Klasha, Proper, Manzil and more

At FinTech Futures, we know that it can be easy to let funding announcements slip you by in this fast-paced industry. That’s why we put together our weekly In Case You Missed It (ICYMI) funding round-up for you to get the latest funding news.

Klasha raises $4.5m

San Francisco and Lagos-based paytech Klasha has closed a total $4.5 million seed funding round after it received an additional $2.1 million in funding.

The funding round includes participation from Amex Ventures and Global Ventures.

Klasha says it will use the funding to expand to five more African countries in 2022 and re-launch its consumer app renamed KlashaCart, to allow African consumers to shop from eligible international merchants online.

Launched in May 2021, Klasha’s technology allows African consumers to pay international online merchants in African currencies and money methods at checkout and then have their goods shipped to the continent.

California-based Proper Finance that helps fintech companies maintain financial accuracy, has raised $4.3 million in a seed round led by Redpoint Ventures.

Also participating in the round were BoxGroup, Mischief and Y Combinator among others.

Proper allows fintechs to manage their financial data – from payments providers to banks, network files and in-house payment processing systems – within a single platform.

With the new funding, Proper plans to further develop its products. Additionally, the team will introduce no-code tools for payment operations teams to track and reconcile money movement across systems, as well as additional payment method integrations.

“We’re providing a ubiquitous solution to help the ecosystem at large so that fintechs can trace and account for every payment that flows through their systems at scale,” says Kyle Maloney, co-founder and CEO of Proper.

Canadian Islamic fintech start-up Manzil has raised $1.9 million (CAD 2.4 million) in seed funding.

The firm has also made its first acquisition of Toronto-based firm Muslim Will for an undisclosed sum.

Manzil was founded in 2017 and launched in 2020 to provide “Halal-certified” financial products for Muslim Canadians which are approved and reviewed by third-party Shariah-compliant experts.

California-based investing platform Pluto has secured $4 million in seed funding in a round led by at.inc and other investors including Switch Ventures and Caffeinated Capital.

Pluto is a free investing platform that allows stock market traders to systemically invest. Pluto’s app takes care of the programming and execution side of the equation so users can “focus on strategy”.

Our vision is to make institution quality approaches to the market accessible to everyone. Retail investors have not been given adequate access to trade equities well, and Pluto is changing that,” says Jacob Sansbury, Pluto’s co-founder and CEO.

Citi invests in LiquidX

LiquidX, a fintech platform for digitisation, monetisation and risk mitigation for working capital, trade finance, and insurance assets has announced an undisclosed investment from Citi.

The funding round was led by Broadridge, LiquidX’s largest strategic investor.

With the new capital, LiquidX plans on improving its solutions and “drive efficiencies for trade operations”.

Headquartered in New York with offices in Boston, London, and Singapore, LiquidX delivers an ecosystem for working capital optimization to global participants including corporations, banks, institutional investors, and insurance providers.

LiquidX incorporates blockchain technology and machine learning analytics to enhance transparency, reporting and forecasting for financial professionals.

US fintech platform Matchly, that enables employees to access their 401(k) employer match, has raised $1.7 million in a pre-seed round.

Matchly says the new funds will be used to launch its platform, accelerate customer acquisition and make a number of key hires across its team.

The funding round was led by Bling Capital, with participation from Operator Partners, Amara VC and notable angel investors, including founders and executives from Brex, Gusto, and Shopify, among others.

Matchly was founded in 2021 by Ravi Kurani, a former investor in fintech companies, and Ben Avner, a software engineer.

The firm says it addresses a “common problem in the US workforce in which employees fail to access and maximize their 401(k) employer match, often driven by the inability to make necessary contributions to obtain the match, a lack of awareness, or both”.