Fintech, Finance, Technology, Banking Highlights – 12 January 2018
YieldStreet closes $12.8m Series A round; scores $100m in revolving credit facility
YieldStreet, the alternative investment platform working to change the way wealth is created, today announced that it has closed a $113 million financing round.
The round includes $12.8 million of Series A equity financing co-led by Greycroft and Raine Ventures, as well as a revolving credit facility of $100 million from a New York based family office (the “Family Office”). Additional equity investors include Saturn Ventures, Expansion Venture Capital, the Family Office and FJ Labs.
Alan Patricof, co-founder of Greycroft and one of the pioneers of modern private equity as the founder of Apax Partners, will join the YieldStreet advisory board. Ian Sigalow of Greycroft, Gordon Rubenstein of Raine Ventures and a representative from the Family Office will join YieldStreet’s board.
The equity capital will help enable YieldStreet to accelerate the transformation of wealth creation by investing in further product innovation and growing its loyal community of investors. The raise comes as YieldStreet reached a tipping point in 2017, almost tripling prior year originations and surpassing $250 million raised by retail investors at the end of the year.
General Atlantic invests in digital banking firm Alkami
Alkami Technology Inc., a leading provider of digital banking solutions to credit unions and banks, announced today that General Atlantic, a leading global growth equity firm, has made a strategic investment in the company.
General Atlantic will be joining existing investors S3 Ventures, Argonaut Private Equity, and a number of other strategic fintech investors in Alkami’s next stage of innovation, growth, and expansion.
Alkami provides a modern and unified digital banking platform. This solution enables the clients of banks and credit unions to experience seamless functionality across all their digital devices. The multi-tenant, cloud-based platform includes retail and business banking, mobile banking, bill pay, personal finance management (PFM), Person-to-Person payments, marketing, and more. The platform is delivered with a software development kit (SDK) and API set that provides each financial institution with flexibility and control. Alkami-enabled banks and credit unions can build their own apps and product extensions as well as easily integrate new features and functions for all lines of business, allowing them to better serve their customers in an increasingly competitive market.
LendingPoint buys LoanHero
LendingPoint, the company working to revolutionize access to consumer credit, today announced that it has acquired LoanHero, a leading fintech platform for point of sale finance.
LoanHero’s retail financing technology allows merchants to close more transactions while providing consumers more payment options. Combined with LendingPoint’s industry-leading credit underwriting and risk management expertise, LoanHero will help accelerate LendingPoint’s expansion into point-of-need and point-of-sale financing, with its comprehensive and innovative merchant onboarding and reporting tools and installed merchant base. Terms of the deal were not disclosed.
Founded in 2014, LoanHero’s team and platform lets merchants offer traditional and promotional loans to their customers. Through one convenient application, merchants provide the best possible financing option for their customers, with credit decisions in real time. Where other lenders can’t fund, LoanHero offers its own products to fill the gap. Hundreds of merchants use the LoanHero platform across industries including medical, dental, home improvement, and many others.
