Participated · Series C · May 2022

Modulr provides an embedded payments FinOps hub and APIs that let businesses and software platforms integrate real-time, account-to-account, and Open Banking payment services. The company serves 200+ clients and is processing an annualised transaction value of more than £100B. Modulr is authorised as an Electronic Money Institution by the UK’s FCA, the Central Bank of Ireland, and the Dutch Central Bank, and operates offices in London, Edinburgh, Dublin, and Amsterdam with more than 300 colleagues. Founded in 2016 by Myles Stephenson, its customers include Revolut, Wagestream, Sage, and BrightPay. Modulr plans to use new capital to accelerate geographic expansion across the UK and Europe, extend client and partner coverage, and further automate real-time embedded payments and broaden its product suite. Modulr provides a full‑stack Payments-as-a-Service API that lets software platforms and digital businesses automate and embed payments while handling regulatory and operational complexity. The company focuses on B2B payments digitization and has signed several large enterprise clients. Modulr is a directly connected participant in the Bacs and Faster Payments schemes and can settle and hold funds at the Bank of England; it has also added direct access to Visa and Mastercard. Recent product additions include Payment Initiation and Confirmation of Payee, and the company says it handles much of the regulatory overhead for its customers. Modulr was granted an electronic money licence from the Central Bank of Ireland as part of its European ambitions. The firm has cited a “breakout year” with growth despite COVID‑19 headwinds and was ranked the second fastest‑growing tech company in 2021 by Dun & Bradstreet. Modulr provides a Payments-as-a-Service API that lets digital businesses and software platforms embed payments, automate payment flows, and build new payment products within their customer journeys. The company serves sectors including lending, banking, fintech, travel, employment services and accounting, and counts customers such as Sage, Revolut, and Paxport. Modulr says it processes more than £40B of payments through its platform and maintains 99.999% uptime. Recent regulatory and infrastructure milestones include an Electronic Money Institution (EMI) licence from the Central Bank of Ireland and direct participation in the Bacs and Faster Payments schemes, enabling settlement and custody at the Bank of England. The firm plans to use new funding to develop additional products, grow its team, and expand its customer base. Modulr operates from offices in London, Edinburgh, and Dublin. Modulr provides a Payments-as-a-Service platform that combines technology, regulatory permissions and direct access to payment schemes as an alternative to commercial and wholesale transaction banking. The company offers an API-driven payments infrastructure that enables businesses to automate payment flows, reconciliation and embed payment services within their platforms. Modulr has direct access to the U.K. payment schemes Faster Payments and Bacs, and is a principal issuing member of Visa. Its platform has processed over £25 billion in payments and counts customers such as Revolut, Sage, Liberis, Salary Finance and Iwoca. The company plans to use new capital to further develop its payments platform, build new products and expand into European markets. Financially, Modulr has raised just over £43 million to date (excluding a £10 million grant from the Capability and Innovation Fund) and recently secured additional growth funding. Modulr offers digital payments and banking alternatives to businesses and partners, processing more than £14 billion of transactions and reaching over 35,000 SMEs through clients including Sage and Revolut. The company is developing a new product, the Accountant Payments Control Centre (APCC), to deliver greater control, automation and efficiency for accountants and SME clients. Modulr will use a £10 million Capability and Innovation Fund grant (which it will match with a further £10 million) to expand its Edinburgh operations and support product development. The award is expected to create more than 50 jobs in Edinburgh and more than 64 regional roles overall, with at least 80% of the new roles scaling its Edinburgh presence. In May the firm secured a £14 million funding package, taking total capital raised to £24.5 million. Launched in January 2016, Modulr has footprint in Edinburgh, London and Dublin and plans to make its payment services available to almost one million SMEs while driving cost-effective innovation and competition in the UK business payments market.

Led · Series C · Apr 2019

Salary Finance partners with employers to offer financial wellness solutions, combining financial education with salary-linked benefits and low-cost loans that are repaid via payroll deduction. The company emphasizes a social mission to help Americans move from debt into savings and works with more than 600 employers. Salary Finance reports a U.S. mission to help 10 million Americans out of debt and into savings and cites internal survey data showing widespread employee financial stress and related health impacts. It targets historically underserved communities that lack emergency funds and struggle with monthly bills. The organization is a United Way Worldwide corporate partner and a member of industry groups such as the American FinTech Council, signaling institutional partnerships alongside its employer network. Salary Finance is an Employee Financial Wellness platform operating in both the US and UK that offers financial education, salary-linked loans, savings and advances. The company partners with over 150 employers, covering more than a million employees. It is led by co-founder and Global CEO Asesh Sarkar, with a recent leadership addition of SoFi co-founder Dan Macklin as CEO of Salary Finance Inc. The business uses employer payroll channels to deliver products and aims to expand its savings and loan offerings. Salary Finance intends to use new funding to develop and scale new products and services and to support growth plans in the UK and US. In the US specifically, it plans to build out its savings product offerings, partnerships and US team. Salary Finance provides a SaaS-based financial wellbeing platform that lets employers offer payroll-deducted savings deposits and loan repayments to help employees move from debt to savings. The platform integrates with existing payroll technology and processes without complicated integration. Recent employers on the platform include BT, CapGemini, Virgin Active, Mitie and many NHS trusts and Councils. Founded in 2015 and led by CEO Asesh Sarkar, the company is based in London, UK. Salary Finance has partnered with United Way to introduce the platform to corporate partners in the U.S. and is rolling out to its first 250,000 U.S. employees, including United Way and L&G America. The company intends to use new funding to launch and scale in the U.S. while continuing to support growth in the U.K. SalaryFinance is a London U.K.-based employee benefits company that builds technology to help employees improve financial health, consolidate debt and save. The company offers salary-deductible savings and low-interest loans alongside online financial education, budgeting tools and credit score checks. It is using the £40m funding to launch its Financial Wellbeing Hub, a suite of financial education, products and services, and to expand internationally. Its clients span most employment sectors in the U.K., including Dunelm, Timpsons, Worldpay, Ageas, Saga, Hays, Agilisys, E.ON and the London Borough of Hackney. In the last quarter SalaryFinance agreed launches with organizations employing over 600,000 staff, including the employees of Legal & General. The company is led by CEO Asesh Sarkar. SalaryFinance is a London-based financial employee benefit service that lets employers offer staff low-interest, fixed-rate loans to consolidate personal debts. Loan repayments are taken directly from employees' payroll rather than by direct debit, which the company says reduces cost and interest to around one third of the market average. The service is free to employers and the loan rate does not change based on an individual's income or credit score. The company plans to use the $6.1m funding for customer acquisition and to expand its operations team. FinTech venture builder Brightbridge Ventures made the investment. SalaryFinance was founded by Dan Cobley (former MD of Google UK), Asesh Sarkar and Daniel Shakhani.

Participated · Equity · Apr 2018

Liberis operates an AI and machine learning-powered embedded finance platform that delivers personalised, flexible funding to small businesses. The company distributes finance through global partners including payment acquirers, neobanks, e-commerce platforms and financial institutions. Through these partnerships Liberis has funded over $1.5 billion across more than 60,000 transactions. Liberis recently secured $112M in debt financing from HSBC Innovation Banking and BCI Capital to support further growth in North America and Europe and expansion into new markets such as Canada, Germany, and Poland. Total funding from capital providers and investors has reached over $700M to date, with equity backers including Barclays, Blenheim Chalcot, and FTV Capital. Led by CEO Rob Straathof, the company intends to use the new facility to serve more business owners via its embedded finance platform. Liberis builds an embedded business finance platform that enables partners to offer personalised and accessible funding to small and medium-sized enterprises. The platform applies machine learning to assess a customer’s risk profile and available funding options, enabling higher origination volumes and giving SME owners greater financial control. Founded in 2007 and led by CEO Rob Straathof, Liberis has provided over 23,000 SMEs with finance totaling almost €1 billion. The company has raised a total of €430M to date, including over €80M in equity funding. Liberis plans to use the new financing to expand into Germany, Poland and beyond and to offer finance to customers in EUR, SEK and DKK to reduce foreign-exchange exposure. Liberis provides advances from £1,000 to £300,000 to SMEs and structures repayment as a pre-agreed percentage of the business’s card and digital transactions, tying repayments to cash flow. Its core product evaluates projected card sales and offers personalised, pre-approved finance through a single API integration. The company has shifted its go-to-market toward B2B2B embedded finance, partnering with marketplaces, software providers and acquirers to embed financing into their customer experiences. Notable partners include Worldpay (FIS), Global Payments, Opayo (Sagepay), EPOS Now and Worldpay U.S. Liberis has provided over £500M in financing to 16,000 SMEs across Europe, the U.S. and the U.K., with £250M lent in the past two years and product availability in five new countries (U.S., Finland, Sweden, Czech Republic and Slovakia). The company plans to use new funding to fuel growth, launch new products and markets, and provide additional customer financing solutions. Founded in 2007 and U.K.-based, Liberis reports a total of £200M in funding to date, including more than £50M in equity. Liberis operates a Funding-as-a-Service platform that has provided over £450 million in financing to more than 15,000 small businesses since its 2007 founding. The company expands distribution via strategic partnerships and white-labeling its financial services for partners that serve small-business customers. Over the last 18 months Liberis says it has expanded into five new countries, listing the UK, US, Sweden, Czech Republic, Slovak and Finland. The business recently closed a £32 million funding round led by FTV Capital, bringing its total debt and equity funding to over £150 million. Management plans for 2020 include growing its US footprint, entering two more European countries, and increasing headcount by about 30 percent. Liberis has appointed General Managers for the US (Howard Kramen) and Europe (Pedram Tadayon) to strengthen global operations. Liberis is a London-based fintech that provides funding to small businesses by advancing capital against projected future credit and debit card sales. Loans range from £1,000 to £500,000 and are repaid via a pre-agreed percentage of a business’s card transactions, with no fixed repayment term. That repayment structure is particularly attractive to seasonal retail and hospitality businesses because payments scale with revenue. Liberis pulls transaction and payments data from partners such as Worldpay and Sagepay, integrates with marketplaces like Just Eat, and expects Open Banking to extend its reach. The company says it has supported over 7,000 small businesses and advanced £210 million in funding to date. CEO Rob Straathof acknowledges Liberis takes on more risk with this model but reports the vast majority of loans are repaid within projected timeframes.

Led · Equity · Mar 2018

Hive Learning is a mobile-first peer-to-peer learning platform that combines content products, AI technology and a client team that delivers agile solutions for leaders, teams and organisations. The company serves clients including Jaguar Land Rover, Sky, FTSE100 business Halma, Deloitte, The Football Association and the International Olympic Committee. Co-founded in 2012 by Blenheim Chalcot and Rugby World Cup-winning coach Sir Clive Woodward, it is led by CEO Angus McCarey and is based in London, UK. Hive recently acquired EditorEye Intelligence to accelerate its Insights AI and professional services products. The company plans to use the funds to accelerate AI-driven product development and content packages, boost sales and marketing, and pursue international expansion through strategic partnerships. Its current financial update reports a £3.5 million growth funding round led by Blenheim Chalcot.

Led · Seed · Jul 2016

Code Kingdoms builds educational coding products for six- to 13-year-olds, focusing on a JavaScript teaching platform, a web-based code editor and a Minecraft modding subscription. The company has shifted from building its own game to leveraging existing IP such as Minecraft and the BBC micro:bit. It reports roughly 4,900 UK schools using its micro:bit software, about 30 schools using its Minecraft modding software, and around 1,200 schools using the original Code Kingdoms game. CK for Modding is a subscription priced at £9.99 ($14.99) per month and includes 40+ hours of course material, a customizable Minecraft server and access to the web code editor. Code Kingdoms says its core strengths are its educational content and its code editor, and it emphasizes educational value in its product design. The company plans to expand its direct-to-consumer modding subscription into the US and Canada, grow B2B services, broaden its product range and pursue traction for camps in Asian markets such as Malaysia, Singapore and Hong Kong. Code Kingdoms is a game developed by Cambridge computer science graduates Ross Targett and Hugh Collins that teaches kids to code using JavaScript. The product lets children design games collaboratively with classmates and friends. The title is positioned amid a growing roster of educational tools following the recent addition of coding to the UK primary curriculum. Code Kingdoms is scheduled to launch next month. Financially, the company participated in a funding round totaling $420,000 that included SparkLabs Global Ventures. No operating metrics (revenue or users) are disclosed in the article.