Opera Tech Ventures

Democratizing financial technology with a suite of API-based solutions

FinTech Infrastructure

UK-based Token offers the “TokenOS” open-banking platform that allows enterprises to accept bank payments directly in place of traditional payment methods which are typically slower and costlier. TokenOS connects merchants, payment service providers (PSPs), and banks to over 567 million bank accounts in 16 European countries (as of June 2023).In addition to facilitating payments, the platform also aggregates customer transaction data to provide insights and enable enterprises to offer value-added services to their users. The company has offices in San Francisco and Berlin (its EU headquarters).Token is a Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) authorized payment initiation and account information service provider—and the first provider to conduct an end-to-end payment through a Payment Services Directive (PSD2) compliant bank API. In April 2021, Token was granted official authorization by the German Federal Financial Supervisory Authority, BaFin, to function as a licensed Payment Initiation Services Provider (PISP) and Account Information Services Provider (AISP) in Germany. As of October 2023, the platform had expanded its direct open banking services and payments network across <a href="https://sp-edge.com/updates/22882">Scandinavia </a>and offered account information services (AIS) and payment initiation services (PIS) in Sweden, Norway, Denmark, and Finland. In January 2024, the platform joined the <a href="https://sp-edge.com/updates/25924">SEPA Payment Account Access Scheme (SPAA) </a>, led by the European Payments Council, to enhance open banking monetization capabilities.Key customers and partnershipsToken’s customers included large global enterprises including BNP Paribas, and HSBC.In February 2019, Token was selected by Mastercard to power the latter’s “open banking hub”, which connects enterprises with financial institutions in Europe to facilitate payments. Token was also chosen by cross-border payment infrastructure platform <a href="https://sp-edge.com/companies/416392">Flutterwave </a>in June 2023, to power its “Pay by Bank” transfer capabilities. Later that year, Token <a href="https://sp-edge.com/updates/21236">partnered with EchoPay </a>in August, to enable wholesalers in the UK to accept A2A payments.Funding and financialsToken noted that its payment volumes more than doubled every month from March 2020 to January 2021. In May 2022, the company was reportedly seeing a volume growth of 10–20% month-over-month in the UK, and Token accounted for around 21% of all account-to-account payments in the country.Token raised <a href="https://sp-edge.com/updates/10390">USD 40 million </a>in Series C funding, co-led by Cota Capital and TempoCap, in May 2022, to invest in expanding open banking connectivity across Europe and to introduce APIs for variable recurring payments and open finance applications.

Alviere offers the infrastructure platform “The HIVE” for non-banking enterprises to embed several banking and payment-related financial services for their respective customers and employees. Its banking solutions include white-label infrastructure for enterprises to offer Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC)-insured bank accounts, with in-built compliance and security, and issue physical and virtual cards (debit, prepaid, and loyalty). Through its payment solutions, The HIVE enables subscription and real-time payments through means including automated clearing house (ACH), merchant card processing, and cross-border transactions in over 100 currencies. Alviere follows a pay-per-use business model, charging users an interchange fee based on the transactions handled by the platform. The company offers its services in North America primarily targeting large enterprises such as the Fortune 500 companies. It noted that it had closed deals with two unnamed enterprise users (in October 2021), each having more than 10 million subscribers/customers. Alviere partnered with the cross-border payment solution provider Currencycloud in April 2021 to provide Alviere’s enterprise clients with the functionality of Currencycloud’s Spark solution (a multi-currency e-wallet with individual International Bank Account Numbers [IBANs]). The company raised USD 50 million in Series B funding in October 2021, six months after it raised USD 20 million in Series A funding. The last raised funds were earmarked for accelerating go-to-market activities and expanding operations to Europe and Latin America.

New technology allows individuals and organizations to become carbon intelligent

Carbon Management Software

Germany-based Plan A offers SaaS-based instant carbon offsetting solutions for businesses. Plan A estimates the carbon footprint of a business based on three categories namely, energy consumption, transport behavior, and office maintenance. Plan A uses the national emission factor for each category as a basis for calculation along with user-generated data about the level or scale of business activities. After estimating the carbon footprint of a business, Plan A provides action plans along with certified carbon offsetting opportunities. Carbon offsetting projects funded by Plan A include reforestation, waste to energy, and clean water filters.Key customers and partnershipsIn May 2021, Plan A partnered with Societe Generale, a French financial services provider, to minimize the climate impact of the banker. In July 2023, the company entered into a long-term partnership with <a href="https://sp-edge.com/updates/20045">Alphabet</a>, the leasing and mobility provider of the BMW Group, to provide fleet managers with software tools to measure and report their CO2 emissions.As of March 2024, Plan A’s geographical footprint spanned across Germany, France and the UK, and its clients included Chloé, BMW, Deutsche Bank, Visa, GANNI, N26, HomeToGo, trivago, Personio, Sorare, KFC, and DFB among its customers.Funding and financialsThe company’s most recent funding round was in <a href="https://sp-edge.com/updates/22011">September 2023,</a> when it raised USD 27 million to conclude the Series A round led by Lightspeed Venture Partners, to expand its employee base and reach new markets in France, UK, and Scandinavia. Prior to that, in November 2021, the company raised USD 10 million in a Series A funding round led by HV Capital and Keen Venture Partners.

The latest line of defense against rising cyber attacks

Cyber Insurance

Paris-based Stoïk provides security software and cyber insurance solutions. The latter includes cyber insurance policies to cover cyber attack-related incidents such as ransomware attacks, cyber fraud, data breaches, network overhaul, and even civil liability costs.Stoïk offers cyber insurance policies with a maximum coverage limit of up to EUR 1 million (USD 1.15 million) for companies with less than EUR 50 million (USD 57 million) in revenue.Stoïk’s insurance policies are complemented by its cybersecurity platform that is offered for no extra charge and carries out a weekly scan on the client networks and alerts for any vulnerabilities. At the point of signup, Stoïk allows potential clients to do a free external scan and obtain a report on vulnerabilities or misconfigurations. The company also provides 24/7 support in the event of a cyber attack through its dedicated team.Key customers and partnershipsThe company had inked partnerships with insurance companies to design the insurance products and had future plans to expand its monitoring service as of the same date.Stoïk had 200 active brokers on its platform as of June 2022, and expects this to grow to 1,000 by the end of 2022.Funding and financialsAs of January 2022, the company was in the pre-launch phase with contracts that ranged from EUR 50 to EUR 400 per month.The company increased its employee headcount from 12 to 28 over H1 2022, and expects this to double over 2023 across its sales, cyber, marketing, and product departments.In June 2022, the company <a href="https://sp-edge.com/updates/11366">raised EUR 11 million </a>(USD 11.5 million) in a Series A funding round led by Andreessen Horowitz (a16z), bringing the total funding raised to EUR 15 million (USD 15.7 million). The funds were expected to be utilized to grow its team in order to accelerate product development in France and expand into new markets across Europe.

Buy Now, Pay Later

Hokodo is a UK-based BNPL service provider offering real-time credit to B2B merchants. As of June 2021, Hokodo’s service was available in Germany, Spain, Belgium, and the Netherlands. The platform integrates with existing e-commerce platforms through APIs for merchants to provide credit terms at the point of sale. The company uses its in-house credit scoring algorithm, HokoScore, to onboard buyers and approve credit. Hokodo claims that its service has increased its customer’s sales conversions by 40% through lower abandoned carts and higher basket values.Furthermore, Hokodo provides invoice protection (launched in 2018) to merchants for protection against credit risk. The merchant has the option to subscribe for invoice protection but can also choose to be paid immediately after the goods are delivered to the customers. For this service, Hokodo charges between 0.25% to 1.5% of the overall invoice value.In June 2023, Hokodo acquired an <a href="https://sp-edge.com/updates/19242">undisclosed Lithuanian payments business </a>, for an undisclosed sum, and gained access to a European payments license. The company planned to utilize the licenses to offer a broader range of payment solutions for merchants, marketplaces, and other suppliers across Europe. It planned to set up operations in Lithuania and recruit about 30 employees over the next three years.Key customers and partnershipsHokodo partnered with Mangopay, a payment infrastructure provider for platforms and marketplaces, to support platform specific payment upscaling capabilities in May 2023. In April 2023, Hokodo partnered with Citi to facilitate payments for Covento, a renewable energy marketplace. Through this partnership, Hokodo planned to provide Covento’s customers with API integrated customer registration, instant credit scoring and limits setting, automated assessment and processing to allow trade credit in under 24 hours, and flexible deferred payment options through Hokodo's B2B BNPL offering. In <a href="https://sp-edge.com/updates/17086">March 2023 </a>, Hokodo partnered with BNP Paribas to provide multinational corporations with BNPL solutions for their customers. Previously, in January 2023, the company partnered with Lemonway to help European B2B marketplaces offer trade credit online. Since 2019, Hokodo has signed product partnerships with Countingup (a UK-based small business banking app), Tide (UK-based business banking platform), Centrifuge (a decentralized finance platform), Shine (French fintech startup), Futrli (a cash flow forecasting software), and ShelfNow (an online trading platform).As of June 2021, the platform reported more than 10,000 buyers using its service with more than 20 merchants, including YardLink (plant equipment hiring platform), Rooster (online seafood marketplace), Graindex (online grain marketplace), and Ankorstore (retail marketplace).Funding and financials<a href="https://sp-edge.com/updates/17871">In April 2023 </a>, Hokodo raised an undisclosed sum of funding in a Series B extension round led by Citi. The company planned to utilize the funds to support its geographical expansion plans. This followed its initial Series B round in <a href="https://sp-edge.com/updates/11289">June 2022 </a>, when it raised USD 40 million.Key competitors: None comparable (Hokodo has a unique operational presence at the early stage in the B2B segment)

Making banking work, without the paperwork

Neobanks

Chime provides banking services to its customers via a web portal and a mobile app. The company provides no-fee mobile banking solutions, and offers savings accounts, checking accounts, and debit cards (with ATM access) to its customers. The company does not provide loans and does not charge monthly, foreign exchange, or overdraft fees (for transactions up to USD 200), and therefore primarily generates its revenue from interchange and ATM fees. The company claims that accounts can be created in as little as two minutes, and uses video identification to verify an individual’s identity. The company does not impose minimum balance requirements and mainly focuses on serving individuals who earn between USD 30,000-75,000 per year.In June 2020, the company entered the credit card space by launching ‘CreditBuilder’. Despite being introduced as a credit card, the card has similar functionality to a debit card, which allows users to transfer funds from their checking accounts, and spend up to the transferred amount where Visa is accepted, reducing the tendency to overspend. At month’s end, CreditBuilder automatically pays off the credit card balance using the transferred funds and reports the payment to credit bureaus. The CreditBuilder card is primarily targeted at millennials and Gen Z customers, to aid in developing and building up their credit history.Key customers and partnershipsChime stands as the largest Neobank in the digital banking space in the US, with 12 million customers (reported as of February 2021). The company does not own its own banking license and provides its services under the licenses of Bancorp Bank and Stride Bank.Funding and financialsIn September 2020, the company raised USD 533.8 million in Series F funding backed by multiple investors such as Tiger, ICONIQ, and General Atlantic. In August 2021, the company raised a further USD 750 million, led by Sequoia Capital Global Equities, at a valuation of USD 25 billion. The funding is expected to be used to scale operations and expand its business reach. The latest round of funding is also expected to set the stage for a potential IPO in the future.In January 2022, Reuters reported that Chime was to go public led by investment bank Goldman Sachs. Reports say that the company could aim for a valuation of almost USD 40 billion, which could be launched as early as Spring 2022. However, the company paused its IPO aspirations following the downturn in the IPO market.The company claims that revenue and transaction volumes witnessed threefold growth between January and September 2020, owing to the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic. Over the same period, the company also stated that it was able to become profitable on an EBITDA basis.

Information to create a more efficient, cleaner and safer way to travel in the city of the future

Smart Mobility Information

<div>
 
 Based in France, Instant System develops mobility-as-a-service (MaaS) solutions in collaboration with public authorities and businesses.&nbsp;
 
 
 Its products come as an entire package, can be custom-built with features required by cities, and integrated with the existing tools.&nbsp;
 
 
 Instant System provides transport planning solutions for commuters as a mobile app and a website, which includes various features such as: 1) Around Me, a quick glimpse of all the mobility options in the vicinity; 2) Timetables, real-time and predictive timetables to keep users informed; 3) Journey Planner, which displays multimodal and intermodal routes with time, tariffs, transfers, and C02 emission information and predictive journeys upon the user&rsquo;s requirement; 4) Ticketing Integration, seamless purchase of public transport tickets, payment of on-demand transport, or unlocking active mobility modes; and 5) The Rocket, a one-window view of all the transportation and mobility services available, including the ability to book, unlock, and activate them.&nbsp;
 
 
 For transport authorities, the firm provides a management platform to run all back-office functions as a part of its MaaS solutions. It enables cities to understand mobility flows, manage users, test roads, oversee transportation lines, share important announcements, and organize finances.&nbsp;
 
 
 For businesses, the firm provides &ldquo;Emy,&rdquo; a transport app integrated with a virtual travel card, allowing employees contactless access to multiple modes of transport. Furthermore, the company offers a business solution designed to manage employees&rsquo; transport packages with ease and sustainably.&nbsp;
 
 
 
 
 
 Key partnerships and customers
 
 
 Instant System has collaborations with transport operators, mobility service providers, industry peers, and research institutions. The company has partnered with transport operators like RAPT Dev to launch the TAC Mobilities mobile app, Keolis since 2016, and mobile service providers such as Dott, Tier, and Voi. As of September 2023, the company served 80 locations across Europe, North America, and Africa.&nbsp;
 
 
 
 
 
 Funding and financials
 
 
 In March 2021, Instant System raised EUR 8 million (~USD 8.52 million) to further develop its technology and accelerate its global expansion.
 
</div>

Climate Risk Analytics

<div>
 
 Arbol is a parametric insurance platform focusing on weather risk. Insurance premiums are decided based on the location and weather parameters such as rain, wind, and water. The company&rsquo;s marketplace leverages blockchain and smart contracts to maintain minimum operational costs by creating automated contracts.&nbsp;
 
 
 Arbols&rsquo; platform&rsquo;s core focus involves agricultural weather risk transfer deals. The company also had plans to expand into new markets by offering parametric insurance products across the energy, leisure, maritime, and other industries. The company has secured a risk capacity of USD 1 billion to scale up its parametric product offerings.&nbsp;
 
 
 In April 2024, the company launched 
 <a href="https://sp-edge.com/updates/28756">
 Lilypad Insurance
 </a>
 , a new entity to cater to the insurance needs of homeowners and property owners located in coastal areas. The new company also plans to acquire Centauri Specialty Insurance Company and Centauri National Insurance Company.
 
 
 Key customers and partnerships
 
 
 
 In April 2020, Arbol acquired eWeatherRisk, a provider of weather risk transfer and weather hedging solutions, to utilize the latter&rsquo;s solutions across Arbol&rsquo;s weather risk platform. In October 2020, Arbol partnered with Global Parametrics, a risk management solutions provider, and Hannover Re, a reinsurance provider, to deploy a weather risk insurance pilot scheme, by utilizing Arbol&rsquo;s technology. In January 2021, Arbol joined forces with Chainlink, a decentralized oracle network provider, to allow businesses and farmers to hedge weather risks through Arbol&rsquo;s smart contracts on the Ethereum blockchain by integrating Chainlink&rsquo;s data feeds. The company reportedly had 700+ institutional clients as of November 2022.
 
 
 Funding and financials
 
 
 The company&rsquo;s most recent funding was in April 2024, when it raised 
 <a href="https://sp-edge.com/updates/28974">
 USD 60 million
 </a>
 in a Series A funding round co-led by Giant Ventures and Opera Tech Ventures. 
 In January 2021, Arbol raised USD 7 million in a Series A funding round led by Mubadala Capital Ventures. The funds raised were utilized to scale up the geographical footprint of the Arbol platform.&nbsp;
 
 
 
</div>

Simplifying the insurance experience for businesses using technology

Commercial InsurTech

<div>
 
 Insify, based in the Netherlands, develops and provides business insurance products and scalable business insurance solutions for SMEs. Backed by Munich Re, Insify caters to Europe’s SMBs in the ecommerce, leisure, construction, and IT sectors, offering them direct subscription-based property and casualty insurance. It is also looking to introduce life insurance. Its end-to-end automated digital insurance solution is available across direct channels, embedded channels, and brokers. The embedded channel, which embeds Insify’s insurance products in other products, supports entrepreneurs with simple and fair coverage, enabling them to increase revenue and optimize on CRM. 
 
</div>

Arbol is launching an insurance marketplace that connects weather exposed agricultural entities with capital providers like insurers and asset managers. Arbol’s parametric insurance platform removes information asymmetry and reduces administrative costs by leveraging objective data from satellites and weather stations.

Stoïk provides insurance and security to free your business from cyber-risk

Plan A is Europe’s leading corporate carbon accounting, decarbonization, and ESG reporting software provider. The Greentech has developed a SaaS platform that combines cutting-edge technologies with the latest scientific standards and methodologies. The end-to-end software solution enables businesses to self-manage their entire net-zero journey – from data collection over emissions calculation, target setting, and decarbonization planning to non-financial reporting – in one central hub.

Insify is an insurance company that offers digital insurance solutions to freelancers and small businesses. The company was founded in 2020 by Koen Thijssen and is headquartered in Amsterdam, Netherlands.

SESAMm is a fintech company that specializes in big data and artificial intelligence for investment. Its team builds analytics and investment signals by analyzing billions of web articles and messages using natural language processing and machine learning.  With its NLP platform TextReveal and its quantitative data science platform SignalReveal, SESAMm addresses the entire value chain of alpha research.  SESAMm’s 90 people team in Paris, New York, Tokyo, Tunis, UK, and Metz, works with major hedge funds, banks, and asset management clients around the world for both fundamental and quantitative use cases.

Hokodo is a pan-European provider of B2B Buy Now, Pay Later solutions enabling businesses to buy, sell and do more. The company's easy-to-integrate digital platform streamlines the entire order-to-cash process, allowing merchants to make credit decisions in real-time, be protected against bad debt, and get access to working capital finance options. Hokodo was founded in 2018 and is based in London, England.

Powered by open banking, Token.io’s A2A payment infrastructure enables payment providers to launch their own ‘Pay by Bank’ solution across Europe, maximising acceptance while delivering lower processing costs and better payment experiences for merchants.  Standout features of Token.io’s solution include the deepest and highest performing direct connectivity to over 80% of bank accounts in each of its 20 supported markets, conversion-boosting payment flows, and flexible licensing and settlement options to help PSPs launch and grow faster with Pay by Bank. The ability to whitelabel Token.io’s entire platform also empowers banks and other payment providers to create and grow their own ready-to-market A2A payment product with support for omnichannel use cases.  Token.io’s is proven by a blue chip base of partners including HSBC, Mastercard, BNP Paribas, ACI Worldwide, Global Payments, Computop, Flutterwave, Nuvei and Paysafe.

Kayrros is the leading advanced data analytics company that helps global energy market players make better investment decisions. Kayrros experts extract value from the integration of alternative and market data into unique product offerings across the energy chain. With more than 100 employees representing over 15 nationalities working from headquarters in Paris and offices in Houston, London, New York and Singapore, Kayrros delivers actionable information in near real-time using cutting-edge technologies. Kayrros solutions are rapidly scalable and continually expanded to new geographies and new sources of data that help provide greater transparency into energy markets worldwide.

Rewire is a fintech startup that develops cross-border online banking solutions to provide the accessibility of financial services to migrants. The company's customer base includes migrated immigrants from Europe from over 20 countries in Asia and Africa such as the Philippines, Nigeria, India, Thailand, and China. With the help of technology, strategic partnerships, and values of equality, inclusivity, and social good, Rewire is able to provide financial services to make immigrants feel at home by integrating banking services into its platform and provide global accounts to its customers. To boost its cross-border solution, besides offering remittance services, payment accounts, and debit cards, Rewire plans to add new value-added services to its platforms such as bill payments and insurance, in addition to credit and loan services, investments, and savings. With these services, Rewire is able to make its first-rate financial services more accessible to migrants and, thus, include them in the financial systems. Investors OurCrowd, Renegade Partners, Glilot Capital Partners, AME Cloud Ventures, Viola Fintech, BNP Paribas, and Moneta Capital backs the fintech startup. Rewire was founded by Guy Kashtan, Saar Yahalom, Adi Ben Dayan, and Or Benoz in Tel Aviv, Tel Aviv in 2015.

Alviere is a finance platform that provides embedded financial products and technology to its customers. It streamlines and automates the delivery of financial products like banking, mobile payments, card issuance, payment processing, and cross-border currency exchange, enabling its clients to strengthen customer relationships, increase revenue and maximize profits.

Instant System offers transportation authorities modular and scalable passenger information apps, ticketing integrations, and MaaS solutions to help them meet the daily mobility needs of their cities. They are to simplify urban mobility through the use of a MaaS platform managed by public authorities and transportation providers. They integrate all mobility options available in the territory public transportation, bike sharing, car sharing, carpooling, ride-hailing, parking, and so on.

Fintech created in 2016, Sis ID assists major companies in the fight against bank transfer fraud.

Tink is a cloud-based open banking platform that provides the infrastructure and value-adding data products that are enabling the future of financial services.  Tink offers products such as account aggregation, payment initiation, data enrichment, and personal finance management that can be used to develop standalone services or be integrated into existing banking applications. Its partners include ABN AMRO, BNP Paribas Fortis, Nordea, Klarna, and SEB. Tink was founded in 2012 and is based in Stockholm, Sweden.

Chime is a mobile banking and finance platform. Their platform sets aside a pre-determined amount of money in savings after a transaction, and the company earns revenue from transaction fees paid by the merchant, aligning company incentives, enabling users to avoid fees, save money, and lead healthier financial lives.

Opera Tech Ventures is a corporate venture capital firm that invests in outstanding entrepreneurs and provides them with industry support.

Opera Tech Ventures

Company Brief

Portfolio

About EDGE

Contact Us

Resources

Area of Focus

Technology Research Made Effortless