Fintech Banked has announced the closure of a $15 million Series A extension round, which, with their oversubscribed original Series A round, brings their total investment to over $50 million to date.
The round highlights strong support for Banked’s pay-by-bank model. It will be used to grow the fintech’s team and further their US expansion they announced a partnership with Bank of America in the initial Series A as they seek to transform the global payments market.
With the aim of making banking ten times better, the company focused on the core banking platform.
Open banking was a moment in time where banks were going to heavily invest in things like API’s and security that was going to allow them to actually work closely with businesses that had technology stacks of their own.
The model for payments has changed relatively little, operating through providers like Visa or Mastercard. While these offer convenience for the customer, they are costly for everyone else, with retailers and banks paying fees for the services. Open banking made it possible, for the first time, for direct bank payments to take place as easily and securely as card payments.
The model has attracted significant attention, fueling Banked’s expansion and new partners. Insight Partners, who previously invested in Tink, which was acquired by Visa last year, add to the confidence being shown in Banked at a time that many in the fintech and wider financial sectors are being forced to consolidate.
Banked has a huge ambition and we believe they have built the team and product to tackle such an exciting opportunity in payments. There are many ways to approach the problem, and Banked;s unique strategy in partnering with commercial banks and payment service providers, as well as their product capabilities.