Madrona Venture Group is a Seattle-based venture capital firm. The firm prefers to invest in businesses that are involved in information technology, e-commerce, digital media, advertising, software, gaming, data, analytics, mobile, and infrastructure.

Madrona

Founded in 2007, the Oregon Venture Fund is the largest and most active venture fund focused on supporting startups and growth companies with a presence in Oregon and SW Washington. The fund has invested over $120 million and is backed by the leaders of Oregon’s business, technology, and entrepreneurial communities. Consistently one of the top performing venture funds in North America, OVF invests $15 million annually in the most promising startups and growth companies in Oregon and SW Washington. Over 4,200 jobs have been created by the 75 companies in the portfolio. OVF’s largest investors include the State of Oregon, Oregon Community Foundation, and Meyer Memorial Trust. OVF invests $500K to $3M per round and can allocate up to $10M for each portfolio company. The fund is stage and sector agnostic.

Oregon Venture Fund

MuckerLab is a venture capital firm specializing in incubation, pre-seed, seed, startup, early-stage, and Series A investments. It targets investing in Internet software, services, and media ventures. It also prefers to invest in Enterprise, fintech, B2B and Consumer Products.  MuckerLab seeks to invest in Los Angeles and broader Southern California. It typically invests between $0.25 million and $1 million per deal. It runs an accelerator program.  The duration of the program can be as short as 3 months to as long as 24 months. It invests between $21,000 to $150,000 in exchange for a 7% to 12% equity stake.  Erik Rannala and William Hsu founded MuckerLab in October 2011. It has its headquarters in Santa Monica in California.

Mucker Capital

The R-Group

Carnegie Mellon Alumni investing in Carnegie Mellon Founders

99 Tartans

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

Revolution Ventures focuses on early-stage venture capital investments in technology-enabled businesses that disrupt existing, multi-billion dollar industries. They seek opportunities where we have confidence in the entrepreneur, are excited by the business concept, and believe there is an attractive investment opportunity.

Revolution Ventures

Sila

Sila is the leading money API for fintech. Using our developer-friendly sandbox, bank agency, and embedded compliance, our fintech and crypto customers have gone from MSA signing to live in production with compliant payments in as little as a few weeks. Our money API includes solutions for immediate funds availability risk-free to our customers, even in the most pervasive fraud environments. Our core strength is innovating on top of ACH, the backbone of the US payment system. Harness its power. Make everything else better.

Sila offers an application programming interface (API) and system development kit (SDK) for enterprises to embed banking services in their apps. Sila users can allow their customers to store and transfer money with full US regulatory compliance between bank accounts, crypto, and digital wallets from within the app. Software teams can also add identity and know-your-customer (KYC) verification functions to their apps using Sila’s API. As of January 2021, Sila supported 9,600 banks on its platform.

Democratizing financial technology with a suite of API-based solutions

FinTech Infrastructure

Sila Closes $375M Series G Round

Sila offers an application programming interface (API) and system development kit (SDK) for enterprises to embed banking services in their apps. Sila users can allow their customers to store and transfer money with full US regulatory compliance between bank accounts, crypto, and digital wallets from within the app. Software teams can also add identity and know-your-customer (KYC) verification functions to their apps using Sila’s API. As of January 2021, Sila supported 9,600 banks on its platform.The Sila platform is built on top of the Ethereum blockchain to automatically create smart contracts to quickly deploy applications. Customers range from large enterprises to startups across various industries, including finance, insurance, and real estate. The company claims its platform enables users to set up banking processes in around two months. Moreover, the platform is integrated with multiple FinTech platforms, including Plaid, Alloy, Lithic, and Arcus, to move funds.Key customers and partnershipsIn October 2023, Sila <a href="https://sp-edge.com/updates/22641">partnered with Fortress Trust </a>, a diverse infrastructure provider on compliance, security, and custodial services, to offer integrated payment solutions, compliance expertise, custodial services, and payment development tools. In November 2022, <a href="https://sp-edge.com/updates/14497">Sila partnered </a>with <a href="https://sp-edge.com/companies/37235">MX </a>, an open banking infrastructure provider, to integrate “MXapi Processor Tokens” with Sila. The partnership enables Sila customers to automate the bank account (and account data) verification process for fraud mitigation and balance checks.Funding and financialsThe company noted that its revenue rose 10x YoY over the 12 months ending July 2021, and the number of end users utilizing the platform rose 500% over the preceding seven months. Sila further noted that in Q1 2021, the volume of transactions processed quadrupled and its headcount doubled.Sila raised USD 13 million in Series A funding in July 2021, led by Revolution Ventures, to invest in recruitment, adding partners, and expanding product features. Shortly after the funding, the company appointed Rick Holt as its first Chief Revenue Officer (CRO), to build cohesion in revenue-related functions (such as sales, marketing, and customer experience).

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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Alpaca, a stock trading API provider, partners with SBI Group to support its business expansion and help financial institutions with US securities trade execution in Asia.
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Alpaca raised $15 million in financing from SBI Group, increasing its total funding to $120 million.
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The company plans to use the funds to pursue growth and introduce innovative products in Asia, with support from SBI Group.
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</div> Analyst QuickTake: Within the Investment and financial management services space, Alpaca’s USD 15 million convertible note financing follows Upvest’s <a href="https://sp-edge.com/updates/22640"> EUR 30 million </a> (~USD 31.9 million) raised yesterday, which was also earmarked to support regional expansion plans and expand product offerings.

Sila

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