North America fintech funding round-up: Vexi, Comun, ModernFi & more
This week’s handy fintech funding round-up includes a bunch of North American start-ups – Vexi, Comun, ModernFi, Sandbox Banking, Uplinq and Clear Street.
Mexico-based neobank Vexi has raised $8 million in a Series A funding round, which brings the firm’s total capital raised to date to $32 million.
The round was led by Magma Partners with new investors Redwood Ventures and Rebalance Capital also taking part.
Established in 2018 and based in Mexico City, Vexi provides credit cards through American Express and offers users the ability to pay in interest-free instalments and earn cashback on purchases.
With the new funding, the company plans to increase its customer base, hire new employees, and enhance its product offerings.
Comun, a US neobank for Latino families, has raised $4.5 million in a seed round led by Costanoa Ventures with participation from South Park Commons and FJ Labs.
Comun raises $4.5m
The company plans to use the funds to build a financial hub with expanded solutions and resources for Latino immigrants in the US.
Founded in 2021 by Abiel Gutierrez and Andres Santos, who both faced financial exclusion when they migrated to the US, Comun offers customers a Spanish-first user experience, 24/7 customer support, and the ability to sign up with a foreign passport. Customers also have access to educational content to better manage their finances.
Comun claims to have experienced 20% week-over-week growth since debuting in September 2022.
New York’s ModernFi, which operates a tech-enabled marketplace that allows banks to exchange deposits on demand, has raised $4.5 million in seed funding.
The round was led by Andreessen Horowitz with participation from angel investors.
ModernFi operates a deposit marketplace that connects banks with excess deposits to banks that need funding. By providing an outlet for excess deposits, it helps banks manage the size of their balance sheets and earn potential revenue, the firm says.
With the funding, ModernFi plans to hire across its engineering, bank partnerships, and compliance teams. In addition, it also intends to enhance its product offering by deepening its integrations with bank partners and expanding the types of funding available through its marketplace.
Sandbox Banking, a US-based fintech building a low-code integration platform for financial firms, has raised $4.3 million in funding led by Horizon Ventures.
Sandbox bags $4.3m
Participating investors also include Forum Ventures, SixThirty, and Tuesday Capital. The fresh investment brings the company’s total financing to $6 million.
The company’s platform, called Glyue, helps banks and credit unions connect fintech products into their existing systems, allowing them to “grow revenue and increase operational efficiency”.
Sandbox Banking will use its new capital to accelerate hiring as it looks to boost new product development and solution delivery. The firm also says it has a number of planned partnerships with “some of the largest global fintech companies” in the pipeline for 2023.
Canadian fintech start-up Uplinq, which provides a credit assessment and scoring platform for small business lenders, has secured a $600,000 strategic investment from Cambrian Ventures.
With this investment, Uplinq has raised approximately $5.6 million in total capital, following a $1.25 million investment from ATX Venture Partners in October 2022 and a $3.5 million pre-seed funding round in April of 2022.
In addition to helping expand its global presence, the funding will allow Uplinq to scale its workforce and product offering.
Clear Street, a New York-based independent prime broker, has received an undisclosed sum of funding from IMC Investments.
The new investment complements Clear Street’s May 2022 $165 million Series B funding round and will support the fintech’s mission to build better infrastructure for capital markets.
Founded in 2018, Clear Street has built a proprietary, cloud-native prime brokerage platform, claiming to process more than $10 billion in daily notional trading value of US equities. With its platform, it aims to replace the legacy infrastructure used across capital markets – “improving speed, access, and service” for its clients.
