Wouter brings venture capital and investment management experience from roles at 6 Degrees Capital, Force Over Mass, and financial institutions including Morgan Stanley.
The pre-seed round was led by Ascension and includes grant backing from the Greater London Authority.
"We believe that debt management should be proactive, not reactive. Our goal is to help millions of people struggling to pay their bills and credit commitments better manage their debt before it becomes a crisis. In doing so, we believe we can help British people during the cost of living crisis – saving businesses and society billions associated with problem debt."
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"
The investment round was led by Inference Partners with participation from Force Over Mass.
"This investment from Inference Partners comes at an opportune time where businesses and SMEs in Southeast Asia have become accustomed to selling on digital platforms. We plan to capitalise on the huge pace of growth and adoption by partnering banks and NBFIs from emerging markets to offer merchants easy and affordable payment solutions to help them innovate their business and grow their customer base."
The funding round was led by Elefund with participation from multiple venture firms to support expansion into the metaverse.
"We're delighted to have secured this substantial funding round which signifies the start of Admix Phase 2. This funding round validates the incredible hard work which the entire team has worked so tirelessly to reach. We see the internet entering a new stage: Web 3.0 or the metaverse, characterized by real-time 3D interactions and a new creator economy, spearheaded by the video games industry. We are establishing In-Play as the monetization layer for gaming and the metaverse. While many players in our industry are essentially agencies, Admix is building critical infrastructure for creators to monetize their content in the best way possible."
The financing round was led by Force Over Mass, FMO and NN Group to support the company as it scales operations in Egypt.
"Egypt has around 2.4 million individual businesses and 104 million people, some 67% of whom do not have a bank account, while 94% have no access to credit. The dopay business model engages with business owners in the first instance, meaning they don’t have to attract individual customers. Each company signing up with dopay brings an entire workforce in a single transaction, and this is a very strong growth driver. Their new platform provides frictionless onboarding for employees, while enabling dopay to scale their business at pace."
The Series A round was led by Force Over Mass and included debt financing from Atalaya Capital Management.
"Koyo launched at the start of the global pandemic and has proven that innovative use of open banking data results in better risk decisioning and ultimately has enabled us to grow the business during one of the toughest economic times the UK has faced. I’m proud to have continued to give many people in the UK access to competitively priced credit, during a time where most traditional lenders were quick to scale back their lending."
The Edinburgh-based enterprise blockchain provider secured the capital to scale its infrastructure platform.
"Force Over Mass’ focus on B2B software and Signature Ventures’ vision of a decentralized future are complementary and mesh perfectly with our own mission to accelerate the adoption of blockchain technology by enterprises across the board."
The funding round was led by Bridford Investments and featured a crowdfunding campaign on Crowdcube.
"The sheer popularity of the crowdfund shows that Penfold is a solution to a real problem for lots of people. Saving for your future should be as easy as online banking, but the legacy pension companies are making it hard for consumers to have visibility or control of their pension pots. We’re cutting out the complexity in pensions – and people are showing their support by investing in us."
Force Over Mass led the seed round for the privacy-first advertising platform.
"Our vision for Glimpse Protocol is to set new standards for privacy in advertising, becoming the kitemark that consumers can trust. This investment enables us to roll out our technology that delivers valuable, effective advertising while respecting consumer privacy. With consumers, regulators and tech giants taking action on data privacy, the digital advertising industry is seeking a solution that can weather technical changes and increasingly stringent privacy requirements. Unlike our competitors, who offer partial stopgaps, Glimpse Protocol provides a uniquely clear vision of how the problem can and must be tackled."
The late seed round included participation from TMT Investments, Force Over Mass, and angel investor Chris Adelsbach.
"As a second time entrepreneur myself, I experienced first-hand the complex, timely and often imbalanced nature of the old-school financing routes. I knew there was another way and so decided to build it. Our ambition is for Outfund to be the place to go to grow your business without compromising your equity or wasting time fundraising. This is why we have spent time developing a way to make the process of securing money for growth easier, fairer and most importantly, faster. Our approach has been warmly received by founders and directors alike and so now we’re looking at how we can open this up to more businesses and continue to be part of their journey to success for a long time."
Force Over Mass leads a £2.1m seed round in Pomelo Pay to support team expansion and international growth.
"We appreciate from our diverse client base that it has been a challenging year for businesses across a huge range of sectors. We are therefore very proud to have been able to provide our customers with a selection of low-cost and user-friendly tools that make their lives easier. Whether that’s using phones to take payments, creating online shops, or sending payment links for jobs completed, we help to lighten the load."
The seed round was led by Force Over Mass with backing from Backed and Acrew Capital.
"The current payments systems used by credit card companies and most traditional banks were designed 40 years ago and have become archaic, not to mention costly and inefficient for businesses to use. It’s time we welcomed the future of payments and given the current state of the economy, businesses need this now more than ever."
Praetura Ventures led the Series A round with backing from Force Over Mass and Illuminate Financial Management.
"With our background in highly regulated businesses, we are seeing enormous appetite for our proprietary technology; not only from businesses required to comply with MiFID II, but also for enterprises that are looking to leverage AI as a core component of their business for efficiency gains and revenue generation."
— Charlie Henderson, Co-founder and joint managing director