Mercato Partners is a minority growth investor. It seeks high-growth technology and consumer companies with $7 - $50M in annual revenues. These companies are no longer trying to simply prove if a product can work (venture), but are rather raising capital to accelerate marketing and sales efforts (growth).  Mercato traditionally writes $7 - $20M initial checks into companies with a predictable use of proceeds, an experienced management team, and healthy margins.  Mercato focuses its sourcing efforts on Southern California, Utah, Colorado, Idaho, Texas, and the Midwest.

Mercato Partners

Seven Peaks Ventures is an early-stage venture capital fund focused on data-driven enterprise software, digital health technologies, ML/AI, IoT, and cloud-based solutions. Seven Peaks Ventures is located in Oregon and was founded by Dino Vendetti in 2013.

Seven Peaks Ventures

At Commerce Ventures, they are building a new and different type of venture capital firm. Their investors are a unique and strategic blend of leading entrepreneurs, senior executives, and corporates from their focus sectors (mobile, retail/e-commerce, payments, fin-tech, insurance). In addition to providing capital, they are committed to helping their portfolio companies succeed in scaling their commerce-related innovations.

Commerce Ventures

University Growth Fund is the largest education-based private equity fund in the country, giving university students the opportunity to gain real-world experience as they invest alongside top tier investors in many of the best companies in the country.

University Growth Fund

Samsung NEXT Ventures is an investment arm of Samsung NEXT, a multifaceted innovation group within Samsung Electronics dedicated to identifying new growth opportunities that will define the next decade. The firm prefers to invest in artificial intelligence, fintech, blockchain, health technology, infrastructure, and media technology sectors.

Samsung NEXT

Kraken is a cryptocurrency exchange that provides spot and futures trading between Bitcoin, Ethereum, and 40+ other digital assets. Its mission is to accelerate the adoption of cryptocurrency so that you and the rest of the world can achieve financial freedom and inclusion. Founded in 2011 and with over 7 million clients, Kraken is one of the world's largest, most successful bitcoin exchanges and we're growing faster than ever. Kraken's range of successful products is playing an important role in the mainstream adoption of crypto assets. Kraken is a marketplace for digital assets where buyers, sellers, traders, and speculators come together to exchange cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin, Ethereum, Litecoin, and Ripple against national currencies like USD, EUR, CAD, and JPY. Clients trading larger sizes benefit from its principal Over-the-Counter (OTC) desk and white glove service. Advanced traders and technical analysis wizards can take advantage of the company's professional charting tools.  Software engineers, botters, and hobbyist automators have available both REST and Websocket APIs with which trades can be made and market information obtained.  Kraken provides 24/7 live chat support for any questions you have about getting started.

Kraken

Nationwide, a Fortune 100 company, is one of the largest and strongest diversified insurance and financial services organizations in the United States. Nationwide is rated A+ by both A.M. Best and Standard & Poor’s. Nationwide provides a full range of insurance and financial services products including auto, business, homeowners, farm and life insurance; public and private sector retirement plans, annuities and mutual funds; excess & surplus, specialty, and surety; pet, motorcycle, and boat insurance. The company was founded in 1925 and is based in Columbus, Ohio.

Nationwide

Diverse Angels is an angel group for current & aspiring investors from underrepresented and diverse backgrounds (People of Color, Women, LGBTQ+) to come together and share access to opportunities for ownership in early-stage tech companies. The mission to increase representation of diverse investors as a means to address the systemic wealth gaps, notably the racial wealth gap in the US. With a focus on bridging wealth gaps & disparities, Diverse Angels is a B-Corporation that is supported 100% by volunteers and charges no fees to the community though its 0/00 model.  This innovative 0/00 model (0% management fees are charged and 0% of carried interest - i.e. profit) was put into place to remove barriers and costs that could prevent diverse angels (especially first-timers) from participating in deals. The 0/00 model also ensures that the angels’ maximum amount of capital is deployed to allow for the maximum amount of upside. In search of the best founders, Diverse Angels leverages the size, strength, and diversity of its member base to maintain high standards of investment rigor. There are intentional efforts to source & meet founders from all backgrounds and it is a priority that the majority of Diverse Angels’ investments are made into Diverse Founders (People of Color, Women, LGBTQ+).

Diverse Angels

Nevcaut Ventures is a venture capital firm. The company partners with ambitious founders at the earliest stages to help build companies.

Nevcaut Ventures

Ayon Capital is a single-family office that manages a portfolio of companies and investments focused on healthcare and technology.  It was incorporated in 2009 and is based in Ocala, Florida.

Ayon Capital

s20 Capital is a financial advisory firm that serves the financial needs of clients.  The company is headquartered in Draper, Utah.

s20 Capital

SK Square is an investment company spun off from South Korean telecoms provider SK Telecom. SK Square plans to invest in promising future technologies such as AI, blockchain/digital asset, healthcare, media and other core tech companies.

SK Square Americas

FIS focuses on retail and institutional banking, payments, asset and wealth management, risk and compliance, and outsourcing solutions. FIS serves more than 20,000 clients in over 130 countries. Headquartered in Jacksonville, Florida, FIS employs more than 53,000 people worldwide. FIS is a Fortune 500 company and is a member of the Standard & Poor’s 500® Index.

William Blair provides investment banking, equity research, institutional and private brokerage, and asset management to individual, institutional, and issuing clients. Its services include portfolio management, sales and trading, investment banking services, mutual funds, and venture capital financing. It also provides private equity investments through its investment arm William Blair Capital Partners. William Blair was established in 1935 and is based in Chicago, Illinois with additional offices in London, San Francisco, California, Tokyo, Vaduz, and Zurich.

William Blair

Gaingels is a venture investment syndicate in service of the LGBT+ community and its allies, investing in companies with LGBT+ founders and C-suite leaders at all stages of growth, as well as in more established companies resolved on building more inclusive teams, with a global portfolio of 130+ companies and $70M in deployed investment capital to date.  The Gaingels network also actively supports its portfolio in identifying and recruiting diverse talent to their C-suite and board leadership teams and fosters a vibrant global community of industry leaders, investors, operators, and entrepreneurs who share a common goal for positive social change through business and successful investments.

Gaingels

FIN Capital is a women's angel investment network in Iowa. The firm is an initiative of the Iowa Center for Economic Success.

FIN Capital

GateCap Ventures investing in early-stage companies building the infrastructure for the digitization of traditional financial assets. The firm draws on a 20+ year history of managing and advising multi-billion dollar private equity portfolios for large institutional investors. It was founded in 1998.

GateCap Ventures

Kraken Ventures invests in businesses and projects at the nexus of both the fintech and blockchain/crypto revolutions. The company provides a combination of the two by being a completely autonomous fund backed by Kraken's resources and expertise. Kraken Ventures invests in financial infrastructure, Web3, digital economies, consumer crypto protocols, and enabling technologies such as artificial intelligence and machine learning.

Kraken Ventures

Decasonic is the venture and digital assets fund building blockchain innovation.

Decasonic

Collaborative venture capital to accelerate disruptive technological innovation in AI, data, analytics, fintech, ad tech, DevOps, mobility, aerospace, and infrastructure. They have worked with and invested in visionaries, category killers, disruptors, and inventive leaders. They collaborate with businesses that are disrupting big industries. Help them expand and hyper-accelerate by using a collective ''operators for operators'' approach to scaling.

Trajectory Ventures

Prime Trust

The Future of Life Institute (FLI) is a nonprofit working to extreme risks from transformative technologies, as well as steer the development and use of these technologies to benefit life. FLI has tended to focus on the risks and opportunities from artificial intelligence in recent years, but also works in the biotechnology, nuclear and climate change spaces.  The Institute's work primarily consists of grantmaking for risk reduction, educational outreach, and policy advocacy within the United States, European Union and United States. FLI has become one of the world's leading voices on the governance of AI having created one of the earliest and most influential sets of governance principles: the Asilomar AI Principles.

Prime Trust was founded in 2016 on the belief that the future of finance is digital. Through a full suite of APIs, we help financial institutions and fintech companies build seamlessly, launch quickly, and scale securely. As an independent, regulated trust company, we work with clients such as crypto exchanges and payment platforms, who rely on our trusted, secure ecosystem and institutional grade blockchain technology. Prime Trust solutions are at the center of a quickly-evolving crypto industry, providing the infrastructure that merges digital assets with traditional finance. For fintech businesses in the US and around the world, Prime Trust makes it possible to securely and compliantly access the digital economy. The company is recognized by Forbes as America’s Best Startup Employer 2022 and is also Great Place to Work-Certified™ 2022. Prime Trust has also been named to CB Insights Blockchain 50 for 2022.  Visit us at www.primetrust.com and connect with us on LinkedIn, Twitter, and Facebook.

<div>Prime Trust offers a diversified infrastructure platform offering solutions across payments, settlement, open banking, card management, and fraud prevention (through know-your-customer). The platform is capable of handling crypto and fiat currencies, and its API and plug-and-play widgets cater to a range of enterprises, including crypto exchanges, digital wallets, broker dealers, and banks, among others. </div>

Democratizing financial technology with a suite of API-based solutions

FinTech Infrastructure

<div>
 
 Prime Trust offers a diversified infrastructure platform offering solutions across payments, settlement, open banking, card management, and fraud prevention (through know-your-customer). The platform is capable of handling crypto and fiat currencies, and its API and plug-and-play widgets cater to a range of enterprises, including crypto exchanges, digital wallets, broker dealers, and banks, among others. 
 
 
 
 
 Prime Trust’s payment infrastructure enables automated clearing house (ACH), single Euro payment area (SEPA), and SWIFT wire transfers, and can handle six different global fiat currencies. It can also handle card processing in 165 currencies natively, and also lets end users convert the funds to USD upon deposit. The platform can also support transactions through a range of digital assets, including Bitcoin, Ethereum, and Stellar, among others. The company also offers a white-label debit card program for institutional clients, which are compatible with most digital wallets (including Apple Pay and Google Pay).
 
 
 
 
 Funding and financials
 
 
 
 
 The company’s annual revenue run rate (ARR) reportedly exceeded USD 100 million in July 2021 and that its platform handled around 250 million API calls per month from over 500 customers. It also noted that revenue doubled annually over 2017-20. 
 
 
 
 Prime Trust appointed former Visa and Green Dot executive, Mike Smith, as its Chief Operating Officer (COO) in June 2021. The company 
 <a href="https://sp-edge.com/updates/11254?industryIds=53">
 raised USD 100 million in Series B funding
 </a>
 in June 2022, almost a year after raising USD 64 million in Series A funding. The newly raised funds were primarily earmarked for new product launches, such as the Crypto Individual Retirement Accounts (IRA), wealth, and staking products. It will also be used to support tokenized products and migrate to a cloud architecture. 
 
</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.
 
 
 In 
 <a href="https://sp-edge.com/updates/28683">
 April 2024
 </a>
 , Tabapay acquired the assets and affiliates of Synapse, for an undisclosed sum, following the filing of a voluntary bankruptcy petition under Chapter 11 by Synapse. Through this acquisition, TabaPay planned to leverage Synapse's assets and technologies to broaden its financial services offerings, while Synapse will continue to operate independently.
 
 
 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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