Financial super app Curve raised $163 million in a series C round this week, even as global fintech funding has dropped significantly. 

Not only has funding dropped due to uncertain macroeconomic conditions and rising global interest rates, but the number of deals has also decreased.

According to a July report by financial information and services company S&P Global, fintech funding dropped by nearly half to $23 billion year over year in the first half. Deal counts are also down 64% YoY to 1,178, while mega-rounds ($100 million-plus) totaled nine in H1 2023 compared with 23 in H1 2022, according to the report. 

“The last two years have been one of those stretches where frankly, the macro has been more important than the micro,” Matt Harris, partner at Bain Capital, said on a panel at Finovate Fall 2023 recently. “You’d like to think that what you’re doing every day is going to determine your outcome, but it surely felt like all these exogenous factors have been trumping.” 

Funding in the United States accounted for nearly two-thirds of global fintech funding in H1, according to KPMG, a think tank.  

AI helped lead the charge, as the technology attracted the majority of funding, garnering $15 billion since the start of the year, Ope Runsewe, managing director at AmEx Ventures, said at Finovate. 

For example, Ramp, a spend management platform, raised $300 million in a series C funding round in August at a lower valuation of $5.1 billion, down from a valuation of $8.1 billion in 2022. 

While global funding and fintech valuation have been down for nearly 12 months as central banks have hiked interest rates, Harris believes “the bloodbath may be tapering, maybe coming to an end,” and funding should pick back up by the end of this year or in 2024. 

Despite the low funding environment, the following fintechs have raised capital. 

Curve raises $163M

Curve, a financial super app that connects a customer’s credit and debit cards to a single card and app, raised $163 million in a series C funding round Thursday, according to a company release.  

The new funding will help the London-based fintech improve customer experience and bring new partnerships to the platform, the release stated. The app, launched in 2018, has more than 4.5 million active users, the release stated.  

The company has raised $1.3 billion since its inception and numbers Vulcan Capital, Britannia and Cohen Circle as investors, according to Crunchbase. 

$24 million secured by HyperJar

HyperJar, a payments fintech, raised $24 million in a series A funding round on Sept. 14, the company reported in a release. 

The company aims to use the capital to increase its team and expand operations “into North America, Europe and other growth markets,” Rob Rooney, chief executive of London-based HyperJar, said in the release. 

“Spending is the world’s biggest asset class, yet it’s largely unserved,” Rooney said. “Making spending money go further is the fastest way for most people to improve their financial position, but this is not what banks, credit platforms, payment platforms, or asset and wealth managers are set up to do.” 

Susquehanna Private Equity Investments and Healthcare of Ontario Pension Plan lead the funding round. 

The company has more than 500,000 users in the United Kingdom. 

CertifID nabs $20M

A fraud prevention service provider for the real estate sector, CertifID raised $20 million in a series B funding round on Sept. 12, led by Arthur Ventures, the company’s release stated. 

CertifID monitors wire transactions and validates wiring instructions to ensure that money is being transferred to legitimate accounts. In April, the company flagged more than $7.5 million in attempted fraud as wire fraud continues to climb. 

“In a world where trust is now having to be established virtually, it becomes more and more challenging for customers to know what they should trust and what they shouldn’t,” Tyler Adams, co-founder and chief executive of CertifID, told Bank Automation News in April. “Traditional best practices are no longer good enough in the virtual world.”  

The company has recovered $60 million from fraudsters since its founding in 2017, the release stated. 

CertifID has raised $36.4 million since its inception, according to Crunchbase. The newly raised funds will be used to bolster the company’s fraud-fighting technology, the release stated.