Plug and Play is a seed and early-stage investor focused on great teams leading emerging growth companies.  Plug and Play runs 12 industry-specific accelerator programs twice a year, that acts as a platform for major corporations and high quality startups to connect and collaborate.  Located in the heart of Silicon Valley, Plug and Play participates in Seed, Angel and Series A funding where they often co-invest with their strategic partners. Through years of experience and as part of their network, Plug and Play has put together a world-class network of serial entrepreneurs, strategic investors, and industry leaders who actively assist the firm with its successful and growing investment portfolio.  SEED ROUND. Plug and Play participates in seed round investing through a program called Startup Camp. Startup Camp is a 10-week program based in Silicon Valley for top-notch entrepreneurs to work intensively on building out their business model. Select startups will refine their business models and prototypes with help from a combination of structured workshops, speaker series and mentorship sessions, as well as active coaching from their investment team. At the culmination of Startup Camp, founders will have crystalized their business plans and pitched their company to the venture capital community at EXPO Demo Day.''  ANGEL ROUND Plug and Play makes angel round investments throughout the year, sourced from their monthly Plug and Play Angels (PAPA) sessions. They are partnered with local angel investors in Silicon Valley who participate in PAPA to find the most promising startups and best new technologies.  SERIES A. Series A typical Series A round is in the range of $2 million to $10 million, and is intended to provide operating capital for the company for six months to two years. This round capitalizes the company as it develops its products, performs initial marketing and branding, acquires talent, and conducts other early-stage business operations. It is in this stage that Plug and Play will co-invest with over 180 venture capital partners.  Plug and Play has helped grow market leaders such as PayPal, Danger, Google, DropBox, LendingClub, Zoosk, SoundHound, CreditSesame, Skytree, and has over 400 more early-stage startups in its portfolio.

Plug and Play

Point72 Ventures is a global venture capital firm that invests primarily in Fintech, AI/ML, and Enterprise technologies. As an independent arm of Point72, the global asset management firm led by Steven Cohen, Point72 Ventures offers well-informed insights into the global economy. Point72 Ventures has offices in New York City, Palo Alto, San Francisco, and Stamford, Connecticut.

Point72 Ventures

Reciprocal is an early-stage venture firm backing the future of web3.

Reciprocal Ventures

WorldQuant Ventures LLC is a leading early stage investment firm founded in 2014 as a private investment vehicle for WorldQuant, LLC's founder, Igor Tulchinsky. The firm is focused on disruptive companies in technology, with a particular focus on data and finance, and has investments in over 40 companies. WorldQuant Ventures LLC is a separate entity from WorldQuant, LLC, a global quantitative investment management firm. For more information, please visit www.worldquantventures.com and www.worldquant.com.

WorldQuant Ventures LLC

Los Angeles-based City National Bank offers a full complement of banking, trust and investment services through 71 offices, including 19 full-service regional centers, in Southern California, the San Francisco Bay Area, Nevada, New York City, Nashville, Atlanta, Minneapolis and Washington, D.C. Its more than 4,600 colleagues deliver highly personal service and complete financial solutions to entrepreneurs, professionals, their businesses and their families.

City National Bank

FinTech Collective is a global, early stage venture capital firm backing entrepreneurs who are rewiring the way money moves through the world. Founded in 2012 with offices in New York City and London, the firm has deep experience investing across capital markets, wealth and asset management, banking, lending, payments, insurance, and DeFi. The managing partners of FinTech Collective met in their mid 20’s and helped build, scale, and successfully exit four fintech businesses.  Backed by some of the world’s leading institutional investors, FinTech Collective manages close to $1b in regulatory assets. Over the last decade the firm has had 10 exits, taken one company from pitch deck to public markets and invested in 96 portfolio companies including well known firms such as Anyfin in Stockholm, Flutterwave in Lagos, IMMO in London, Minu in Mexico City, Mondu in Berlin, Simetrik in Columbia, and several important businesses in NYC including MoneyLion, NYDIG, Ocrolus, Quovo (acquired by Plaid) and Vestwell. The firm publishes a weekly newsletter, delivered every Saturday, which provides a tightly edited rundown of global fintech news, along with a bit of original analysis (available at fintech.io/newsletter).

FinTech Collective

Wells Fargo is a diversified financial services company with $1.3 trillion in assets, providing banking, insurance, investments, mortgage, and consumer finance through more than 10,000 stores, over 12,000 ATMs, and the internet across North America and internationally. Wells Fargo is an American multinational banking and financial services holding company with operations around the world. Wells Fargo is the fourth largest bank in the U.S. by assets and the largest bank by market capitalization. Wells Fargo is the second-largest bank in deposits, home mortgage servicing, and debit cards. In 2011, Wells Fargo was the 23rd largest company in the United States. Wells Fargo is headquartered in San Francisco, California, with ''hub quarters'' throughout the country. In 2007 it was the only bank in the United States to be rated AAA by S&P, though its rating has since been lowered to AA− in light of the financial crisis of 2007–2012. The firm's primary U.S. operating subsidiary is the national bank Wells Fargo Bank, N.A., which designates its main office as Sioux Falls, South Dakota. Wells Fargo in its present form is a result of a merger between San Francisco-based Wells Fargo & Company and Minneapolis-based Norwest Corporation in 1998 and the subsequent 2008 acquisition of Charlotte-based Wachovia. Following the mergers, the company transferred its headquarters to Wells Fargo's headquarters in San Francisco and merged its operating subsidiary with Wells Fargo's operating subsidiary in Sioux Falls. In 2012, Wells Fargo had more than 9,000 retail branches and over 12,000 automated teller machines in 39 states and the District of Columbia. A ''Big Four bank'', it has over 270,000 employees and over 70 million customers. As of July 12, 2013, Wells Fargo became the world's biggest bank by market capitalization, worth $236 billion.

Wells Fargo

American Express Ventures is American Express's strategic investment group. They invest in innovative startups in order to enhance American Express’s core capabilities and accelerate the company’s efforts in consumer commerce and B2B services.

American Express Ventures

March Capital is a venture growth firm headquartered in Santa Monica, California and investing globally since 2014. March identifies entrepreneurs with a provocative vision to companies poised, then dares to go all in by leading rounds with deep conviction and concentration risk. With $1B+ in capital over 4 funds and across 30 market technology companies, March accelerates the digital transformation of Cloud-based software, automation, AI, and IT infrastructure. Its vision is to create a technology investment platform by combining intense sector focus, patience, access to a network (including founding The Montgomery Summit), and portfolio engagement to inspire and accelerate extraordinary companies.

March Capital

B Capital Group backs brash entrepreneurs building technology companies. With offices in Los Angeles, San Francisco, and Singapore, B Capital Group focuses on pioneering start-ups that are ready to scale across the global stage. Partnering with Boston Consulting Group, and its incubation arm BCG Digital Ventures, B Capital delivers access to top corporations to match start-ups with the world's most powerful CEOs, platforms, and brands. B Capital Group's unique multinational presence, combined with deep industry expertise, has built a portfolio of B2B and B2B2C startups that are transforming large traditional industries across borders and geographies. It helps startups navigate business challenges, raise capital, and attract talented leadership at key points of their journeys to scale.

B Capital

At Pacific Western Bank, relationship banking is not the exception, but the rule. For more than two decades, Pacific Western Bank has helped to grow minded and established companies succeed by listening, asking thoughtful questions, and responding with tailored solutions. Pacific Western Bank is a commercial bank with over $26 billion in assets. Pacific Western provides commercial banking services, including real estate, construction, and commercial loans, to small and medium-sized businesses. The Bank has 74 full-service branches located throughout the state of California and one branch in Durham, North Carolina. Pacific Western Bank's Community Banking group provides lending and comprehensive deposit and treasury management services to small and medium-sized businesses conducted primarily through our California-based branch offices. Pacific Western Bank offers additional products and services through its National Lending and Venture Banking groups. National Lending provides asset-based, equipment, real estate, and security cash flow loans and treasury management services to established middle-market businesses on a national basis. Venture Banking offers a comprehensive suite of financial services focused on entrepreneurial businesses and their venture capital and private equity investors, with offices located in key innovative hubs across the United States.

Pacific Western Bank

Extend

Extend provides digital card solutions for businesses. Using their existing credit card, companies and innovators everywhere can now access the full power of virtual cards for their businesses, products, and clients. Extend offers several products, including a suite of aggregated virtual card APIs, a digital corporate card app, and an industry-first card tokenization service.

<div>Extend offers an infrastructure platform for financial institutions (FIs) and businesses to offer virtual payment cards through its virtual card APIs, digital corporate card app, and card tokenization service. The card solutions can primarily be used for enterprise vendor payments as well as employee expense management and reimbursements. In addition to issuing virtual cards, the platform also offers complementing budgeting and reporting solutions. Through its reporting solutions, the platform lets users integrate with third-party apps such as QuickBooks and Expensify as well as attach receipts and invoices to cards.</div>

Democratizing financial technology with a suite of API-based solutions

FinTech Infrastructure

<div>
 
 Extend offers an infrastructure platform for financial institutions (FIs) and businesses to offer virtual payment cards through its virtual card APIs, digital corporate card app, and card tokenization service. The card solutions can primarily be used for enterprise vendor payments as well as employee expense management and reimbursements. In addition to issuing virtual cards, the platform also offers complementing budgeting and reporting solutions. Through its reporting solutions, the platform lets users integrate with third-party apps such as QuickBooks and Expensify as well as attach receipts and invoices to cards.
 
 
 
 
 
 The company notably caters to incumbent businesses to help them better compete with FinTech startups. Accordingly, Extend enables its users to integrate the platform with existing infrastructure and products, rather than having to replace legacy systems altogether. It is an issuer-agnostic platform; therefore, enterprise customers do not have to switch banking partners to implement virtual card solutions. Moreover, the platform is integrated with major payment networks including Mastercard and Visa. 
 
 
 
 
 Extend also caters to non-bank industries like retail, legal services, construction, manufacturing, and media, among others. The company partnered with American Express (Amex) in September 2021 to enable &ldquo;millions&rdquo; of SMBs using Amex business cards to access virtual cards.
 
 
 
 
 By October 2021, Extend had more than 2,000 business customers, was reportedly growing at 30% month-over-month (MoM), and was processing a volume of nearly USD 2 billion (the company charges its customers basis points on the transactions processed). The company also raised USD 40 million in Series B funding led by March Capital, that same month. 
 
</div>

<div>
 
 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.
 
 
 
</div>

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

<div>
 
 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&rsquo;s &ldquo;Meta&rdquo; 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.&nbsp;
 
 
 
 Weavr expanded its operations to Singapore in November 2022, as part of its global expansion plans.&nbsp;
 
 
 
 
 Key customers and partnerships
 
 
 
 
 As of July 2021, Weavr&rsquo;s customers included Finway, Thanks Ben, and MySkillCamp, among others.&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.&nbsp;
 
 
 
 
 Funding and financials
 
 
 
 Weavr 
 <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&rsquo;s expansion to the US market, while also supporting its continued expansion in the UK and Europe. 
 
</div>

Weavr

<div>
 
 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. 
 
</div>

<div>
 
 Synapse offers a banking-as-a-service (BaaS) infrastructure primarily for banking and financial service providers. The infrastructure applies machine learning and automates repetitive back office tasks, covering a breadth of products, including deposit, lending, investment products, and payments platforms, among others. Its white-label infrastructure is available through application programming interfaces (APIs), allowing developers to launch customer-facing FinTech services.&nbsp;&nbsp;
 
 
 The company expanded its platform by launching the &ldquo;Credit Hub&rdquo; offering in August 2021, for financial institutions to help individuals build and access credit, and offer cards, credit building tools, lending accounts, and cashback rewards. Synapse claims its platform enables users to build FinTech solutions in six weeks, compared to the 18 months taken by typical alternatives. The Credit Hub was in private beta until August 2021, and in private beta it had issued around 1 million credit accounts and extended over USD 40 million in credit.&nbsp;
 
 
 In June 2019, the company claimed that its integrations allow developers and apps to reduce the incremental cost of operating financial products to zero, from around USD 130-USD 150.Synapse looks to broaden its global footprint by gradually entering Europe, Asia, Latin America, and Africa. As of June 2019, its operations were limited to the US; however, the company intended to begin its foreign expansion to Canada and Europe by initially launching payment, deposit, and debit card issuances, expanding to lending and investment products thereafter.
 
 
 In October 2023, Synapse 
 <a href="https://sp-edge.com/updates/22521">
 laid off nearly 40% of its workforce
 </a>
 due to worsening macroeconomic conditions having unfavorable impacts on business circumstances, clients, and platforms. In June 2020, the company laid off nearly half of its workforce across 11 departments owing to the Covid-19 pandemic. This was largely due to the pandemic having a negative impact on its customers, who primarily comprised early-stage startups.&nbsp;
 
 
 Key customers and partnerships
 
 
 In January 2022, Synapse 
 <a href="https://sp-edge.com/updates/7574">
 partnered with TrueAccord
 
 </a>
 to offer debt collection service infrastructure for its clients.
 
 
 Funding and financials
 
 
 In April 2020, the company&rsquo;s annual recurring revenue was estimated at around USD 20 million-USD 30 million and the company reportedly doubled its revenue in 2020 and saw a 150% revenue growth year-to-date July 2021. Notably, as of January 2021, Synapse had more than 7.8 million users and processed over USD 39 billion in transactions.
 
 
 &nbsp; 
 
</div>

Synapse

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

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


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