Fintech funding round-up: 2 June 2017
The money’s rolling in for fintech – as this round-up follows hot on the heels from 30 May. This latest report features Zopa, RateSetter and Niyogin Fintech.
The plans of peer-to-peer (P2P) lender Zopa to launch a new digital-only bank in the UK are going well as it has completed a £32 million funding round and secured two new investors. The money will support the build-out of its bank infrastructure in preparation for the submission of a bank licence application later this year. The investments were led by Wadhawan Global Capital (WGC), a financial services group in India, and Northzone, a European venture capital fund. WGC and Northzone join existing backers Arrowgrass, Augmentum Capital, Bessemer Venture Partners and Runa Capital. Following the investment, Kapil Wadhawan, chairman of WGC, will join the Zopa Board.
London-based Zopa says since June 2016, it has provided over £800 million in personal loans to UK consumers and in January this year became the “first European peer-to-peer lender” to make £2 billion worth of loans.
Staying in the UK, P2P investing platform RateSetter has raised £13 million in equity capital from a combination of the company’s existing shareholders, including Woodford Investment Management and Artemis. RateSetter will use the investment to scale up the business ahead of the launch of its “Innovative Finance ISA” – i.e. an individual savings account.
According to RateSetter, the fundraising takes the total amount of capital raised since its launch in 2010 to over £40 million and values the business at over £200 million. It currently has over 300,000 investors and borrowers on its platform.
Over in India, lending and investment firm Niyogin Fintech (previously M3 Global Finance) plans to raise up to $36 million through issuing shares to a group of marquee investors.
The company has gone through a major revamp – such as with the new name, and changing its board of directors and management team. Amit Rajpal, chairman of Niyogin Fintech, says it plans to target the underbanked or unbanked in India and will focus on SME and micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs).
