Vesey Ventures has launched a fintech startup fund with $78 million in capital to help early-stage tech companies get off the ground. 

The fund invested capital in five fintechs so far, including cybersecurity and identity protection firm Cyrus, and embedded foreign exchange solution Grain, among others, according to a release from the company. 

Vesey is putting the funds toward fintechs that assist financial services companies, Lindsay Fitzgerald, founding partner of the firm, told Bank Automation News. 

“We invest in early-stage companies with early signs of product-market fit transforming financial services,” she said. “We look for companies where opportunities for early partnerships exist so we can work with them to power their business development agenda and accelerate growth.” 

The company is currently looking to help fintechs that have solutions in lacking areas, such as onboarding and know-your-customer software, as well as risk management and anti-money laundering products or services, Fitzgerald added. 

“We want to ensure we’re seeing companies at the forefront of innovative financial services technology, leveraging our network and expertise to win future deals and providing our portfolio companies with a competitive edge,” she said. 

Lending fintech R2 secures $100M credit line

Embedded lending fintech R2 announced today that it received a $100 million credit line to help boost lending in Mexico from San Francisco-based Community Investment Management.

The Mexico City-based fintech supplies companies like digital payments platform Clip with lending infrastructure and capital to offer financial services under their own brands, a release from R2 said. 

“With this credit line, we aim to get to a new stage as a leader in embedded lending, reducing the financing gap for small and medium companies,” R2 co-founder and Chief Executive Roger Larach said in the release. 

R2 has lent $20 million to six small- and medium-size companies in Latin America to provide revenue-based loans where repayment happens as a percentage of sales to mitigate the number of delinquencies, the release said. 

AI platform Clerkie receives $33M

Financial automation platform Clerkie is using its recent $33 million series A funding to grow its engineering team and scale its debt workout solutions. 

The San Francisco-based, AI-powered financial planner offers a tool for creditors looking to oversee loan losses while helping borrowers get out of debt using data points to help potentially delinquent borrowers avoid default, a company release said. 

“Tens of millions of Americans are struggling with their debts and are falling into delinquency. It’s a lose-lose situation for the borrowers and for the banks who are racking up billions in losses,” Clerkie CEO Guy Assad said in the release. 

The series A funding round was led by Left Lane Capital, with Clerkie’s fundraising now totaling $41 million to date, according to the release. 

Open-banking platform Tarabut Gateway nabs $32M

Dubai-based open-banking platform Tarabut Gateway received a $32 million investment to help expand its footprint in Saudi Arabia. 

Tarabut also plans to contribute to Saudi Arabia’s plan to boost and diversify the country’s economy by 2030, a company release said.  

“Tarabut Gateway’s mission is to create an open financial services sector that delivers open-banking benefits to [the Middle East and north Africa’s] consumers, banks and fintechs,” Abdulla Almoayed, founder and CEO of Tarabut Gateway, said in the release. 

The company claims to have earned more than 60% market coverage in Saudi Arabia through bank partnerships, per the release. 

The funding round was led by Pinnacle Capital, according to the company’s website. 

Payments startup Liquido earns $27M in funding

Next-generation payments company Liquido has gone public with $27 million in funding to help transform payments in Latin American countries. The lead investor of the funding round was Index Ventures, according to Crunchbase. 

The Sao Paulo, Brazil-based company uses a unified and integrated API for merchants to accept and process all forms of payment, according to a company release. 

“Invaluable insights and new possibilities have come from our pilot users,” Liquido co-founder and CEO MK Li said in the release. “An early adopter launched Facebook and Instagram ad campaigns with direct click-through to their branded WhatsApp Liquido Store.” 

Liquido has already processed more than $300 million in transactions during a closed beta of its platform and is looking to be an equivalent of Stripe in Latin America, a company release said.