Omnio, con sede a Londra, raccoglie € 15 milioni per potenziare la sua piattaforma di banca digitale basata su cloud

Omnio, con sede a Londra, raccoglie € 15 milioni per potenziare la sua piattaforma di banca digitale basata su cloud

Omnio startup

London-based fintech startup Omnio has announced closing a private placement, raising €15 million via the issue of 23,077 shares at a rate of €650 per offer share. 

Omnio, founded in 2018, specialises in the delivery of banking and payment solutions for business. The fintech startup offers banking-grade financial services through its cloud-based digital platform and back-office services. Omnio already serves more than two million users around the world on its omnio.VISION platform, and the startup wants to grow this number further, providing market-beating financial services to customers, no matter where they are across the globe.

The company has big ambitions for 2020, intending to increase its total fundraising to €25 million by January alone. The funds from the private placement will be used to invest in Omnio’s sales force, compliance/risk management plan, product optimisation, working capital and to finance a pending acquisition.

Adrian Cannon, Chief Executive Officer of Omnio, commented, “We are very grateful for the broad support and trust of our new investors at such a pivotal moment for us. Omnio is building on ten years of innovation and customer commitment, and now we are ready to accelerate our market expansion and benefit from an opportunity that will shape the future of banking for the next 20 to 30 years. Our low-cost, modular, and fully cloud-based digital banking platform is proving to be the key ingredient for banks and non-banks catering to their customers for improved and more engaged financial services offering.”

Manchester-based challenger bank B-North smashes its €2.34 million crowdfunding target, ready for launch

Manchester-based challenger bank B-North smashes its €2.34 million crowdfunding target, ready for launch

UK startup B-North has smashed its crowdfunding target and raised €2.34 million, with 12 days still left to go. Funds have come from existing and new investors through equity crowdfunding platforms Crowdcube and Growthfunders, and overall mean that B-North will start the new year with a total raised of around €5 million.

The bank says it will use the new funds “to continue the planned expansion of its workforce and infrastructure”. The news also comes having recently appointed its new chairman, Ron Emerson, who was the first chair of the British Business Bank (the UK government’s economic development bank).

B-North founded in 2018, aims to disrupt the €170 billion UK business lending market, because, as it states, “it shouldn’t take months to complete a loan facility with your lender”. The team is working to transform the lending experience, both for UK businesses and for commercial finance intermediaries, with a high level of customer service.

In the second quarter of 2020, the startup aims to launch its regional ‘Lending Pods’ across Manchester. Each Pod will contain the key decision makers to work with the Broker/SME customers to fully understand their borrowing requirements. B-North’s delivery mechanism aims to offer customers more certainty, flexibility and access to funds, via fast initial credit decisions and simultaneous full approval, valuation and legal processes – overall reducing ‘time to cash’ from months to just days or weeks.

It states, “B-North’s proposed regional pod model and cloud banking technology will allow it to lend up to ten times faster than other banks in order to help SMEs grow and develop.”

London-based Simba raises €21.5 million to become the world’s number one sleep brand

London-based Simba raises €21.5 million to become the world’s number one sleep brand

Simba startup

UK sleep-tech firm Simba, which produces the multi-award winning Simba Hybrid mattress range, has today announced it has agreed to €21.5 million in investment from Cartesian Capital Group, to fund its global sleep ambitions. 

Launched in February 2016, the sleep-tech brand landed €45 million Series B investment in 2017 (and we included them in our list of European startups to help keep you comfy at home this winter!) Simba is now operational in nine countries across Europe, Asia, and North America. Today, half of the UK’s retail distribution network stocks the brand, whilst in Canada, Simba has partnered with Canada’s largest specialist sleep store, Sleep Country.

This new funding will be used to help Simba grow profitability in core markets, accelerate and deepen Simba’s existing business in Canada, and fuel future expansion in China.

Steve Reid, CEO at Simba said, “In 2019, we cemented our position as the world’s most five-star reviewed mattress brand with over 80,000 five-star online reviews. Our focus remains on not just becoming the world’s number one sleep brand, but changing the way the world thinks and feels about sleep, for the better.”

Peter Yu, Managing Partner at Cartesian Capital Group commented, “With tenacity, nimbleness, and discipline Simba’s leadership have successfully steered the company through challenging market environments. Simba’s innovations and proprietary technology create a uniquely attractive value proposition and a truly global appeal.”

London-based Receipt Bank snaps up €65.4 million to expand automated bookkeeping platform globally

London-based Receipt Bank snaps up €65.4 million to expand automated bookkeeping platform globally

UK startup Receipt Bank, one of the world’s leading digital bookkeeping platforms, has raised more than €65.4 million in a successful Series C funding round. The round was led by Insight Partners, joined by Augmentum Fintech, with participation from existing investors Kennet Partners and Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce (CIBC). 

The funds will be used to extend Receipt Bank’s award-winning product suite, and continue rapid expansion in Europe, Australia and North America. 

Receipt Bank was founded in 2010 and is now one of the fastest growing UK technology companies. Receipt Bank automates bookkeeping to save businesses time and money on their taxes, saving accountants one hour per client weekly and frees up small businesses from 120 hours of annual financial admin. Its proprietary machine learning technology fetches financial information from multiple sources, digitises and categorises it, dramatically improving the productivity of accountants and bookkeepers. The platform processes and stores 45 new fields of small business financial data every second from receipts, bank accounts, invoices and bills. The company doubled customers in 2019, taking the total number of businesses using the platform to above 360,000. 

Receipt Bank CEO, Adrian Blair, commented: “This investment is an endorsement of our mission at Receipt Bank – to help accountants do more, empowering millions of small businesses to save time on their finances and focus on growth. Our machine learning technology enables accountants to dramatically enhance their service to small business clients, expanding the market for professional advice by making accountants far more productive. We look forward to using these funds to expand our award winning product set. The addition of Augmentum alongside our current investors, Insight, Kennet and CIBC, strengthens our board and will help us meet our ambitious growth goals, following a stellar 2019.” 

Tim Levene, CEO of Augmentum Fintech, said: “Digital bookkeeping allows businesses to save both time and expense, and Receipt Bank’s technology make the company a clear leader in this sector.”

EverToys di Bucarest, la "Netflix rumena per i giocattoli", infrange l'obiettivo di crowdfunding da € 150.000

EverToys di Bucarest, la "Netflix rumena per i giocattoli", infrange l'obiettivo di crowdfunding da € 150.000

         

Evertoys

         

Start-up con sede a Bucarest Evertoys è riuscito a sollevare € 150K la sua campagna sulla prima piattaforma di crowdfunding azionario rumeno, Seedblink.com . L’obiettivo è stato raggiunto in soli 20 giorni, tre volte più velocemente del previsto.

 

Evertoys, fondata nel 2016, è un punto di svolta nel settore dei giocattoli. Invece di acquistare giocattoli, i genitori pagano un abbonamento forfettario che consente loro di accedere a una biblioteca di giocattoli, per un semplice costo mensile. In questo modo, se i bambini si annoiano dei loro giocattoli, possono semplicemente cambiarli con qualcosa di più nuovo ogni volta che vogliono. La filosofia di Evertoys è in linea con la tendenza crescente della Sharing Economy, in base alla quale è facile per ogni bambino avere il giocattolo e il gioco più rilevanti al momento giusto nel proprio sviluppo.

 

Questa campagna di crowdfunding è stata la prima sessione di crowdfunding azionario che è stata resa pubblica per la piattaforma azionaria, sebbene Seedblink sia in circolazione da novembre. Allora, hanno sindacato i contributi dei membri della sua tecnologia angel, insieme ai fondi di GapMinder VC e RocaX, raccogliendo 50K per un investimento iniziale in startup Machinations .io . Seedblink è ora attivo e funzionante, aiutando le startup rumene ad accedere ai fondi di cui hanno bisogno per crescere, il che è esattamente quello che è successo con Evertoys in questi giorni.

 

“La visione di Evertoys è un mondo in cui ogni bambino ha difficoltà ad accedere al gioco o giocattolo giusto, al momento giusto nel suo sviluppo cognitivo o abile. Il nostro obiettivo è diventare il fornitore numero 1 di ciò di cui una famiglia ha bisogno per garantire uno sviluppo sano ai propri figli, applicando i principi di un’economia della condivisione. Vogliamo crescere scegliendo il giusto portafoglio di giocattoli, un servizio facile da usare e un rapporto impeccabile con i nostri clienti “, state Evertoys.

 

Questa campagna di crowdfunding di successo segue una tendenza di investimenti rumeni, sia interni che con supporto esterno, che aiutano le startup dell’Europa orientale a crescere e ad ampliare la loro portata.