Jodo, ZSuite Tech, Penfold and more

On FinTech Futures, we know it can be easy to let funding announcements pass you by in this fast-paced industry. That’s why we put together our weekly magazine In case you missed it (ICYMI) funding round for you to get the latest fintech funding news.

Jodo raises $15 million in Series A

Indian fintech startup Yes has secured 15 million dollars in a Series A funding round led by Tiger Global Management and with participation from existing investors Matrix Partners India and Elevation Capital.

With the new funds, Jodo intends to build new financial products, accelerate sales and hire new talent.

Jodo was founded in 2020 and offers payment solutions for education by offering students and parents flexible payment options and simplifying fee collection for educational institutions.

In the last two years, it claims to have worked with over 100,000 students and parents and more than 700 institutes in over 50 cities across India.

US-based fintech company ZSuite technologies have raised 11 million dollars in a series A round led by S3 Ventures with the participation of several private banks and JAM FINTOP.

ZSuite Tech plans to use the new money to scale its platform, expand into new markets and increase product development.

Founded in 2019, ZSuite Tech provides software-as-a-service (SaaS) solutions that enable financial institutions to increase core deposits, improve customer experience and reduce internal costs with digital efficiency.

Specifically, it provides financial institutions with unbundled digital accounts that include escrow, sub-accounting, sub-accounting, FBO and trust accounts for commercial customers.

“Managing commercial escrow and sub-accounting is a very complex, manual process that has plagued bankers and their clients for years,” said Charlie Plauche, general partner at S3 Ventures.

ZSuite Tech has partnered with more than 36 institutions across the US and claims to support around 41,000 escrow accounts, managing more than $140 million in annual payments and $300 million in annual deposits on the platform.

Digital pension platform Penfold has closed one 7 million pounds Series A funding round led by existing investor Bridford Group.

Penfold also opened the round to its customer base and wider community with a crowdfund which it says reached 190% of its goal from over 900 contributors.

The funds will be used to expand the pension provider’s workplace pensions division, which has underwritten more than 150 businesses since its launch 10 months ago.

Chris Eastwood, co-founder of Penfold, says: “This funding will have a huge impact on our ability to bring our pension to more people, particularly as we look to expand our workplace pension offer and give savers more control over their pension.”

Founded in 2018 and based in the UK, Penfold claims to offer “affordable, engaging and high performance” pensions and is available to businesses as an auto-enrolment scheme and to private savers, the self-employed and company directors.

It has since raised a total investment of £8.5m from a combination of angel investors and venture capital firms and claims to have over 60,000 users.

Market place for share capital Appital has secured an extra one 1.7 million pounds investment from Frontline Ventures and various angel investors.

Appital is raising additional funds

The investment follows last year’s £2.5m funding round led by Frontline Ventures and takes the company’s total capital up to £4.85m.

The Appital platform enables the buyside community to initiate and participate in liquidity discovery, price formation and execution opportunities in listed stocks.

Appital says it allows institutional investors to have “full transparency and maximum control” over the book building and distribution process, and can actively drive liquidity in the market.

Mark Badyra, CEO of Appital, says: “In the run-up to our launch, we’ve forged partnerships and built technology infrastructure to support a new procurement workflow that gives companies control over their book-building processes and brings a highly manual activity into an automated, algorithmically driven platform.”

The firm adds that over 30 asset managers, collectively managing more than $30 trillion, have joined or are in the process of joining Appital.

Risk management platform RiskSmart has launched in the UK market after securing over £1 million in funding from NPIF Maven Equity Finance and other institutional investors.

The startup aims to simplify risk for small and medium-sized businesses (SMBs) which it says have been underserved by complex and expensive platforms, frameworks and manual processes in the industry.

Using data and AI technology, RiskSmart offers automated and centralized risk management that “increases trust and business resilience”.

RiskSmart says it has plans for significant growth by the end of 2024 and to secure Gartner recognition within the same timeframe.