The London fintech platform raised the Series C round from SoftBank Vision Fund 2 and existing investors to scale its operations globally.
"Our ambition is to democratize public market offerings through a combination of technology, data and advocacy. Our platform deepens the relationships public companies have with their stakeholders and helps them make their equity and debt offerings more inclusive"
The London-based fintech secured backing from Mosaic Ventures alongside over 65 angel investors to scale its engineering team.
"At a time when UK citizens are facing the worst inflation crisis for 30 years, household expenses are the largest component of people’s living costs, and yet most of us are routinely exploited by companies who hack our inattention to sneak in loyalty taxes at every turn. Nous will change that. Unlike anyone else in this field, we’re on the side of households, and we’re building a service to make people’s lives simpler and fairer."
The investment round was led by Bank of America and Edenred Capital Partners to support expansion into the United States.
"Banked has built a product that can operate inside tier 1 banks, payment providers, gateways and technology platforms to allow them to offer Pay by Bank to their merchants. We have had a maniacal focus on infrastructure, security, and end consumer experience. Our clients only need to focus on integration. We really want to work inside the existing ecosystem and are building out very strong partnerships to deliver Pay by Bank globally. 2022 will see some really big brands go live with Pay by Bank, driving at the heart of delivering innovation at point of purchase to both the merchant and consumer"
WestCap led the Series B round with participation from Citi, EJF Capital and Optiver PSI.
"We believe that lending your stocks, bonds and ETFs is a basic ownership right that should be made available to all. As private investor participation increases in capital markets, we are leveling the playing field so that private investors, through their brokers and banks, can benefit from income generating solutions that have been largely restricted to big financial institutions. We are humbled by this vote of confidence from such a strong group of investors. This partnership enables us to accelerate our global growth plans and scale, expand our offering faster and realize our vision of opening up securities lending to every investor worldwide."
The funding round was led by Prime Ventures with participation from Octopus Ventures and Hannover Digital Investments.
"We are thrilled to have our new investors on board. The Vitesse team have built an incredibly strong and highly regulated platform, supported by our own global payment network and treasury capability, and we have successfully shown the value of these assets to our fast-expanding customer base. We have strong ambitions to grow and to continue our success with a strong focus on the insurance market."