London-based FinTech kennek has raised $12.5 million in a seed funding round to grow its operating system for lenders serving the private debt market.
The firm will use the new funding to build upon its existing traction in the United Kingdom, expand its reach into continental Europe, enlarge its tech team and accelerate its product roadmap, kennek said in a Tuesday (Oct. 10) press release emailed to PYMNTS.
The company’s platform is designed to save lenders the time they currently spend on menial operational tasks and dealing with jumbled data, Xavier De Pauw, co-founder of kennek, said in the release.
“Lenders are really just at the start of the digitalization journey,” De Pauw said. “kennek is here to help accelerate that journey and provide them with the tools to capitalize on the growth of the non-bank lending space.”
Thibault Lancksweert, co-founder of kennek, added in the release: “One of the unique things about the kennek platform is that it can cater for all different types of B2B loans: bridge & development loans, SME [small and medium-sized enterprise] term loans, R&D and grant advances … to name just a few.”
With these capabilities, the platform caters to the $2.3 trillion private debt market that is part of a wave of alternative lending that is growing at a time when banks’ lending activities are under growing pressure, according to the press release.
The kennek platform covers various aspects of lenders’ operations — from loan underwriting through monitoring, servicing and investor reporting — using application programming interface (API) technology, the release said.
Barbod Namini, partner at HV Capital, which led kennek’s seed funding round, said in the release that the platform can be “the foundation of the entire alternative lending space.”
“It is a complicated market and a solution that brings together all information and stakeholders onto a single platform is highly compelling for both lenders and the ecosystem as a whole,” Namini said.
Banks’ pullback on small business lending is creating an opportunity for FinTechs to step in with platforms and alternative lending sources, PYMNTS reported in January. By leveraging data to gauge a business’ financial health, these platforms and sources are helping get credit extended where it’s needed.
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Mastercard and Unipaas partnered to help the providers of vertical software-as-a-service (SaaS) platforms embed modern card processing capabilities.
The collaboration aims to digitize and streamline transactions in industries where digital payments remain underused, including health services, education, field services and professional training, the companies said in a Thursday (April 3) press release.
“Many [small- to medium-sized businesses (SMBs)] using vertical SaaS platforms today still rely on manual, offline payment methods, causing inefficiencies, poor user experiences and lost revenue opportunities,” Unipaas founder and CEO David Avgi said in the release. “Our partnership with Mastercard is about changing that.”
By embedding modern card processing capabilities into the platforms used by these SMBs, this partnership will help providers transition their platforms’ users from manual invoicing and bank transfers to card-based payments, improve acceptance rates and transaction speed, reduce operational complexity and overhead, and offer payment options that are more convenient, secure and user-friendly, according to the release.
The collaboration brings together Unipaas’ fully embedded, compliant payment infrastructure and Mastercard’s global payment network and fraud protection, per the release.
“By leveraging our extensive global network and advanced fraud protection, we are enabling [SMBs] using SaaS platforms to enhance their payment experiences, improve acceptance rates and unlock new opportunities,” George Simon, executive vice president of market development at Mastercard, said in the release. “Together with Unipaas, we are empowering [SMBs] using software providers to scale their operations and drive business growth with confidence.”
Embedded finance creates a more streamlined, user-friendly experience and makes payments smooth and accessible, Jennifer Marriner, executive vice president of global acceptance solutions at Mastercard, told PYMNTS in an interview posted in July.
“The future of commerce is at the intersection of new technology and digitization,” Marriner said.
Optimizing the payment process ensures a streamlined experience for platforms, vendors and customers, and opens up a new revenue stream for the businesses that want to own the payment experience, Avgi told PYMNTS in an interview posted in 2021.
“Companies will be the owner of the payment experience,” Avgi said. “They control the flow of funds, and they can monetize payments.”
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