UK FinTech Banked Raises $15M for US Expansion

U.K.-based FinTech Banked has raised over $15 million in a Series A round, according to a press release on Tuesday (Nov. 15).

The round was led by Insight Partners and supported by Citi, National Australia Bank Ventures, and Banked’s recently announced commercial partner Rapyd. The latest injection of capital means Banked has raised over $50 million to date.

An open banking firm that specializes in “pay-by-bank” transactions, Banked is creating a global digital payments network, based on API access.

Banked highlighted its commitment to expanding in the U.S. market, pointing to the previous experience of lead investor Insight Partners, as well as an ongoing partnership with Bank of America, which had also previously invested in Banked.

To pursue its American expansion, Banked has opened an office in Palo Alto and relocated its CEO Brad Goodall has relocated from London.

“Pay by Bank is taking off globally. Leading banks recognise the significant opportunity it presents to improve the end-customer experience and merchant value proposition. This is supported by increasing merchant demand driving use cases for Pay by Bank in the enterprise B2B and B2C space,” Goodall said.

“Banked has a unique partnership model which relies on global go-to-market partners in the shape of banks, [payment service providers] and technology platforms. This means we have had to build real depth and capability in areas such as risk and compliance, security, consumer protection, platform scalability and most importantly feature rich user experiences for our partners and their clients and customers,” he added.

The FinTech’s latest funding comes as there is growing interest in pay-by-bank transactions.

According to a Wednesday (Nov. 9) PYMNTS report, Mastercard and JPMorgan launched their own pay-by-bank solution, which will be rolled out with a small number of U.S.-based merchants this year ahead of a further expansion in 2023.

“Billers and consumers both get greater payment choice, but the partnership also propels payments innovation on two fronts — in the ease of the user experience and in the security of data sharing,” said Chiro Aikat, Mastercard’s North America’s executive vice president of merchants and acceptance, said of the pay-by-bank solution.

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