Fintech funding round-up: 13 December 2016
Good ideas can bring good money
Who is investing in what? Our latest fintech funding round-up, mercifully brief as usual.
ApplePie Capital, a start-up lender in the US solely dedicated to the franchise industry, has raised $16.5 million in Series B funding round. The round was co-led by QED Investors and Fifth Third Capital, the direct equity investment subsidiary of Fifth Third Bancorp.
Fifth Third is a new investor and “is expected to add significant strategic value and open up new opportunities for growth”, says the San Francisco-based lender.
Also, ApplePie has entered into a $180 million loan purchase agreement with TowerBrook Capital Partners to purchase franchise loans originated by ApplePie over a two-year period.
As part of the agreement with TowerBrook, the lender has added Tim Morris, former CRO of GE Capital Franchise Finance, as a strategic advisor to the firm.
ApplePie opened for business in January 2015. Since then, it has formed partnerships with 40 franchise brands, funded over $50 million in loans, and returned over $7 million in principal and interest to investors.
South Africa-based Firepay, which runs SnapScan, a QR code-based mobile payments service, received a major investment from Standard Bank – in return for a majority stake in the fintech start-up.
SnapScan was launched in 2014 as a joint effort between Standard Bank and Firepay. It has singed up nearly 32,000 physical and online merchants for its service to date.
Each merchant receives a unique SnapScan QR code which they display at their point of sale. A consumer then scans the code with their SnapScan app, which identifies the merchant and prompts the user to enter the amount they wish to pay. To complete the transaction, a four-digit PIN is required.
Firepay says it is business as usual and it continues to be open to customers of all banks. The management team also remains in place.
