Griffin, Novatus, Zazuu and Plenitude
This week’s practical Friday funding includes four UK-based fintech start-ups – Griffin, Novatus, Zazuu and Plenitude.
London-based bank-as-a-service (BaaS) startup Griffin has landed $ 15.5 million in a financing round led by Notion Capital.
Griffin raises $ 15.5 million
The round also saw participation from existing investor EQT Ventures as well as fintech angels including William Hockey, co-founder of Plaid and founder and co-CEO of Column; Nilan Peiris, VP of Growth at Wise; Rob Straathof, CEO of Liberis; and Shane Happach, CEO of Mollie and former CCO of Worldpay.
Griffins says the investment will be used to build an “API-first” banking platform for the financial industry.
The company has ambitions to become a bank itself, after submitting its bank authorization application to PRA and FCA. It has raised $ 27 million in funding to date.
Notion Capital co-founder and CEO Stephen Chandler will also join Griffin’s board. Chandler’s previous investments include fintech unicorns GoCardless and Paddle.
Compliance consulting firm and regtech specialist Novatus has received one 4 million pounds investment from Maven Capital Partners.
Headquartered in London, Novatus provides specialized advice to financial services firms to help them comply with regulatory obligations, including risk, compliance and ESG programs.
Novatus states that their Transaction Reporting Analysis Tool (TRA) enables banks and asset managers to meet the requirements for transaction reporting reconciliation “in an efficient and cost effective manner”.
The funding will be used to invest in the team of technical advisors, expand sales and marketing resources to support the growth of the rettch offering and develop the TRA tool.
Matthew Ranson, partner and co-founder of Novatus, says: “Maven’s investment will enable us to capitalize on the significant growth we are seeing in the regtech market.”
UK-based and Africa-focused fintech company Zazuu have raised $ 2 million in a recent funding round.
Some of Africa’s leading investors participated in the round, including Founders Factory Africa, Launch Africa Ventures, ODBA and Jonomi Ventures, among others.
Zazuu was founded in 2018 and is headquartered in London, and aims to reduce the expenses involved in sending money to Africa.
“Today, it is still incredibly expensive, slow and unfair for millions of migrant customers to send money across national borders. We are on a mission to change that, the company says.
“At Zazuu, we believe in empowering our customers. So we built a solution that is transparent, ethical and helps people become smarter with money.”
Specialist in financial crime, risk and compliance Abundance has received one unknown sum in a strategic investment from Growth Capital Partners.
Plenitude receives new investment
Founded in 2012, Plenitude has a team of financial crime compliance specialists and partners with financial institutions, professional services and digital asset firms worldwide to provide professional expertise and financial crime advisory services in the industry.
The company says the investment will support the building of new opportunities and offerings, including digital assets and KYC-managed services.
It will also help accelerate Plenitude’s expansion plans, which include establishing a presence in Asia and expanding its current customer footprint into new sectors through consulting, transformation services and regtech subscription products.
