ICYMI funding round-up: Rize, Sparkle, Rupifi, PaySika & more
At FinTech Futures, we know that it can be easy to let funding announcements slip you by in this fast-paced industry. That’s why we put together our weekly ‘In Case You Missed It’ (ICYMI) funding round-up for you to get the latest funding news.
Rize says it’s a “one-stop-shop”
Fintech infrastructure platform Rize has raised $11.4 million in Series A funding led by Alpha Edison and Morpheus Ventures.
Existing backers include Rucker Park Capital, Walkabout Ventures, Raptor Group, Revolution’s Rise of the Rest Seed Fund, and Third Prime.
Rize describes itself as a one-stop-shop for everything fintech builders need to build, launch and scale new financial products with minimal effort.
“Originally starting out as a B2C fintech, we set out with the goal to translate the highly regulated and siloed financial services industry into a set of intuitive user experiences,” says CEO and co-founder Justin Howell.
Teen-focused digital banking firm Copper Banking has raised a total of $13.3 million in total seed funding led by PSL Ventures.
Other investors in the fintech start-up include Clocktower Ventures, Index Ventures Scout Fund, Launchpad Capital, and Financial Venture Studio.
Copper Banking provides an FDIC-backed digital bank account linked to 50,000 ATMs, as well as a unique debit card, P2P payments and automatic savings.
Launched earlier this year, Copper reports 70% month-over-month growth, and now has around 350,000 users on the platform.
Sparkle founder and CEO, Uzoma Dozie
Sparkle, a mobile-first digital bank that provides financial, lifestyle and business support services to Nigerians across the globe, has raised a seed round of $3.1 million.
An all-Nigerian group of investors participated in the round, including Leadway Assurance, Trium Networks and a number of Nigerian high-net-worth individuals (HNIs).
Since launching in 2019, Sparkle has developed what it calls “a digital-first tribe” of users who have access to features such as savings, bill payments and airtime top-ups.
In April 2021, Sparkle launched its business platform, Sparkle Business, targeted at “the new generation” of small businesses banks.
“Collectively, as a group of investors and business builders, we are Nigerians who are bullish about Nigeria and the opportunity the country presents,” says Uzoma Dozie, Sparkle founder and CEO.
Embedded finance fintech Rupifi has raised $1 million to scale its buy now, pay later (BNPL) product offered to small businesses.
The firm says it can provide a “completely digital, instant credit line” to SMEs without any financial documentation.
“We are excited to have Alteria Capital, India’s leading venture debt fund, working with us in our goal to empower small businesses in India through access to financial products,” says Anubhav Jain, CEO of Rupifi.
“We plan to use the debt towards creating stronger partnerships with financial institutions and to secure significant limits from banks/NBFCs for our expansion.”
PaySika, a fintech developing a set of banking solutions for French-speaking African countries, has raised €300,000 in pre-seed funding.
The firm has secured funding from angel investors in the French, UK and Nigerian tech start-up scenes.
PaySika claims to be the first business-to-customer (B2C) neobank in the region that operates with a chatbot on popular messaging apps.
These include Facebook Messenger, WhatsApp and Telegram, allowing customers to carry out transactions through SMS or digital messages.
