Participated · Debt Financing · May 2024

Verkor is building a Gigafactory in the Dunkirk area to produce low-carbon battery cells with an initial capacity of 16 GWh/year. The Dunkirk facility is slated to be operational in 2025 and is expected to create about 1,200 direct jobs and 3,000 indirect jobs over the next two years. Verkor positions its product as having one of the smallest environmental footprints in the world and has received a “Dark Green” rating from Standard & Poor’s for the project financed by the green loan. The company aims to supply the European automotive industry and contribute to Europe’s industrial sovereignty in electric mobility and energy storage. Verkor has secured substantial project financing—bringing total financing for the first Gigafactory and the Verkor Innovation Centre to more than €3 billion—supporting construction, ramp-up and growth. Verkor is a French, Renault-backed battery manufacturer producing pouch and cylindrical battery modules for electric vehicles and energy-storage applications. The company is accelerating construction of a gigafactory in Dunkirk. To fund that expansion it secured more than €2 billion (roughly $2.1 billion). The financing package is intended to speed up the Dunkirk project and support Verkor’s industrialisation plans. Verkor framed the raise as a landmark equity event for a French startup. The company cited public support, including pending French subsidies, as part of the package. French President Emmanuel Macron was quoted by the company praising the deal as a sign of reindustrialisation ambition. Verkor develops battery cells and related technology, operating a technology and innovation centre (Verkor Innovation Center, VIC) in Grenoble. The VIC will host development work and pilot production with a reported pilot capacity of 150 MWh. Verkor plans series production of those cells at a cell factory in Dunkerque beginning in 2025. The company has secured more than €250 million in financing that will flow into the VIC and technology development. Financing sources include industrial partners in the battery sector, commercial banks, investment funds and public banks, with specific participation from the European Investment Bank and support from Bpifrance Assurance Export. Verkor is also issuing a convertible bond to be subscribed by financial partners and industrial partners, and employees will be able to participate. The company says its financing needs are not yet fully covered as it pursues funding for a planned 16 GWh/year gigafactory in the Port of Dunkirk. Verkor is a French start-up specialized in the development and production of high-performance batteries, particularly for electric vehicles. The company is building a Verkor Innovation Center near Grenoble, planned to be operational in 2022, to optimize industrial processes and develop next-generation batteries. Verkor plans to launch its first Gigafactory for battery production, with construction expected to start in 2023. The company recently completed a €100 million fundraising round, to which Arkema contributed several million euros. Verkor is working in close technological collaboration with partners including Renault Group, EQT Ventures, EIT InnoEnergy, Groupe IDEC, Schneider Electric, Capgemini, Tokai Cobex, and Demeter to establish an integrated industrial battery production chain in Europe.

Led · Series A · Apr 2021

DiviPay is a spend-management tool for small-to-medium-sized businesses that offers an integrated corporate card tied to a platform where budgets and individual spending allocations can be set. The company reports more than 1,000 customers and growth of over 300% in the last 12 months. It emerged from the H2 Ventures accelerator program in 2016 and had a team of 20 in 2022, which it plans to quadruple. The $20 million Series A will be used to expand into new international markets, accelerate product development, and grow the team. Earlier financings include a $2.3 million round in 2019 led by ANZ Bank’s VC arm 1835i with support from Seed Space, and a $1.7 million top-up from 1835i in April of this year. CEO Daniel Kniaz says the platform provides transparency, security and autonomy in expense management for SMB owners. DiviPay is a four-year-old Australian business expense management fintech that provides virtual corporate Mastercard cards, automatic bill payments, real-time transaction feeds, card controls, budgeting, automated expense reports, and accounting integrations. The platform is available via web and mobile apps and integrates with accounting software such as Xero, which named it Emerging App of the Year in 2019. In 2020, companies processed $24.3 million through the platform. Its most recent product improvement is automatic bill payments, enabling organisations to extract, code, approve and automatically pay bills. The company plans to use new funding to build marketing, sales and engineering teams and to grow and broaden its customer base, targeting larger customers and not-for-profits. Customers cited in the article include Western Sydney University, Xero, Canva, and Michael Hill. DiviPay is a virtual platform for managing corporate cards and expenses, founded last year by Daniel Kniaz and Russell Martin. The product is designed to simplify expense management for small- and medium-sized businesses that otherwise require staff to use personal funds or share a small number of company cards. DiviPay provides virtual corporate cards and expense-management tools to avoid reimbursement delays and shared-card hassles. The company announced a $2.3 million Series A to support its operations and growth. The round was led by ANZi, the corporate venture capital arm of ANZ, with participation from Seed Space Ventures and Patrick Tuttle.

Participated · Equity · Sep 2019

Slyp is a Sydney-based fintech focused on digital receipts technology that integrates with banks and retail point-of-sale systems. Its core product digitizes receipts and is being developed for bank-appropriate security and scalability. The company recently raised $4 million to expand the product and scale operations, after a $2 million investment in October from NAB Ventures and Westpac’s Reinventure. ANZ and Scentre Group joined the new round alongside those earlier investors. Founders Mike Boyd, Paul Weingarth and Spiro Rokos have concentrated on building infrastructure to ensure the network can receive data from partner banks' retail POS customers. Company leadership cites banking innovation and environmental awareness as timely tailwinds for growth.

Participated · Series A · Feb 2019

Bud provides an end-to-end Open Banking and data intelligence platform that aggregates and categorises financial data to deliver customer insight. Clients use Bud’s technology to enhance onboarding, boost engagement and loyalty, and offer personal financial management services. Its aggregation and categorisation capabilities support lending use cases including income and employment verification, affordability assessments, and ongoing transaction monitoring. Headquartered in the UK, Bud's AI has processed over 2.5 billion transactions and enriched 1 billion transactions. The company aims to expand its Open Banking offering, increase financial inclusion, and help consumers access affordable and appropriate lending products. Bud is partnering with TransUnion to combine data intelligence and global insights and to develop next-generation credit, affordability, and fraud solutions. Bud Financial provides an AI-based open banking platform used by large banks and others to power lending, payments and personalized financial products. Its technology focuses on transaction enrichment, categorization, merchant recognition and income verification, with claims of 33% higher accuracy and over 93% accuracy in a recent market test. The company processes features that often end in payments via open banking APIs and emphasizes insights to differentiate from competitors. Bud pivoted from a consumer-facing app to a B2B model in 2017 to work directly with financial institutions. It is live in the U.K., Australia and New Zealand and plans to expand to two more countries this year. Bud is not disclosing customer or transaction numbers, revenues, or its valuation with this round. Bud offers a technology platform that enables banks to create new apps and services by intelligently connecting bank account data to third-party fintechs and financial providers. Launched in 2016 as a consumer aggregation app, the company pivoted to a bank-facing platform to help banks compete in the Open Banking/PSD2 era. Its product includes data enrichment features such as Smart Balance, Goals, and an advanced regular payment finder, and it uses transactional data to detect patterns and behaviors to trigger partner services. Bud works with roughly 85 fintech and financial services partners and counts HSBC-owned First Direct among its customers. The company is collaborating with the UK government on a Rent Recognition Challenge to help people build credit history from rent payments. Bud has 62 employees and says the new capital will support doubling its headcount and expanding its Open Banking-focused team. Bud is a London-based banking app and website that aggregates and links financial services from banks, fintechs, and other industry players. Its platform connects products including bank accounts, credit, pensions, investments, FX and more. Partners include WiseAlpha, Goji, Growth Street, Trussle – 30mins, Scalable Capital, Transfermate, and Assetz Capital. The company raised £1.5m in funding to support growth. Bud is using the funds to expand operations, hire new people, and continue to develop the platform. Founded in 2015 by Ed Maslaveckas and George Dunning, the company focuses on integrating a broad set of financial services into a single interface.