PYMNTS-MonitorEdge-May-2024

BaaS Firm Unit Valued at $1.2B After Series C

BaaS, Banking as a Service

Unit is now a unicorn.

The Banking-as-a-Service (BaaS) platform announced this week that it raised $100 million in a Series C funding round that brings its valuation to $1.2 billion.

This valuation makes Unit the first BaaS company to achieve unicorn status, when a private company is valued at more than $1 billion.

“We designed Unit to be the simple and robust platform to empower the next generation of FinTech builders,” CEO Itai Damti said in the announcement. “Since launch, we’ve grown to serve 140+ customers, from public companies to early-stage startups. Our customers have been able to take advantage of our unique approach — a modern tech stack built on a native ledger, embedded compliance, and built-in bank relationships — to launch in weeks.”

Unit said it has seen deposits at its bank partners grow ten-fold in the last six months, surpassing the $100 million, with both banked end-customers — more than 350,000 — and annualized growing seven times larger.

The Series C was led by Jeff Horing of Insight Partners, along with existing investors Accel, Better Tomorrow Ventures and Flourish, new investors Stepstone and Moving Capital, and “prominent FinTech angels,” Damti said.

Meanwhile, Unit said it will also begin offering credit products that its banking clients can present to their customers. Companies will be able to create credit cards, revolving loans, or other credit products coming from Unit’s bank partners, and offer them to customers in addition to, or in lieu of, a bank account.

Read more: Unit Debuts Turnkey Solution for Businesses to Issue Virtual Cards, Live Bank Accounts

Earlier this year, Unit unveiled a new way to issue virtual cards through a pilot environment that allows companies to create live bank accounts and issue virtual cards in minutes.

“In the last year, Unit has enabled more than 100 companies to launch production-ready banking products in weeks when it previously took over a year,” Damti said at the time. “We’ve had customers go from no code to fully live in 21 days. We wanted to make it even faster and easier for companies to build and launch new banking products.”

PYMNTS-MonitorEdge-May-2024