It was a diverse week for fintech funding, with hundreds of millions of dollars pouring into identity verification and buy now pay later (BNPL) technology companies and substantial investment in an automated compliance platform.

Socure secures $450 million

New York-based Socure closed a $450 million series E funding round, raising a total of $649.6 million in 14 rounds, according to Crunchbase. The company’s valuation has leapt more than threefold from $1.3 billion in March to $4.5 billion.

The fintech’s identity verification technology has multiple applications, including account opening and loans, and broader anti-fraud uses in financial services, which has partly driven the company’s growth. As more consumers interact with financial services providers in digital and mobile environments — which have high instances of fraud — the need for identity verification is growing.

Socure, which was founded in 2012, offers a fully automated ID+ platform, and the company plans to use this cash infusion to accelerate product development — with a continued, stringent focus on security — and to expand into new verticals, co-founder and Chief Executive Johnny Ayers told Bank Automation News. It will also look to retain and build its product, data science and engineering teams.

The headcount at Socure is just over 400, and “we’re aiming to be close to 500 people by the end of the year,” Ayers said.

Read more about Socure and its growth, priorities and plans to go public

Zilch

As it continues its entry into the U.S. market, London-based BNPL startup Zilch has closed a $110 million series C funding round. With total funding of $230.2 million in four rounds, according to Crunchbase, the company’s valuation is now more than $2 billion.

The Zilch app lets users pay in BNPL format anywhere Mastercard is accepted. The company said its deployment strategy “is unrestricted by borders and bypasses the need for merchant integration.”

Zilch has been focusing on its momentum. Founded in 2018, the BNPL provider claims to have reached unicorn status faster than any European company, touting business growth of 800% since its last funding round in March, saying it has surpassed 1 million customers, with 180,000 new customers added each month.

The company will use the funding in part to grow its presence in the U.S., including by adding “hundreds” of jobs at its U.S. headquarters in Miami “and across the United States,” according to a release. The company has 210 employees across its offices in London, Miami, and Krakow, Poland.

Debit and credit transactions are available on the Zilch platform, which the company said helps customers better use its services. The debit feature, Zilch Now, combines open banking technology and soft credit checks to assess what a user can afford, according to the company.

The BNPL provider also said it plans to enhance its platform, build customer loyalty programs and expand its user base, pointing to “tremendous opportunity in the U.S. market.”

Laika

Compliance-as-a-service platform provider Laika closed a $35 million series B funding round led by J.P. Morgan Growth Equity Partners, PayPal Ventures and existing investors.

The New York-based company was founded in 2019 and has now raised a total of $48 million over four rounds, according to Crunchbase. In a release, Laika said it will use the new funding to develop additional automation, integrate audit experiences into its platform, add to its headcount, and fuel market growth and momentum.

Regarding headcount, Laika noted it now has 100 employees and wants to add about another 120 employees over the next year, with a focus on building out sales and consumer experience teams to support customers in the Asia-Pacific region and on the U.S. West Coast.

Laika’s platform allows users, including enterprise customers, to establish compliance practices to meet regulatory requirements. Traditional compliance processes such as independent audits tend to be cumbersome, manual and lengthy and can be detrimental to business, the company noted in its release, causing missed deals and lost revenue.

Laika’s platform offers a combination of automated workflows, audits, monitoring and vendor due diligence. Subject matter experts are also available to support Laika clients “at every step of the compliance process,” according to the company.

Even partners with JPMorgan Chase

Financial benefits platform provider Even has partnered with $3.7 trillion JPMorgan Chase to add real-time, on-demand payments to its platform.

The addition will allow millions of hourly workers across the U.S. to access earned wages in real time, according to a release, via “a secure and frictionless payment method that instantly delivers funds to an Even member’s bank account.”

Even noted it began beta testing the new service in July, and members have since used it to access more than $250 million in wages. The Even platform offers “push to card” and now real-time payments options for instant disbursement.

Interest in on-demand payment is growing, according to experts in the payroll field, and expanding beyond gig workers to include more traditional employer payroll systems. It’s also seen as a potential recruitment and retention tool: Research from payroll and human resources services firm ADP found that 60% of employees said they would take a job if they had more flexibility to select on-demand payment.

Even noted that on-demand access to earned wages gives workers more flexibility to cover costs and avoid undesirable lending methods.

The Oakland, Calif.-based company, founded in 2014, has raised a total of $52 million in six rounds, according to Crunchbase.