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

Wayra is a globally connected and technological open innovation hub in the world.  We currently operate in  10  countries: Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Germany, Mexico, Peru, Spain, the United Kingdom, and Venezuela. Through Telefónica our global presence allows us to be at the helm of innovation, shoulder to shoulder with driven entrepreneurs and in a position to engage the right partners and leaders of industries for business. Our mission is clear, to connect innovators with Telefónica and generate joint business opportunities. We are the interface between Telefónica and entrepreneurial ecosystems across the globe because innovation makes good business sense.

Wayra

Zone2boost is an Open Innovation Program created by a consortium of companies: CaixaBank, Global Payments and Ingenico. We want to help entrepreneurs connect with the market through joint business opportunities. Our greatest resource; the clients and the globality of the founding partners. As part of the collaboration, the entrepreneurs who participate in this initiative will have the opportunity to have access to our network of clients.

Zone2boost

Rocket Internet incubates, builds, develops operationally and strategically invests in internet and technology companies globally. It provides operational support to its companies and helps them scale internationally. Rocket Internet's selected companies are active in a large number of countries around the world.

Rocket Internet

Itnig is a group of tech companies, an early-stage investment fund, a coworking space, and a niche media outlet aiming at building and helping others build scalable products and services.  Check out our startups: Camaloon.com Getquipu.com Factorialhr.com

Itnig

Lanai Partners is an angel group that invests in digital startups in Spain. The company partners with business leaders that specialize in different areas of expertise to analyze all type of industries and create the maximum value their investments. Lanai Partners was founded in 2016 and is based in Barcelona, Catalonia, Spain.

Lanai Partners

Financiere Saint James is the Family Office of Michaël Benabou, vente-privée.com's co-founder. We invest in digital startups bringing disruptive services to the market. Financiere Saint James invested in companies such  Welcome to the Jungle, Glovo, Alma, WeMaintain, Spendesk. Financiere Saint James also invests in PE/VC funds.

Financiere Saint James

Abac Nest is a venture capital vehicle investing in seed-stage companies in Spain.

Abac Nest

Flash Ventures is a pre-seed investor that provides pre-seed capital to talented founders, supporting them to build game-changing businesses. Flash Ventures is headquartered in Berlin, Germany.

Flash Ventures

Y Combinator is a startup accelerator that provides funding and mentorship to early-stage companies. It offers a program where startups receive guidance from experienced entrepreneurs and investors. The organization helps founders in their business models and develop their products. Y Combinator serves industries such as technology, healthcare, and finance.

Y Combinator

Eight Capital to invest in distressed and special situation opportunities in India.

Eight Capital

Bossa Invest manages investment portfolios and provides asset management services to clients. It analyzes market trends to inform investment decisions. Bossa Invest serves multiple sectors, including finance, technology, and real estate.

Bossa Invest

Seaya is a leading European Venture Capital platform that invests in exceptional entrepreneurs who are building global technology companies. Seaya raised its first funding in 2013 and currently manages over €600 million across five early-stage venture funds. Seaya accelerates the growth of startups by leveraging the founder’s strategic vision, providing them with Seaya’s global platform, its extensive network of founders, investors and multinational corporations, as well as all its experience in the global expansion of companies such as Glovo, Cabify, Wallbox (NYSE:WBX), Spotahome, Clarity AI, Clicars, Alma and RatedPower. Learn more at seaya.vc.

Seaya

Cathay Innovation is a global venture capital firm, created in affiliation with Cathay Capital, investing in startups at the center of digital revolution across North America, Latin America, Europe, Asia and Africa. Its global platform unifies technology investment across continents, investors, entrepreneurs and leading corporations to accelerate startup growth with access to new markets, invaluable industry knowledge and introductions to potential partners from the start. As a multistage fund with over $1.5 billion assets under management and offices across San Francisco, New York, Paris, Shanghai, Beijing and Singapore, Cathay Innovation partners with visionary entrepreneurs and startups positively impacting the world through technology.  To learn more, please visit www.cathayinnovation.com or follow us on Twitter @Cathayinnov.

Cathay Innovation

Telegraph Hill Capital is an early-stage venture capital firm focused on start-up companies primarily in North America.

Telegraph Hill Capital

Force Over Mass Capital is an FCA regulated venture capital firm focused on early stage technology investments across UK and Europe. We invest in B2B innovation across four verticals, i.e. Fintech, Artificial Intelligence, SaaS and Industry 4.0. FOM cap operates both seed and scale-up funds to support early stage businesses through their growth journey.

Force Over Mass Capital

Rebel Fund is a seed-stage venture capital fund powered by an elite network of Y Combinator alumni along with a proprietary machine learning algorithm for statistically predicting startup success.

Rebel Fund

True Capital Management is a multi-family office that offers business management and investment advisory services. It provides a suite of services and an open architecture wealth management platform that empowers clients to grow. The company's services surrounds business and risk management, financial planning, and investment advisory. The company believes that a comprehensive life management approach is essential to creating, managing, and maintaining wealth. True Capital Management was founded in 2006 and is headquartered in San Francisco, California.

True Capital Management

Sprint VC is a New York based venture capital firm investing in companies building revolutionary technologies.

Sprint Vc

We invest in promising cutting edge tech companies from Europe scaling to the moon

Cats.vc

DVC is the collective umbrella of specialized syndicates that invest in companies from pre-seed through pre-IPO. Our investment team comes from diverse backgrounds and are founders and operators.

Payflow

Payflow is an employee benefit that companies can offer to their employees. Payflow provides employees instant access to earned salary to improve their financial well-being. Companies benefit from improved productivity and engagement, with no impact on cash-flow. Payflow was founded in 2020, and it is a Rocket Internet backed venture based in Spain.

Headquartered in Spain, Payflow offers a platform that enables organizations to provide early access to earned wages. It operates through a mobile app, allowing employees to instantly access their salaries without having to wait for payday, along with a debit card that helps them save on expenses such as meals and public transportation, and obtain additional benefits like childcare and education. It also offers an automated savings tool and an interactive platform with educational content for users to improve their financial well-being.

Helping employers provide personalized, high-touch, and holistic financial wellness tools to their entire workforce.

Financial Wellness Tools

Barcelona-based Payflow raises €6 million to expand flexible salary in Iberian and Latam markets

Headquartered in Spain, Payflow offers a platform that enables organizations to provide early access to earned wages. It operates through a mobile app, allowing employees to instantly access their salaries without having to wait for payday, along with a debit card that helps them save on expenses such as meals and public transportation, and obtain additional benefits like childcare and education. It also offers an automated savings tool and an interactive platform with educational content for users to improve their financial well-being.Payflow integrates with existing payroll solutions and charges employees on a per-transaction basis. The cash advances are offered by Payflow and are deducted from the employee’s payroll automatically on payday. The company had operations in Spain, Portugal, Italy, France, Columbia, and Peru as of August 2024.Key customers and partnershipsAs of August 2024, Payflow served over 1,000 companies and more than 500,000 employees. Its notable clients include Grupo Ilunion, Telefónica, Mango, Alcampo, Grupo Hospitalario Quirón, Webhelp, ISDIN, and NH Hoteles.

Based in the UK, Salary Finance offers a comprehensive suite of financial well-being benefits for employees. The company partners with employers to offer a platform that provides employees with access to a range of financial well-being products, including salary-backed loans, earned wage advances, savings accounts, and customized educational resources to help them build and automate savings as well as improve their overall financial well-being.In April 2024, the US operations of Salary Finance merged with the financial wellness benefit platform <a href="https://sp-edge.com/companies/609722">Finfit</a>. The combined entity now operates under the FinFit brand in the US.Key customers and partnershipsAs of February 2024, the platform was used by 600 employers across the UK, available to more than 4.5 million employees. These include more than a fifth of the companies in the FTSE-100 index. Its notable customers include the NHS, Dunelm, Virgin Active, and Simply Health.Salary Finance partnered with the American financial technology company Chime in July 2021, to launch Save—a new product to incentivize US employees to set up a salary-linked savings account with Chime, and become entitled to a USD 50 bonus and a variable Annual Percentage Yield (APY) of 0.50%.

Salary Finance

Payactiv offers a financial wellness solution, centered around "Earned-Wage Access," allowing employees to access their wages before payday. Employees can instantly access funds for hours worked, with options to transfer to their bank, load onto a Payactiv card, or withdraw cash at Walmart. Its app works as a digital wallet and includes additional features such as AI and machine-learning-based tools for budgeting, tracking savings, managing spending and bills, and obtaining personalized one-on-one financial coaching from trained professionals.The Payactiv app also features a free communication tool—Payactiv Connect—that enables employers and employees to connect for HR communications, company news, alerts, and shift scheduling.Key customers and partnershipsAs of November 2023, PayActiv’s platform was used by employees at over 4,000 businesses from industries such as retail and food services across the US, with some customers in Canada, Australia, the Philippines, and Brazil. Its clients include Walmart, Wayfair, Ibex Global and several others. It also entered into a partnership with US Bank in February 2022, where users of prepaid US Bank Focus Cards for payroll will be able to access their wages early.The company also has working partnerships with payment processors such as <a href="https://sp-edge.com/companies/23004">Fiserv</a> and <a href="https://sp-edge.com/companies/13061">Visa</a> to enable real-time transfer of earned wages to bank accounts of employees.

PayActiv

Based In the UK, Wagestream provides a financial wellness platform, offering a range of services including earned wage access, financial education, tools for savings, and pay and spend tracking. Wagestream’s tools are offered to employees through a mobile app, with an analytics platform for employers to monitor participation and financial resilience of staff.Employees can access their earned wages using the app by paying a flat fee of GBP 1.95 (USD 2.50) per withdrawal. The company’s platform has integrations with several payroll and timekeeping systems, enabling organizations to deploy Wagestream into their payroll process.Wagestream acquired 1) Australian earned-wage access startup Earnd in March 2021 to enter into the Australian market. 2) a credit card startup Keebos, in October 2023, to integrate Keebos credit score building platform (that uses open banking data) with Wagestream’s core offerings.Key customers and partnershipsAs of February 2024, Wagestream had a global user base of more than 3 million, which included more than 1,000 corporate customers in industries such as the retail, hospitality, and healthcare sectors. The company has offices in the US, UK, Spain, and Australia and some notable employers include Burger King, Pizza Hut, Crate &amp; Barrel, Bupa, University of Chicago, Popeyes, and National Health Service UK.The company also partnered with French Insuretch provider Wakam in August 2023, to introduce income protection coverage to its users.

Wagestream

Cleo offers tools for budgeting, and provides personalized spending and savings advice by connecting to a user's bank account and applying machine learning algorithms to analyze spending habits and transaction history. The app also provides access to an interactive chatbot which users can query to obtain on-demand suggestions (which has been supported by an in-house large language model since 2023).&nbsp;The platform also offers additional features such as a secured card to build credit score, direct debits, and salary advances.Cleo operates a subscription-based pricing on its budgeting and savings tools, with fee-based pricing on its cash advance offerings targeted at gig workers and workers with poor credit. The platform charges monthly subscription fees in the range of USD 1.99 - 5.99 on Cleo Plus offering and charges USD 10.99-14.99 on Cleo build offering.Cleo’s target market is the Gen-Z segment of the population and as of October 2023, the company had 7 million users, (up from 4 million in December 2020) and had USD 72.3 million annual recurring revenue (which was up 2.4x YoY)

Cleo

FinFit offers a financial wellness benefit platform for employers that uses predictive AI, and includes tools for employees to budget, track spending, set savings goals and obtain personalized financial assessments. The platform also provides access to certified financial counselors to obtain one-on-one financial advice. In addition to financial coaching, the company also offers services such as tools to manage student loan debt, get early access to earned wages, and obtain low-cost short-term loans backed by the employee’s salary. In April 2023, Fitfit merged with the US operations of UK-based financial wellness platform <a href="https://sp-edge.com/companies/342361">Salary Finance</a>. The two companies aim to launch a combined platform in the US under the Finfit brand.FinFit operates a subscription-based pricing model, and charges employers in the range of USD 0.30–1.00 per employee per month based on the size of the organizations and number of employees. The platform also generates revenue through interest income by charging users interest in the range of 7.9%–24.9% APR on its loans. It charges fixed interest on its lines of credit.As of March 2024, FinFit was reported to be serving more than 500,000 employees (up from 150,000 in 2020).Key customers and partnershipsIn September 2024, FinFit <a href="https://sp-edge.com/updates/33696">partnered with</a> <a href="https://sp-edge.com/companies/945256">Sunny Day Fund</a>, a financial support platform, to offer emergency savings accounts for employees through its SafetyNet platform. In August 2024, FinFit <a href="https://sp-edge.com/updates/32581">partnered with</a> <a href="https://sp-edge.com/companies/493140">isolved</a>, a human capital management platform, to expand product reach.

FinFit

Offers end-to-end financial wellness solutions ranging from educational resources to interactive platforms/tools for managing finances as well as access to registered investment advisors.

Provides a platform for employees, through their employers, to access earned wages or obtain emergency interest-free funds/loans, which are settled through their paycheck.

Provides a platform for employers to provide resources such as tools and advice to manage employee debt (with an increased focus on student loan debt).

Apps and platforms that allow consumers to obtain personalized financial advice, automate savings, create budgets, and track and manage spending.

Offers interactive platforms/tools for employers to provide personalized financial education resources and/or coaching to its employees.

Solutions that enable companies to offer and manage employee-sponsored emergency savings accounts through automated payroll deductions.

Platforms for employers to support employees with other debts such as mortgages, credit card debt, etc. through repayment assistance, refinancing options, and automated administrative processes.

Operates a B2B SaaS model to support employers with offering various fringe benefits to employees

Payflow, an early wage access platform based in Spain, has raised €20 million ($21 million) in debt financing from BBVA Spark. This brings Payflow's total funding to $35.9 million. The company plans to use the funds to support its growth in Latin America and Europe. Payflow currently has over 800 enterprise users and 70 employees across its offices in Madrid, Barcelona, Lisbon, Bogotá, and Lima. Some of its clients include Grupo Ilunion, Telefónica, Mango, and NH Hoteles.

Payflow

About EDGE

Contact Us

Resources

Area of Focus

Technology Research Made Effortless