Fintech Curve raises $55m

Several of Curve’s early-stage investors, as well as some new big names, participated in the round.

Curve, the digital banking aggregation app, has secured $55m in its Series B funding round, valuing the company at $250m.

Curve, which offers a similar ‘over the top’ service to ING-backed Yolt,  which launched out of Beta in February 2018, and is, it says, on track for one million customers by the year-end. 

It last raised cash - $10m - back in July 2017. The Curve team now has over 150 people in its UK offices in London and Bristol. It is already available in 31 European countries and plans to use the fresh funding to expand its product offering in the UK, Europe and overseas. 

It will officially launch into six European markets later this year: France, Germany, Italy, Poland, Portugal and Spain, and aims to launch its operations in the US by mid next year.

The round, which comes less than two years after Curve secured its Series A investment, is being led by Gauss Ventures, a specialist fintech investor as well as Creditease, IDC Ventures and further participation from Outward VC (previously Investec’s INVC fund), which has historically backed other fintech category leaders Monese and Bud.

Several of Curve’s early-stage investors such as Santander InnoVentures, Breega, Seedcamp and Speedinvest have participated again. 

Shachar Bialick, founder and CEO of Curve says challenger and traditional banking is becoming a crowded field but “Over-The-Top Banking” is a more popular niche service.

“Curve is playing a completely different ball game, it is not a challenger bank which means that we can focus on creating a radically better customer experience, without asking customers to trust their salaries with us, or the significant overhead of becoming a regulated bank. Receiving this level of investment from such prominent investors is a fantastic endorsement of the value and experience Curve brings to its customers,” he said.

In June, Curve launched Curve Cash which gives Curve customers unlimited 1 per cent instant cashback at leading retailers such as Amazon, Uber, Spotify, Netflix, Tesco, Sainsbury and over 100 more retailers.