US fintech funding: Deposit, Highline and Kasisto
This week’s Practical Friday Funding includes three US-based fintech startups – Deposits, Highline Technologies and Kasisto.
Deposits bring 5 million dollars
Dallas, Texas-based Deposit have raised 5 million dollars in seed funding in a round led by ATX Venture Partners with participation from Cabal Fund and Lightspeed Venture Partners.
The startup says it has developed “a cloud-based platform that offers banks and brands an easy-to-use, turnkey solution for engagement, modernization and best-in-class financial experiences like payments, mobile apps and lending – whether you can code or not”.
CEO Joseph Akintolayo says the product – Deposit’s plug-and-play, no-code banking-as-a-service (BaaS) platform – “tears down technical barriers, so we can do the same with financial barriers”.
He adds: “We have broken down the value chain horizontally, leveraging existing distribution channels to provide access to financial services at lower costs, with greater personalisation, engagement, onboarding and discovery.”
Highline raises $13 million
Also in Texas, Highline technologiesa payroll technology that specializes in payroll-related lending and bill payment has increased 13 million dollars in Series A financing.
The round was led by Jump Capital, Costanoa Ventures, Foundation Capital and other investors.
Founded in 2020 in Dallas Fort-Worth, Highline’s payment platform allows consumers to automate bill payments directly from their paycheck. It also expands payroll-related lending to any asset class, “where historically it was limited to personal loans only,” the startup says.
The company secured seed funding in 2021 and doubled its team in H1 2022. It also completed building its platform and launched early to customers in the personal loan, lease-to-own, retail and credit card industries.
Highline says the Series A funding will go toward further team growth, as well as forming new partnerships and expanding market adoption of its products and services.
“It has been many years, decades indeed, since US consumer lending has seen an innovation of this magnitude,” comments Zach Noorani, partner at investor Foundation Capital.
Kasisto raises $15.5 million
New York based Kasistothe creator of KAI, a digital experience platform for the financial industry, has announced a 15.5 million dollars Series C expansion, bringing total Series C funding to $31 million.
The round was led in the US by banking technology heavyweight FIS and internationally by Westpac, with participation from BankSouth, an American community bank in Georgia.
Both Westpac and BankSouth use KAI. Other users include JP Morgan, Standard Chartered, TD, Manulife Bank, Fairwinds Credit Union and Excite Credit Union.
“Kasisto’s technology has enabled us to evolve from traditional chatbots to a sophisticated, human-like conversational experience, brought together for the first time under a single artificial intelligence (AI) orchestration platform,” said Scott Collary, Westpac Group head of customer service and technology. .
In 2020, Kasisto raised $22 million in a Series B round.
