Synctera raises $33M Series A, accelerates growth following record demand from community banks and FinTechs
SAN FRANCISCO (June 2, 2021)--Synctera, a new platform for partnership banking at scale, today announced a $33M Series A round led by Fin VC. The Series A included follow-on investments from Lightspeed Venture Partners, Diagram Ventures, Portage Ventures, SciFi Ventures, and Scribble ventures as well as several new strategic investors, including Mastercard, Omri Dahan (Former Chief Revenue Officer, Marqeta), Nuno Sebastiao (Chairman and CEO, Feedzai), Tim Sheehan (Co-Founder and CEO, Greenlight), Tom Williams, Johnny Ayers (CEO, Socure) and more.
Synctera’s Series A quickly follows its seed funding round from December 2020, which was led by Lightspeed Venture Partners and Diagram Ventures, and brings Synctera to $46.5M in funding to date.
Synctera enables community banks and FinTechs to create new growth opportunities by forging scalable partnerships without the hassle. For banks, Synctera streamlines day-to-day reconciliation, operations and regulatory compliance, while allowing FinTechs to launch faster with more choice via a one-stop-shop API. With Synctera, community banks can focus on serving their communities and local customers, while Synctera matches them with a FinTech to help both partners scale and grow.
"Since launch, Synctera has formed one of the best teams in the industry. Bringing on a group of investors with deep industry expertise will help us meet rapidly increasing demand in our next stage of growth," said Peter Hazlehurst, CEO and co-founder of Synctera. “For this next chapter—and to put action behind Synctera’s values—we pledge to reserve 10% of this round and all future rounds to diverse investors, allowing for more representation and collaboration to further innovate the industry.”
Demand for Synctera’s solution has been immense since its launch last year, especially as the embedded finance and Banking-as-a-Service (BaaS) fintech sectors have grown exponentially. The Series A funding will help Synctera meet this demand head-on by expanding its software engineering team to rapidly accelerate the development of its product roadmap, ramping up sales and marketing to build and capture market demand, and prepare for a future international expansion.
“As soon as we met Peter, Kris, and Dominik and learned about their vision for the market, we were immediately sold,” said Logan Allin, Managing General Partner and Founder at Fin VC. “The specific focus on community banks and the world-class tech behind the platform really convinced us that they’re building a category winner that will underpin financial services of the future.”
Fin VC has a deep history of investing in some of the world’s most transformative FinTechs, like Figure, Pipe, and SoFi.
Synctera is also announcing its commitment to the Cap Table Coalition alongside other high-growth startups by allocating 10% of all funding rounds to traditionally marginalized investors. Gaingels, Neythri Futures Fund, Plexo Capital and over 20 angels participated in Synctera’s series A as a part of the coalition. By committing to the pledge, Synctera hopes that other founders and companies will join the coalition.
"It's an honor to partner with founders and entrepreneurs who stand by their values and actively create the changes they want to see," said Qiana Patterson, General Partner at Tamaa Capital and manager of Synctera's Special Purpose Vehicle (SPV). "After coordinating Finix's SPV earlier this year, the number of startups seeking to replicate the work was overwhelming, and Synctera was first in line. By providing space for underrepresented investors on its cap table, Synctera is creating a game-changing opportunity for access and wealth creation."
“As the largest investor network focused on supporting and investing in the best venture-backed companies that embrace and value diverse leadership, including LGBTQ+, Gaingels is proud of participating in Synctera’s financing,” said Gaingels Managing Director Lorenzo Thione. “We are resolved to help the company grow and scale, while building a truly inclusive company and leading the fintech sector with its commitment to DEI, as reflected in this pledge.”
As Synctera continues to build out its FinTech-as-a-Service offering, the company also continues to onboard customers, such as its latest customers Lineage Bank, a new community bank, and Ellevest, a new FinTech collaborating with Coastal Community Bank, which onboarded in May 2021. The company is also rapidly growing internally, and is actively hiring for roles across engineering, product and sales. Synctera plans to grow its team to over 150 by the end of the year.
Community partner banks and FinTechs are encouraged to reach out via Synctera’s website to learn more about how to work together. For more information, please visit www.synctera.com.
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ABOUT SYNCTERA
Synctera is building a partnership banking marketplace connecting community banks with FinTech platforms. The platform reduces risk, ensures compliance and speeds launches to market for FinTechs and banks alike, Synctera creates meaningful connections between community banks seeking more customers and FinTech platforms that need a licensed partner to operate in the US. Launched in 2020, the company was co-founded by CEO Peter Hazlehurst, former head of Uber Money, head of Google Wallet and CPO at Yodlee, as well as CTO, Kris Hansen and Head of Product, Dominik Weisserth. For more information, please visit www.synctera.com.
ABOUT FIN VC
Fin Venture Capital is focused on Enterprise SaaS FinTech companies and specific theses within six sub-sectors: Embedded Finance, Asset Management/Capital Markets, CFO Tech Stack, InsureTech, Blockchain Enterprise Applications, and Enabling Tech/Infrastructure. Fin VC principally focuses on the US and EU/UK. As former corporate and start-up operators, the Fin VC team takes an active value-added approach, leveraging its Operating Playbook to steward its portfolio companies with business development, capital formation, corporate development, board advisory and talent sourcing. For more information, please visit finvc.co.
ABOUT THE CAP TABLE COALITION
The Cap Table Coalition is a partnership between high-growth startups, emerging investors and fund managers who want to work to close the racial wealth gap. Its mission is to diversify the VC ecosystem by creating investment opportunities for Black, Latinx, LGBTQ+, women and other traditionally marginalized investors. A growing list of committed startups includes Finix, Synctera, Orum and more, with investment community members featuring Qiana Patterson (Tamaa Capital), Roman Leal (Lead Global Partners), Camden McRae (Matador Ventures), Marcos Gonzalez (Vamos Ventures) and Luis Robles (Viento Ventures). The Cap Table Coalition was inspired by the Act One Diversity Rider for VCs and Finix’s unique fundraising efforts to diversify startup cap tables via Special Purpose Vehicles (SPVs). For more information, please visit www.captablecoalition.com.
