mmob, Satago, SteadyPay, & Thirdfort

Here’s a handy round-up of the recent funding endeavours of UK-based fintechs.

The mmob team

mmob, which describes itself as “the UK’s first embedded finance network”, has closed a £5 million seed round.

The investment was raised from a group of angel investors including high-net-worth individuals and senior banking executives.

The money will go towards the development of its technology platform and entering new markets including Malaysia. Among the investors is James Gossip, former head of strategy and chief operating officer (COO) for HSBC in Malaysia.

mmob offers embedded finance solutions via its API to both financial and non-financial brands.

Founded in 2020 by fintech specialist Irfan Khan, the start-up says it has already built an “impressive network” of third-party partners. Among these are PensionBee, iwoca, Cuckoo, Superscript, So-Sure, Anorak, and Uinsure.

Satago, a cash management platform that provides automated credit control, risk management, and invoice finance to SMEs and accountants, has received a £5 million investment from Lloyds Banking Group in exchange for a 20% equity stake.

It will also work with Lloyds to build a single invoice finance and whole-book invoice factoring solution, which will be offered to the bank’s business customers in the UK.

The agreement builds on an existing partnership, extending the use of Satago’s technology which leverages open banking APIs to help SMEs get access to cash against invoices due.

Lloyds Bank’s business customers will have real-time insights into which companies pay their invoices on time, and a suite of tools including automated invoices, reminders, payment requests, and integrated credit reporting to help them track their finances and outstanding payments.

Sinead McHale, CEO of Satago, says invoice financing has changed very little in decades, and the partnership will finally bring it into the 21st century.

Satago was founded in 2012.

SteadyPay, a financial services app for the gig economy, has secured a $5 million Series A investment round led by Digital Horizon. Existing and new investors (including angel investors) also participated, such as Ascension Ventures (via its impact Fair By Design fund) and the UK government’s Future Fund.

Founded in 2018, SteadyPay says the new money will be used to “enhance and deepen its product and service offer”, including an embedded B2B-specific offering.

SteadyPay tracks users’ financial data in real-time and provides a suite of products that create and improve the financial stability of its customers, both directly and via partnerships with gig-economy platforms and employers.

The flagship “income-smoothing” product ensures that if a user’s monthly earnings fall below average, SteadyPay tops up the account.

The funds provided are repaid only when the customer earns above their average income – so when they can best afford it.

SteadyPay’s users pay a “fully transparent weekly subscription”, the start-up says. The company emphasises that it does not charge any additional or hidden fees.

Thirdfort founders Olly Thornton-Berry (right) and Jack Bidgood (left)

Online verification platform Thirdfort has taken its first institutional investment of £15 million from Breega and Element Ventures.

“We’re building the first platform for businesses to use on both individuals and corporate clients that encompasses know your client (KYC) and anti-money laundering (AML), source of funds, and secure payments – all powered by best-in-class tech, open banking, and our own proprietary risk engine,” says managing director and co-founder Olly Thornton-Berry.

“Clients of businesses using Thirdfort have the option to download our mobile app to connect bank feeds, input verification data and soon, securely send funds to their professional advisers.

“This seamless experience reduces onboarding time to minutes and helps businesses turn compliance into a competitive advantage.”

The mobile app has been downloaded by 500,000+ individuals in the UK over the past two and a half years.

The start-up was founded in 2017. Thornton-Berry says that by January 2020, it was a team of ten with 30 business clients and one industry partner. Today, it employs 100 people, has 700 business clients and 15 partners that have integrated Thirdfort.