Top FinTech funding rounds in the Americas: December 2020

By Pavithra R

The COVID-19 pandemic has resulted in an acceleration in digital trends. FinTechs are becoming mainstream with more investment made than ever before. Below is a list of funding announcements that were made in December.

Creditas (2012)

Brazil-based consumer loan startup Creditas has closed a Series-E investment round of $ 255 mn, valuing the firm at $ 1.75 bn. The FinTech is planning to use the finance to continue advancing its goal of helping people to realize their dreams. 

The new funding round saw participation from new international partners including LGT Lightstone, Tarsadia Capital, e.ventures, Wellington Management and Advent International via its affiliate Sunley House Capital. Current shareholders SoftBank Vision Fund 1, SoftBank Latin America Fund, VEF, Kaszek Ventures and Amadeus Capital Partners also participated in the finance round.

Paxos (2012)

Paxos, a regulated financial institution building infrastructure to enable movement between physical and digital assets, has secured $142 mn in Series C round of funding led by Declaration Partners, the investment firm backed by the family office of David M. Rubenstein. The new finance brought the company’s total funding to date to $240 mn.

Paxos is planning to use the finance to continue investing in developing enterprise-grade infrastructure solutions while deepening its commitment to regulation, reliability and security. The firm will accelerate its growth, including scaling its operations and platform capabilities to meet the demands of its expanding customer base. Paxos also has plans to double the size of its team and will explore all opportunities for growth.

The investment round also saw participation from PayPal Ventures, RIT Capital Partners plc, Ken Moelis, Alua Capital, Senator Investment Group, Mithril Capital, and more. Previous Paxos investors, including RRE Ventures and Liberty City Ventures, also participated in the round.

Pico (2009)

PICO, a leading provider of technology services for financial markets community, has raised a strategic investment from Intel Capital, Intel Corporation’s global investment organization. The investment completes Pico’s $135mn Series C funding round that will be used to further fuel Pico’s global growth and expansion plans.

The finance round saw participation from strategic partner EDBI, a global Asian-based investor, and new investor CreditEase FinTech Investment Fund. Other key strategic investors and Pico clients include J.P. Morgan, Wells Fargo, UBS, Nomura, DRW Venture Capital, Goldman Sachs, Chicago Trading Company, Capital Markets Trading and Simplex Investments.

Pico’s advancements and investments during the past 24 months has strengthened its platform and global reach, offering clients a competitive edge in times of COVID-19 with extreme volatility, peak message rates and exponential network traffic growth. 

Amount (2019)

Amount, accelerating the world’s transition to digital financial services has announced it has secured an $81 mn Series C investment led by Goldman Sachs Growth with participation from existing investors including August Capital, Invus Opportunities and Hanaco Ventures. The finance has brought the company’s 2020 capital raise to $140 mn. 

The investment follows the FinTech’s recent Series B round led by Nigel Morris and the team at QED Investors. Amount is planning to use the funding to help scale sales and marketing while accelerating platform research and development investments.

Also, read: Lending Systems and Suppliers Report 2020