Curve Raises $163 Million to Improve Financial App

funding

British FinTech Curve says it has raised more than $163 million in a Series C round.

The super app provider, whose offering connects all of a user’s debit and credit cards into one single card and app, announced Thursday (Sept. 21) that it had raised an additional $71 million extension in the round.

The new funds will be used to upgrade the customer experience and expand Curve’s Flex offerings, the company said in a news release.

“This last raise, like any raise, brings with it renewed responsibility to our shareholders and our customers; To build a good product and an exciting business, by executing well,” Curve founder and CEO Shachar Bialick said in the release.

“Curve’s unique, user-friendly and innovative product is something that investors, partners and customers alike are drawn to naturally, and with this additional cash, we look forward to bringing more people closer to financial independence.”

The release also says Curve will announce a “major partnership with a payments giant” later this month. The company is also in the middle of debuting its Launchpad interface to help develop a financial marketplace, letting select third party developers “integrate their financial products and services directly into Curve.”

Curve notes that its Series C was one of the largest FinTech funding rounds of the year, coming at a time when the sector is dealing with economic headwinds, as PYMNTS wrote last month.

“In fact, rising interest rates, high inflation, and lower consumer spending have led to a sharpened focus on belt-tightening among venture capital (VC) investors in the last year, putting pressure on FinTech companies as they make a painful pivot to profitability,” that report said.

This challenging environment has led to increased popularity for alternative options such as angel investing, government funds and corporate partnerships, with FinTechs using them to complement traditional methods of funding on the road to growth and survival.

Meanwhile, Curve’s super app ambitions put it in the company of a host of tech providers around the world hoping to combine varied digital activities into all-in-one mobile platforms.

And PYMNTS Intelligence reveals that millennials are especially eager to get on board, according to the study “Super Apps for the Super Connected,” created in collaboration with PayPal.

“The results revealed that, across these countries, there are major gaps between different generations when it comes to interest in using super apps (centralized user interfaces through which consumers can conduct their online activities),” PYMNTS wrote in July. “Roughly 40% of millennials reported being very or extremely interested in using a hypothetical super app, more than 60% higher than the 25% share of the overall population that said the same.”