Top 5 FinTech funding rounds in the United States: September 2020

By Pavithra R

The United States FinTech market is growing at an incredible pace. Digitally aware and active consumers are becoming more and more open to adopting FinTech into their daily lives. Research reports indicate that the industry is seeing an 8.6% cumulative average growth rate (CAGR) which is going to continue at the same rate until the year 2024.

With Financial Technology undergoing the biggest transformation and evolution, now is the time to see which all companies are here to stay, become profitable and which all companies will fade away. Below is a list of 5 FinTech funding announcements that were made this month.

Affirm (2012)

Affirm, a FinTech services company that offers installment loans to consumers at the point of sale has secured $500M in Series G funding round led by GIC, a returning investor, and Durable Capital Partners LP. Other investors who participated in the funding round include Lightspeed Venture Partners, Wellington Management Company, Baillie Gifford, Spark Capital, Founders Fund, and Fidelity Management & Research Company LLC.

The investment has raised the company’s total funding to date to $1.3 billion. Affirm has plans to introduce an interest-free biweekly payment product for transactions as low as $50. As with the company’s existing monthly payment options, consumers will not be charged late or hidden fees when using this new product. Consumers can check eligibility when paying biweekly with Affirm without impacting their credit score or inputting their social security number.

Greenlight (2014)

Greenlight Financial Technology is a FinTech company aiming to help parents raise financially-smart kids. The firms Series C funding of 215 million has brought its valuation above $1.2 bn. The investment round was led by Canapi Ventures & TTV Capital with participation from new investors DST Global, Goodwater Capital, BOND, and Fin VC along with Greenlight’s first institutional investor Relay Ventures.

The new funding is expected to bolster Greenlight’s mission, propelling the firm to reach more families and provide them with new ways for kids to learn about the world of money. The company is also planning to completely reimagine its app and add new investing tools made for kids.

Melio (2018)

Melio is a B2B payments company helping small businesses to manage their supplier payments digitally. The company raised the new funding to extend its reach to more small businesses across the U.S. as they shift to digital solutions to help manage the economic effects of COVID-19.

Melio raised $80m in Series C in August 2020, on top of the $48m raised in Series B in March 2020 and the $16m in Seed and Series A, bringing total fundraising to $144m. The investment round saw participation from investors, including Accel, Aleph, Coatue Management, and General Catalyst, with participation from LocalGlobe, Corner Ventures, Bessemer Venture Partners, and American Express Ventures.

SpotOn (2017)

SpotOn Transact, redefining the merchant services industry through cutting edge payments and software has raised $60 million in Series C funding. The investment round was led by DST Global, with participation from existing investors including Dragoneer Investment Group and Franklin Templeton.

With COVID-19 pandemic accelerating the need for business owners’ to adopt digital solutions, SpotOn aims to help SMBs thrive by providing easy-to-use tools and personalized tech support so they can grow their businesses. DST Global has also partnered with the FinTech to help the company in its vision of empowering small businesses by offering a suite of integrated payments and software products at low transparent prices.

Alloy (2015)

New York-based Alloy is a service provider helping reduce false positives during the KYC process. The company has raised $40 million in Series B funding led by Canapi Ventures.

Alloy is on a mission to help customers deploy safe and seamless digital customer experiences. The firm helps top banks and FinTechs make better decisions using a single API and dashboard to manage KYC/AML, fraud, and more. Alloy makes it easy for financial service companies to quickly and safely onboard and manage more customers by automating the vast majority of decisions, mitigating fraud and high-cost financial risk, and reducing the burden on the back office and manual review queues.

The funding round saw participation from Felicis Ventures and Avid Ventures, as well as existing investors Bessemer Ventures, Primary Venture Partners, and Eniac Ventures. The FinTech is planning to use the investment to continue to support its growing customer base while expanding product offerings and scaling marketing, sales and customer efforts. The company also has plans to bring new products to market related to transaction and credit decisioning as well as document verification.