytics and performance reporting.

Addepar, over the past year, has continued to invest in innovations, delivering products and launching new offerings that amplify the results wealth managers can bring to their clients as they navigate through the challenging market conditions while adapting to new virtual workforce. The firm is planning to use the finance to support the expansion of the company’s market-leading data aggregation, analysis and reporting platform for investors and advisors.