Firestartr helps the most promising digital entrepreneurs take their companies from seed stage to Series A and beyond.  Beyond providing capital, they draw on their entrepreneurial successes and senior operational experience with leading technology companies to support sustainable growth in their portfolio. Their deep domain expertise, combined with an unrivalled network of advisors, enable us to make meaningful connections at the right time and propel companies with hands-on support.

Firestartr

Kima Ventures is one of the world's most active early-stage investors, investing in 2 to 3 startups per week all over the world; providing founders with funding, network, and support for them to reach the next steps of their journey. The firm invests from seed to Series A, mostly as lead investor but also working alongside other investors; backing ambitious founders who work hard to build awesome things that more and more people use everyday. The company helps them to build a great team, to learn very quickly, to keep the right focus and execute towards growth. Kima takes pride of itself in working side-by-side with entrepreneurs. They claim to understand that fundraising is only one step in the company’s journey, that’s why they take quick decisions and make the fundraising process as smooth as possible so the founders can get back to the work of building their business. Kima considers itself not only an investor, but a network of founders and experts sharing a pay it forward mindset. Headquartered in Paris with an office in London, the company was founded and backed by Xavier Niel, founder of Iliad and supporter of entrepreneurs through such projects as 42, Station F and 101projets. Over the last 5 years Kima has invested in over 400 startups in 24 different countries.

Kima Ventures

Tally is an independent monetary platform and hard-asset currency that sits outside of the existing banking infrastructure, while seamlessly operating with it. Tally is the name of the platform and also the name of the currency. 1 Tally = 1 milligram of vaulted gold. Using gold as the 100% physical reserve means the customer’s money is protected from inflation and systemic bank risks associated with the fiat currency-based fractional reserve banking model, while offering the familiar usability of a personal bank account and contactless debit card. For the first time, Tally gives consumers a choice of a banking account with a currency that is independent, insulated and innovative — giving ultimate control and certainty of the money back into the hands of the consumer.

Tally Money

Middlegame Ventures is a fintech​ venture capital firm investing in early-stage growth businesses focused on Financial Innovation. The firm is seeking great entrepreneurial teams who are focusing on rearchitecting financial services infrastructure.

Middlegame Ventures

Startupbootcamp FinTech is a global family of industry-focused programs. They support early-stage tech founders to rapidly scale their companies by providing direct access to an international network of the most relevant mentors, partners, and investors. As each program focuses on an industry, they are able to provide an unmatched level of support to the startups selected for their programs.

Startupbootcamp FinTech London

Founded in 2015, Moneta VC has established itself as Israel’s most active fintech fund, with investments in over 40 world-class fintech companies. Seven of these have successfully exited, including TipRanks, Rewire, and HumanAPI. Moneta VC supports startups in Israel and globally, focusing on both Seed and Growth stages through dedicated funds, ensuring continuous backing throughout their journey.

Moneta VC

Clocktower Technology Ventures invests in the insurance, payments, personal finance, lending, credit, and asset management sectors. The firm’s expertise investing across financial services and its related ecosystem of global institutional allocators, policymakers, and hedge fund managers have created a community that offers a distinct value-add to portfolio companies. Since launching, Clocktower Technology Ventures has invested in 96 fintech companies in North America, Europe, and Latin America. It was founded in 2015 and headquartered in Santa Monica, California.

Clocktower Technology Ventures

Singapore Life provides digital life insurance services. Singapore Life offers high net worth universal life solutions for those that prefer Singapore and the Singapore regulatory environment as a destination for their wealth and protection needs. It also offers protection solutions made available both digitally and through financial advisers to the retail segment, revolutionising how easy insurance can be. The Company incorporates multiple InsurTech solutions to improve the customer experience. Singapore Life represents the next generation of life insurance where customers are empowered through a simplified insurance purchase process.

Singlife

CE Innovation Capital has been investing in Fintech, Web3 and AI since 2016.

CE Innovation Capital

Ventura Capital is an investment firm focused on late-stage high-growth companies in global technology sectors.  It was founded in 2012 and headquartered in Dubai, United Arab Emirates.

Ventura Capital

Mitsui Fudosan Co., Ltd. (三井不動産株式会社 Mitsui Fudōsan Kabushiki-gaisha?) is a major real estate developer in Japan. Mitsui Fudosan is one of the core companies of Mitsui Group.  The Mitsui Fudosan Group, in pursuing its mission to “bring affluence and comfort to urban living,” aims to provide services that satisfy customers by fully understanding diversifying customer needs and desires, and creating new value.

Mitsui Fudosan

Global Brain Corporation is a venture capital firm that invests in companies from seed or early to pre-IPO startups.  Global Brain has invested in 300+ startups from seed/early to pre-IPO startups and achieved 25 IPOs and 61 M&As as a result of providing hands-on support services and resources to its portfolio startups. Global Brain has managed a pure investment fund as well as multiple corporate venture capital funds partnered together with tier 1 public companies of telecom, real estate development, financial service, beverages, agriculture food, logistics, and electronic devices.

Global Brain Corporation

Visa is an American multinational financial services company that facilitates electronic payment systems throughout the world. The company operates the retail electronic payments network through the transfer of value and information among financial institutions, merchants, consumers, businesses, and government entities.

Visa

Central Capital Ventura is an early stage corporate venture capital with backing Bank Central Asia, one of the largest banks in Indonesia. It works alongside entrepreneurs that specialize financial services. It seeks to leverage synergies and entrepreneurial innovation to support the growth of Indonesia.

Central Capital Ventura

Outrun Ventures Invests in early stage fintech, insurtech, regtech, legaltech, and proptech businesses in the UK and Europe. Outrun is the family office of Chris Adelsbach.

Outrun Ventures

Anthos, founded in 2007, invests in emerging consumer and technology companies that drive innovation and shape the future. Anthos provides strategic and operational support to entrepreneurs, enabling its portfolio companies to achieve their full potential and become industry leaders.

Anthos Capital

CreditEase is a business consulting firm that offers wealth management services. It caters areas such as wealth management, credit management, microfinance investment, and microcredit loan origination, and servicing. It operates a peer-to-peer platform that connects lenders with creditworthy borrowers, enabling under-banked students, professionals, and farmers to get loans. The company was founded in 2006 and is based in Beijing, China. CreditEase is a leading FinTech conglomerate in China, specializing in inclusive finance and wealth management, including payment technology, marketplace lending, crowdfunding, robo-advisory, insurance technology, and blockchain products and services. CreditEase actively engages with global FinTech innovators through business incubation, commercial cooperation and investment.

CreditEase

Railsr

Railsr is a financial services company. They provide the creation of digital ledgers, connecting digital ledgers to bank accounts, receiving money, sending money, converting money, issuing cards, and managing credit through the API that enables banks and corporate customers to transact digitally.

Railsr (formerly known as Railsbank) is a UK-based company offering a banking-as-a-service (BaaS) platform enabling enterprises to allow their customers to access financial services and build financial technologies (FinTechs). The platform offers an application programming interface (API) for developers to embed financial services onto its users’ apps. The company’s services go beyond typical BaaS offerings, such as payments and account management, to include launching credit cards, wage advances, subscriptions, and receivable automation, among others.

Democratizing financial technology with a suite of API-based solutions

FinTech Infrastructure

Equals: Payments fintech extends deadline for merger talks with MDP, Railsr and TowerBrook

Railsr (formerly known as Railsbank) is a UK-based company offering a banking-as-a-service (BaaS) platform enabling enterprises to allow their customers to access financial services and build financial technologies (FinTechs). The platform offers an application programming interface (API) for developers to embed financial services onto its users’ apps. The company’s services go beyond typical BaaS offerings, such as payments and account management, to include launching credit cards, wage advances, subscriptions, and receivable automation, among others.Railsr also introduced a no-code development platform for enterprises in December 2020. This enables non-coding staff to embed the Railsr’s platform into their apps using a drag-and-drop interface. As of November 2020, Railbank’s operations spanned across the UK, Europe, Southeast Asia, and the US, making it a global player.However, in March 2023, Railsr announced that it was <a href="https://sp-edge.com/updates/16982?industryIds=53">acquired by a shareholder consortium </a>, Embedded Finance Ltd. As a result of the deal, Railsr went into administration and continues as a going concern while it restructures. The company <a href="https://sp-edge.com/updates/17525?industryIds=53">subsequently changed its leadership team </a>by appointing a new CEO, COO, and CFO, in April 2023.In March 2024, Embedded Finance (the parent company of Railsr) announced it <a href="https://sp-edge.com/updates/27802">intends to merge </a>with Equals Group, a B2B payments solution provider. However, no definitive agreements have been signed yet, and Equals Group is still receiving other offers until mid-April.Key customers and partnershipsRailsr had around 300 customers - including Foris, Paceline, Wirex and Wagestream - as of October 2022 (up from around 220 in October 2021). Moreover, its strategic partners included AWS, Salesforce, Visa, Mastercard, and Plaid.In April 2020, Railsr expanded its operations by entering a partnership and receiving an investment from Visa, as well as acquiring the UK operations of insolvent FinTech Wirecard.The company partnered with fraud and financial crime prevention company Featurespace, in November 2022, to combine its in-house fraud prevention solutions with Featurespace’s “ARIC Risk Hub” (which includes card and payment fraud prevention and AML solutions).Railsr’s revenue reportedly rose by 50% in H1 2022, and it expected the growth to slow down in H2.

Cross River Bank provides a white-label banking-as-a-service (BaaS) platform for enterprises, combining banking services, payments, and marketplace lending infrastructure to build fintechs. Its solutions comprise demand deposits, savings accounts, credit and debit cards, and payment clearing services, including automated clearing house (ACH) and real-time payments. The company also provides banking and payment infrastructure for the crypto industry, including risk management services for its crypto clients.Cross River Bank has expanded its operations by acquiring Betterfin, a platform offering lending-as-a-service (LaaS) solutions, in November 2021. Through the acquisition, Cross River Bank leveraged Betterfin’s software to digitize parts of the small-business lending process (such as origination and underwriting).&nbsp;Key customers and partnerships&nbsp; As of November 2024, Cross River had over 80 clients, including lenders such as Affirm, Best Egg, and Upstart, neobanks such as <a href="https://sp-edge.com/companies/220119">Revolut</a>, and blockchain-based payment processing platform GreenBox. The platform reportedly originated over USD 24 billion in loans per annum, around 10x the value of loans it originated in 2015.As of November 2024, the company had over 500 employees and had entered more than 80 partnerships.&nbsp;In September 2024, Cross River Bank partnered with Forward, an embedded payments company, to offer payouts-as-service solutions featuring same-day automated clearing house (ACH) payouts through Forward's proprietary API technology.&nbsp;Cross River Bank also teamed up with UK-based BaaS provider <a href="https://sp-edge.com/companies/421515">Railsr</a> in January 2019 to launch a common API for their platforms to be used globally.The company partnered with <a href="https://sp-edge.com/companies/1643">American Express</a> (Amex) to enable FinTechs to issue credit cards through Cross River Bank, on the Amex network, while also providing select Amex benefits to the FinTechs.&nbsp;

Cross River Bank

Synctera was co-founded in 2020 by Peter Hazlehurst, the former head of Uber Money, who previously led the development of Google Wallet. The company offers an API-based infrastructure platform for community and regional banks to find and partner with FinTechs. This enables FinTechs to leverage the former’s licenses to embed FDIC-insured mobile checking, debit cards, savings accounts, and payment innovations, among other features. The API platform offered to the banks will then be sold to the FinTechs to code on. Although the end customers interact with the FinTechs, they legally belong to the bank.<a href="https://sp-edge.com/updates/8117">Synctera mainly charges the banks </a>based on the interchange fees they earn (half of the interchange fees, as of January 2022) from the services provided. It does not charge them an initial amount to use the platform. Moreover, the platform also embeds fraud-as-a-service and charges FinTechs on a per transaction basis (4 cents per transaction) should they choose to use it. It subsequently shares that revenue 50/50 with the banks.The company launched the “t-minus10” project in January 2022, which offers a live sandbox for FinTechs to build apps, test, and go to market, enhancing their access to banking partners. It subsequently launched a “Smart Charge Card” (APIs to build, launch, and issue charge cards) and “White-label Banking App” (a codebase for developers to build embedded banking products or neobank apps) infrastructure in October 2022.Key customers and partnershipsIn February 2022, Lineage Bank (a community bank in Tennessee) and GoGetr (FinTech aiming to promote health and wealth management) became the first companies to launch a banking solution using the Synctera platform. As of March 2023, the platform was working with around 50 fintechs, of which 14 were live (including Wayapay and Float). Synctera reportedly had over 20 implementations set for launch in the following two months.Synctera announced a new card issuing and management infrastructure offering (Card-as-a-Service), in July 2021, which it developed in partnership with Mastercard and leading card issuing infrastructure disruptor, <a href="https://sp-edge.com/companies/64287">Marqeta</a>.In August 2024, Synctera partnered with<a href="https://thepaypers.com/payments-general/synctera-partners-marqeta-to-introduce-fleet-cards--1269833"> Marqeta&nbsp;</a>to develop a fleet card solution that helps companies create and manage their own fleet card and banking products.

Synctera

Based in the UK, Weavr, formerly known as Open Payments Cloud, was spun out of payment provider Ixaris in 2019. Weavr offers the infrastructure for enterprises to embed banking services across various industries, including education, fitness, logistics, etc. Weavr’s “Meta” platform combines multiple banking and payments partners in one platform through application programming interfaces (APIs). Using the APIs, enterprises can embed virtual banking services such as card payments, fund transfers, and international banking accounts.Weavr expanded its operations to Singapore in November 2022, as part of its global expansion plans.In March 2023, the company acquired Comma Payments in a primarily equity-based transaction to integrate the latter’s technology. The integration will allow customers to transition from making payments via existing bank accounts to using Weavr-provided accounts with enhanced controls and payment options.Key customers and partnershipsAs of February 2023, Weavr had served over 1,500 enterprises, including Wectory, AllGravy, Corplife, Finway, Thanks Ben, and MySkillCamp.&nbsp;In October 2019, Weavr partnered with payment service providers Global Processing Services (GPS), Paynetics, and iDenfy to enable developers to create and run sophisticated and streamlined payment experiences for their European customers through Weavr.In June 2023, the company&nbsp;<a href="https://www.weavr.io/blog/weavr-and-visa-to-deliver-embedded-finance-to-the-global-stage/">partnered with Visa</a> to integrate its financial plug-ins with Visa's payment capabilities to create embedded finance solutions that are easy to deploy and cost-effective.

Weavr

MX offers an open finance portal, data connectivity application programming interface (API), and MX platform API for banks, credit unions, and other financial service providers. The company’s solutions allow its clients to utilize financial data to reduce fraud, approve loans faster, and improve their customer experiences. In addition to APIs and connections, MX also offers a range of capabilities, including data aggregation, analytics, financial feed insights, wealth and investment services, and verification services.MX looks to enable banks and financial institutions to launch next-generation services and apps that automate and personalize financial experiences.Key customers and partnershipsAs of January 2021, the company noted that it worked with more than 1800 banks, credit unions, and FinTech companies, and its platform reached over 200 million end-users. Moreover, it also powered 43 of the top 50 digital banks as of the same period.&nbsp;As of November 2024, the company maintained connections with more than 13,000 financial institutions and FinTechs. Moreover, the company had processed transactions worth USD 170 billion, averaging around USD 150 million per day.In November 2024, the company partnered with&nbsp;<a href="https://www.pymnts.com/news/banking/2024/american-express-forms-data-sharing-partnership-with-mx/">American Express</a> to enable the latter’s customers to securely connect their accounts with third-party financial institutions and FinTech apps through MX's platform.In&nbsp;<a href="https://sp-edge.com/updates/8753?industryIds=53">February 2022, MX partnered</a> with&nbsp;<a href="https://sp-edge.com/companies/361160">Rize</a>, to enable users to access Rize’s banking infrastructure to build, launch, and scale financial products through a single API, thereby reducing the development time and cost.&nbsp;&nbsp;

Bankable is a banking-as-a-service (BaaS) infrastructure provider allowing financial institutions and corporations to utilize its API to integrate banking services. It provides a platform for its enterprise customers to offer modular banking services, including ledger management (process data from multiple banks to support cash management for global corporate affairs), digital banking, payment cards, and e-wallets. The company expanded its platform by <a href="https://sp-edge.com/updates/19662">acquiring Arex Markets </a>in June 2023, to embed working capital solutions (such as flexible invoice financing, corporate credit cards, lodged cars, and revolving credit).The company has a global presence, with operations spanning from the US to the Middle East as of January 2021. Bankable noted that the expansion of its global footprint also helps its European and US FinTech clients expand their operations internationally.Key customers and partnershipsIn January 2020, the company partnered with the diversified FinTech infrastructure provider <a href="https://sp-edge.com/companies/85350">Plaid </a>, which enabled Bankable’s customers to use Plaid’s tech to connect to more than 15,000 banks in the US and Europe.

Bankable

Platforms that allow FinTechs to integrate banking services such as opening and maintaining accounts, facilitating card payments, etc.


Platforms that enable FinTechs to integrate a range of payment-related services such as one-time payments, subscriptions, and receipt management for domestic and cross-border transactions.


Companies that enable organizations to embed anti-money laundering (AML), identity verification, and know-your-customer (KYC) solutions.


Platforms that allow FinTechs to integrate lending services,  by typically applying AI/ML technology to a spending analysis to analyze creditworthiness.

Companies providing APIs and integrations for FinTechs to access securities markets, facilitate transactions and clearing, and provide insights to help end-users manage their finances.

May specialize in promoting inclusiveness in financial services, primarily in the investment and lending spaces

AI/ML can improve the quality of their offerings, such as using AI/ML to reduce biases

Used for payment completions, accessing banking and transaction data, and providing financial insights, among others

<div>
 UK-based banking-as-a-service platform, Railsr, also known as Embedded Finance, is set to acquire Equals Group for GBP 283 million (USD 358 million). An investor consortium, consisting of TowerBrook and J.C. Flowers, has supported this deal. 
 The objective of the acquisition is to expand Railsr's portfolio via integrating their BaaS and card issuing solutions with Equals' international payments, multicurrency accounts, and card product capabilities. According to the terms of the deal, Equals shareholders will receive 140 pence per share in cash, representing a 37% premium to the closing price of Equals on October 31, 2023.
 Equals Group is a FinTech payment company known for developing and selling scalable payment platforms that allow organisations to manage their money flows. The company operates under several brands including Equals Money, Equals Money Solutions, FairFX, CardOneMoney, and Equals Connect.
</div>

Railsr

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