US fintech start-ups Airbase, Genesis Volatility, and Tilled raise funds
A handy round-up of the recent funding endeavours of three US start-ups in the fintech space: Airbase, Genesis Volatility (GVol), and Tilled.
Amex invests in Airbase
Airbase, a California-based spend management platform for small and medium-sized businesses (SMBs), has received an undisclosed “strategic investment” from Amex Ventures, the venture capital vehicle of American Express (Amex).
In addition, Amex will run a pilot programme with Airbase to give Amex’s SMB customers in the US access to enrol in Airbase’s spend management platform and make virtual card payments using existing American Express cards.
Founded in 2017, Airbase ties various business spending accounts (employee expenses, procurement, payroll) into one platform (versus everything in silos).
GVol raises $3m
Genesis Volatility (GVol), a crypto options data provider, has closed a $3 million growth seed round led by Delphi Digital with participation from Vanynerfund, Nascent, The LAO, LedgerPrime, QCP, and Profluent Trading.
Angels including Misha Fomytskyi (co-founder of Vola Dynamics), Will Warren and Amir Bandeali (co-founders of 0x), Cyrus Younessi, Roshun Patel and Josh Lim of Genesis Trading, and Richard Dai also took part.
The funding will support the Chicago-based company’s expansion into the blockchain-based options ecosystem and deeper options analytics covering decentralised finance (DeFi), centralised finance (CeFi), and traditional finance (TradFi).
GVol says the money will also enable it “to strengthen product, sales, marketing, and advance integration with key strategic partners”.
Tilled raises $11m
Colorado-based Tilled, a PayFac-as-a-Service provider, has closed an $11 million Series A extension funding round led by G Squared, with participation from existing investors Peterson Ventures and Abstract Ventures.
The new funds, which follow an $11 million Series A last year, will allow Tilled “to continue its aggressive growth trajectory, investing in top-tier talent to fuel the development and roll-out of new products and services”, the start-up says.
Caleb Avery, founder and CEO of Tilled, says in the last six months the company doubled its funding, nearly tripled its valuation, quadrupled its team, and launched core products such as omnichannel payments.
The latter enables independent software vendors to process card-present transactions, in addition to card-not-present, and accept a wider range of payment forms.
Tilled was founded in 2019. It plans to more than triple the size of the current team by the end of 2022 and is currently hiring across all departments including sales, marketing, engineering, implementation, and customer support.
The company says searches are being conducted both locally in Boulder, Colorado and nationwide.
