Britain’s Fintech Startup Curve Raises £10m In 54 hours

A fast growing Fintech in Britain and one of the nation’s fastest growing Curve has broken a record in its recent crowd funding campaign. The startup raised close to 10 million pounds in only 54 hours from about 11,795 investors.

It raised the funds on Crowd Cube. It started the crowd funding process on May 25, 2021 and raised 6 million pounds in only 2 hours and 49 minutes and this is regarded as the fastest crowd funding on Crowd Cube.

It is the most popular crowd funding so far this year as it has greatly opened up the investment space for technology institutional investors.

Over four thousand retail investors participated in the first one hour and about 1 million pounds was raised in barely ten minutes. Another £3.1m was raised within the first 30 minutes of the campaign, with £4m raised after just 56 minutes. This most recent funding follows the Curve’s £132m funding raised in cash and capital commitment till date to fasten its growth. It includes the app’s successful series C funding led by IDC Ventures, Fuel Venture Capital and Vulcan Capital.

Curve will make judicious use of the recently raised funds and Series C funding to focus on consolidating on its growth and expansion strategy. The funds will be used for aggressive international expansion and radical products innovation. As part of its growth plans, it will add two hundred talented employees to its workforce in order to deliver utmost value to the investors. The growth plan is not limited to the launching its award-winning Curve OS platform in the US, broadening its European reach and launching Curve Credit in the UK and in Europe.

Shachar Bialick, Founder and CEO of Curve, said: “Ever since our last crowdfund in 2019, our customers have been requesting another opportunity to take a share in Curve. So we launched this campaign to give the public a chance to join us as we embark on the next stage of our exciting journey, when we reveal Curve Credit to the world and launch in the US. We’ve been blown away by the level of interest we’ve seen over the past three days, and I’m so excited to welcome nearly 12,000 investors on board.” 

Luke Lang, co-founder and CMO of Crowdcube, says: “Hats off to Curve for another landmark raise with Crowdcube, they continue to impress investors with their unique proposition. It’s a really exciting time for their shareholders, both new and existing, to be part of their ongoing success and their mission to shape the future of finance.”

Bobby Aitkenhead, Managing Partner of IDC Ventures, said: “As one of the lead investors in Curve, we’re ecstatic to see such a phenomenal response from its customers and community. Digitalisation is stepping up pace globally, as is financial services fragmentation. Pioneering companies like Curve have huge potential to shape the future of finance. They’re already, and will continue, to add so much value to our lives. We’re proud to support them in this journey to the top.”

In 2020, Curve hired about one hundred new members of staff and slightly doubled its customer base.  It has seen an increase in the volume of transactions it processes by over £1 billion to £2.6 billion despite the backdrop of a global pandemic. It certainly defines a transformational year for the Curve because of the crowd funding round.

Curves was founded in 2015 and is fondly referred to as the Netflix of banking because of the way it has revolutionized Fintech practice within its short span of existence with mind blowing products.

 Curve combines all of a customer’s debit and credit cards into one platform and a linked “smart” card they can use for payments. The firm’s app has a feature called “Go Back in Time” that lets users change the account they paid with after making a transaction.

Earlier this year in January, they raised $95 million to expand into the United States and capture a slice of its lucrative market. Curve’s latest funding round, its Series C, was led by IDC Ventures, Fuel Venture Capital and Vulcan Capital, the investment house of late Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen.

“Despite the challenges Covid created for many businesses, we’ve seen great growth and are delivering on many of our targets,” Curve CEO and founder Shachar Bialick told CNBC in an interview.

Last year was a tumultuous time for some fintech firms. Monzo, for example, warned that disruption from the Covid-19 crisis had led to “significant doubt” about its ability to continue “as a going concern.” Many fintechs are now under pressure to show they can become profitable, and some experts think the sector could be ripe for consolidation.

Curves will follow the path strewn by other Fintechs like Monzo, Revolut, N26 who have berthed in the US. Over eight thousand Americans have signed up to Curve’s planned services even before their physical arrival, a clear indication that they are in for serious business.

The retail banking business is extremely competitive in the US and banking giants like JP Morgan, Citibank, Bank of America as well as thousands of community banks are locked in a severe battle for market share in a competitive landscape. Curve however isn’t deterred as they are poised to take the competition headlong and have a sturdy foothold. “We’re very differently positioned,” Curve’s boss said. “Americans have seven to eight cards on average, they love rewards.

“If you look at the number of banks in the U.S., you’ll find thousands of banks from small countryside city banks, to major banks like Bank of America and Chase. The fragmentation in the market is remarkable.

The startup said it would also publicly launch a credit feature soon that lets customers split their purchases across a number of instalments, similar to so-called “buy now, pay later” services from the likes of Klarna, Afterpay and Affirm. Curve is hoping that new product offerings like consumer finance and a new card launched with tech giant Samsung will help it bring in more revenue going forward.

The Fintech firm has been the subject of controversy over the past few years. A Business Insider report in 2019 said Curve failed to disclose to crowdfunding investors that just 14% of customers used its app once a month or more. Curve today says it has a total 2 million customers, though it’s not clear how many of those are active users.

The London headquarter startup was valued at $250 million last year and may achieve unicorn status anytime soon if it continues raising funds and delivering value to its teeming customers.