Fintech Funding Round-up - 15 June 2017

Our latest fintech funding round-up featuring Plynk, Klarna, BAM and NetGuardians.

Money messaging app Plynk has secured €25m in a series of funding led by Swiss Privée Ltd.

The roundings have set a record as one of the largest Series A funding in Irish history.

The investment will help the company achieve their plans to expand across Europe, with Portugal and Spain as its next targets. Part of the company's plan is adding GBP to the platform and hiring new team members. 

Last October, Plynk raised €725k in seed funding with backing from Bank of Ireland's Start-Up and Emerging Sectors Equity Fund, managed by venture capital firm Delta Partners, Enterprise Ireland, the NDRC and a number of angel investors. 

Plynk is a Dublin-based company founded in 2015 by Charles Dowd and Clive Foley. It's a simple money messenger app that allows you to send money instantly to your friends for FREE. It allows its user to send money in a chat just like you’d send a text or photo. Following its launch in January 2017, it now has over 6,000 users across iOS and Android users within the Irish market alone.

The company currently employs eight people, and have just announced that there will be 20 new roles to fill in the next 18 months as they aim for continued growth and development on their core products and new features.

In other news, Fashion retailer invests in Swedish payment unicorn, Klarna, one of Europe's leading providers of payment solutions for e-commerce. They have announced their partnership with Brightfolk, a company owned by Anders Holch Povlsen, who would acquire shares from General Atlantic, DST Global and Niklas Adalberth, whom will continue to retain a stake in Klarna.

A spokeswoman from Klarna declined to provide details on the exact size of the stake but hinted that it would be at least 10 percent. 

Klarna is delighted to welcome such a strong partner in their company. Anders Holch Povlsen is the owner of Bestseller, one of Europe's leading fashion companies, it includes brands such as Vera Moda, Jack and Jones, Selected and Only.

Fintech startup BAM Worldwide has secured a $10 million investment led by Millstone Capital Partners.

The funding will be used by the company to expand sales, innovation and product development.  They will also use the funding to invest in its team.

BAM is one of the leading providers of cash management and working capital solutions.  Since their launch in 2014, BAM has helped transportation companies gain easy access to capital and technology to book loads more quickly, reduce days-to-pay, improve credit scores, and build stronger carrier relationships while increasing cash flow.

And yet another leading FinTech company recognized for its anti-fraud and risk mitigation solutions, NetGuardians, has reported a Series C investment of CHF 8.5 million. The investors in the Series C are Swisscom Ventures and Freemont Management.

 With the funding, the company will use it for their continued global expansion, add new team members and for further investment in its proprietary behavioral software platform.