Y Combinator is a startup accelerator that invests in a large number of startups twice a year. It created a new model for funding startups. Twice a year, the company invests a small amount of money ($150k) in a large number of startups. The startup accelerator works intensively with the companies for three months, to get them into the best possible shape and refine their pitch to investors. Each cycle culminates in Demo Day when the startups present their companies to a carefully selected, invite-only audience.

Y Combinator

Deciens Capital is a venture capital firm that supports early-stage founders building the next generation of financial services. The firm seeks out visionary founders at the earliest stage of their journey – providing comprehensive support beyond capital to bring their ideas to life. Through strategic collaborations with industry leaders like Chipper Cash, the largest African fintech, Treasury Prime, the leading banking-as-a-service company, and Therma, a pioneer in industrial energy measurement and management, Deciens actively champions entrepreneurs driving the digital transformation of established institutions. Deciens was founded in 2017 by Daniel Kimerling and Zac Townsend and is headquartered in Albuquerque, New Mexico.

Deciens Capital

Susa Ventures is an early-stage venture capital firm investing primarily in seed rounds. The firm was founded in October 2013 and si headquartered in San Francisco, California, United States.

Susa Ventures

Four Cities Capital is a global seed and series A investor. It feels strongly that the impact of technology and software on the global economy remains in its early stages. Major global industries and significant portions of humanity remain structurally unaffected by the digital revolution and the recent emergence of massively disruptive technologies based on biology, new materials, and artificial intelligence/unmanned systems.

Four Cities Capital

QED Investors is an investment firm that supports high-growth companies and businesses. The firm typically provides a combination of both capital and capability. But common to all the firm's partnerships is a shared conviction that information plays a decisive role in the success of the company, a mutual desire for a high degree of direct engagement, and a shared enthusiasm for experimentation and learning.

QED Investors

The SaaStr Fund is a $70m venture fund that focuses on early-ish stage investments exclusively in SaaS/enterprise/B2B start-ups.  They look to invest typically once you have at least 10 Unaffiliated Customers, and we invest from $500k to $4m (occasionally a little more or less), depending on stage.

SaaStr Fund

JAM FINTOP invest in technology companies developing solutions that allow financial institutions to more effectively compete and serve their customers.

JAM FINTOP

BAM Elevate is a growth equity fund that invests in breakout companies in transformational industries poised to compound long-term value.

BAM Elevate

SaaStr began in 2012 as a simple attempt via a WordPress blog, together with a few answers on Quora, to help share back Jason M. Lemkin’s learnings of going from $0 to $100m ARR with the next generation of great SaaS and B2B entrepreneurs. It has since gone on to become perhaps the largest web community of SaaS founders and entrepreneurs, with over 2.5M views per month across the web, and over 50 million+ views on Quora.  The SaaStr Annual has become the world's largest non-vendor B2B conference.  The core SaaStr long-form content first appears here on www.saastr.com, and then on Quora, as well as via syndication in Forbes, The Wall Street Journal, Enterprise Irregulars, and other leading media.  Forbes named SaaStr one of the Top 100 blogs for entrepreneurs, and Inc. named SaaStr one of The 50 Best Websites for Entrepreneurs.

SaaStr

Banc Funds is a private equity firm that invests in small financial service companies. The firm seeks to invest in companies such as commercial banks, savings and loan associations, regional investment banks, regional stock brokerage companies, and specialty brokerage and finance. It is all about making a difference, whether it’s funding the goals of a small financial organization or the research that could lead to a life-changing cure for millions of people. The biggest way in which they give back to communities all over the country is by funding the small financial companies that are the lifeblood of their local communities. These banks with whom they partner often draw strength from the communities of which they are a part, but they also give back. They make commercial loans and provide other financial services to some of the smallest businesses in the United States.

The Banc Funds

A private investment arm of a group of partnering European family offices, focused on the best-performing private asset class — venture capital. Email us at team@azurocapital.com

Azuro Capital

Tactical growth investments in b2b technology.

Verdure Capital Management

Treasury Prime

Treasury Prime is a Banking-as-a-Service company that connects banks and FinTechs through an API. Its full integration into core banking systems gives developers access to a wide range of banking services from opening accounts to making payments to issuing cards. Founded in 2017, the company is headquartered in San Francisco, California.

Treasury Prime offers a banking-as-a-service infrastructure platform for FinTech providers to offer banking services and connect to existing bank accounts. Through its APIs and tools, FinTechs can offer a range of banking services including bank account openings, customer onboarding, and enabling payments directly from bank accounts (ACH and wire transfers).

Democratizing financial technology with a suite of API-based solutions

FinTech Infrastructure

Treasury Prime teams up with Kobalt Labs

Treasury Prime offers a banking-as-a-service infrastructure platform for FinTech providers to offer banking services and connect to existing bank accounts. Through its APIs and tools, FinTechs can offer a range of banking services including bank account openings, customer onboarding, and enabling payments directly from bank accounts (ACH and wire transfers).The platform also offers a range of compliance tools, including know-your-customer, fraud detection, and SOC 2 Certification. The company claims users can build compliance programs in weeks using the platform, which offers the customer control over the user experience, avoid using third-party compliance solutions, and guidance on regulatory requirements such as BSA/AML. The company claims that its platform offers 5x faster integration time for FinTechs relative to building in-house. It also reports reductions for banks in deposit acquisition costs by 50% and an increase in the number of deposits by 30%.Key customers and partnerships Treasury Prime has also partnered with <a href="https://sp-edge.com/companies/317657">Alloy </a>and <a href="https://sp-edge.com/companies/706519">Unit21 </a>to improve their compliance, identity management, and fraud prevention solutions.The company partnered with card issuing platform, <a href="https://sp-edge.com/companies/64287">Marqeta </a>in February 2021, to expand its services by enabling FinTechs to manage the card lifecycle (including issuing, activating, and managing debit cards) using the same Treasury Prime API used for other banking services.Treasury Prime also partnered with <a href="https://sp-edge.com/companies/85350">Plaid </a>in November 2022, to enable its users to integrate with external fintechs available via Plaid, to improve the efficiency and convenience of payment acceptance. Treasury Prime had over 50 FinTech customers as of May 2021.Funding and financialsTreasury Prime’s revenue and accounts grew by nearly 400% and more than 450%, respectively, from May 2021 to February 2023. The company <a href="https://sp-edge.com/updates/16089?industryIds=53">raised USD 40 million in Series C funding </a>, led by BAM Elevate, in February 2023, to invest in expanding its multi-bank network solution, launching an integrated partner marketplace, and developing new products (such as lending solutions).

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. Key customers and partnerships As of December 2020, the company had over 400 employees, and had entered into more than 30 partnerships. Moreover, as of March 2021, the platform had been used to support over 375,000 small businesses through the paycheck protection program (PPP).Cross River Bank 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. As of April 2022, 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. 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).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.Funding and financials The company <a href="https://sp-edge.com/updates/9458">raised USD 620 million in funding </a>co-led by Eldridge and a16z, at a valuation of over USD 3 billion, to invest in product developments, recruitment, international expansion, and boosting strategic partnerships.

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>.Funding and financialsIn March 2024, Synctera raised USD 18.6 million in <a href="https://sp-edge.com/updates/27244">Series A1 extension</a> co-led by Lightspeed and Fin Capital. The company earmarked the funds to support business growth by facilitating more complex use cases across the US and international markets. The company also <a href="https://sp-edge.com/updates/16980?industryIds=53">raised USD 15 million</a> in funding led by NAventures in March 2023, to invest in expanding the platform’s use cases and broadening its geographic footprint beyond the US (including expanding to Canada). Meanwhile, Synctera has also partnered with the National Bank of Canada to enable companies to launch FinTech apps and embedded banking products in Canada.

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.Key customers and partnershipsAs of July 2021, Weavr’s customers included Finway, Thanks Ben, and MySkillCamp, among others.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.Funding and financialsWeavr <a href="https://sp-edge.com/updates/8647?industryIds=53">raised USD 40 million </a>in Series A funding in February 2022, led by Tiger Global, less than a year after <a href="https://sp-edge.com/updates/4166">raising GBP 4 million (USD 5.5 million) </a>in seed funding in July. The funds were earmarked for business development and recruitment to support Weavr’s expansion to the US market, while also supporting its continued expansion in the UK and Europe.

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. As of January 2021, the company noted that it worked with more than 2,000 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. In <a href="https://sp-edge.com/updates/8753?industryIds=53">February 2022, MX partnered </a>with <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. In January 2021, MX raised USD 300 million in a Series C funding round led by TPG Capital, at a valuation of USD 1.9 billion. The newly raised funds are to be invested in improving MX’s capabilities, expanding its global presence, and increasing its workforce. In January 2021, MX noted that its headcount tripled over the past two years, reaching 550 staff members. The company appointed Shane Evans as interim chief executive officer (CEO) in January 2022, to prepare the company for an IPO or sale (at a valuation of over USD 5 billion) and oversee its growth.

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 partnerships In 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. Funding and financialsIn April 2019, <a href="https://sp-edge.com/companies/13061">Visa </a>invested an undisclosed sum in Bankable and entered a partnership with the startup. Through the partnership, Visa members obtained access to Bankable’s platform, while Bankable used VisaNet (Visa’s electronic global payments network) to extend its international payment and banking solutions.

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

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 Treasury Prime, a provider of banking-as-a-service (BaaS) infrastructure, has made significant changes in its business strategy. The firm has laid off half its staff in order to pivot towards selling its services directly to banks as opposed to its previous focus on connecting FinTech enterprises with traditional banking services.
 
 The altered approach aligns with the increasing trend within the banking industry to develop FinTech capabilities in-house and the heightened regulatory scrutiny of partnerships with FinTech entities. In relation to this shift in focus, CEO Chris Dean announced the introduction of a new product called Bank-Direct. This product will enable banks to support their partners in the FinTech sector throughout the partnership lifecycle.
 
 Further, Treasury Prime is in the process of restructuring its operations. A key aspect of this strategic overhaul is the assembly of a dedicated business development group. The primary role of this group will be to aid banks in securing large FinTech customers.

</div>

Treasury Prime

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