Top 4 Fintech Funding Rounds: Hopper, Memebox, Personal Capital, NoBroker
With the holiday season in full swing it seems fintech investors are spreading the cheer. From fare-predicting apps to e-commerce to real estate, fintech had a good week.
Below are our top fintech funding rounds of the week:
Montréal-based airfare predicting app Hopper just raised $62.2 million in a Series C, in a round with six investors. Founded in 2007, this brings the Canadian travel app’s total equity to just under $84 million ($83.93, for the curious); the app utilizes predictive data analytics to provide its users with the best possible deal for airfare. Hopper will then notify users when their selected flights are at these predicted lowest points, using its algorithms to analyze a couple billion flight prices per day.
San Francisco-based e-commerce marketplace Memebox just raised $60 million this week, also in a Series C, bringing the platform’s total funding up to $156.67 million. In keeping with the rising tradition of specialized e-commerce marketplaces, Memebox is solely focused on Asian beauty products and beauty trends, and uses data analytics to create a holistic, “enhanced” experience for the shopper—mobile, online, and offline.
Online wealth management platform Personal Capital just raised $25 million in a Series E, with the sole investor being IGM Financial—which was also the sole investor in a $75 million round of funding in May of this year. This additional $25 million is part of a contingency deal laid down by IGM, which stipulated that the wealth management platform had to pass certain growth margins by the second quarter of 2017. This brings the wealth management platform’s total funding up to just over $200 million ($200.3), and will allow the California-based company to continue to provide its digital online investment advisory tools and strategies. Launched in 2009, the platform uses online tools to evaluate user spending, investment, and other factors to form a holistic picture of the user’s financial well being.
Bangalore-based real estate platform NoBroker has just raised $7 million in a Series B in a round with four investors, raising its total funding to $20 million. A platform designed to shift the Indian real estate market, NoBroker aims to help its users find a home without having to pay a broker—instead, users of the platform contact the property owners directly, after viewing the property’s data on NoBroker’s site. Like quite a few industries in India presently, the real estate market is in flux, so the transparency and security a peer-to—peer online platform provides could prove quite beneficial to its users.
In any case, it certainly seems as though investors were feeling inspired during these last weeks of 2016—let’s hope 2017 leaves them more passionate than ever about the wonderful world of fintech.
