Curve – the UK fintech startup that combines your cards into one Mastercard®, connected to a mobile app – has closed a Series A funding round of $10m, bringing total funding to $13m. Oxford Capital participated in the funding round alongside a group of global banks, leading VCs and industry veterans.
Alongside Oxford Capital, the following investors have backed Curve in this round:
- Global banking providers: Santander Innoventures, Investec
- Other VCs and investment groups: Connect Ventures, Speedinvest, Breega Capital, Samos Investments
- Individual investors: Henry Ritchotte (ex Deutsche Bank COO), Gael de Boissard (ex Credit Suisse board member), Alessandro Hatami (The Pacemakers; ex Lloyds, Paypal, GE Capital), Paul Townsend (Vitesse PSP, Barclays, WorldPay), Emilian Popa (Rocket Internet, Naspers, Groupon), Rohan Haldea (Apax Partners)
Curve customers use an all-cards-in-one Curve Mastercard card to spend from their card-linked accounts, and a secure mobile app to manage their money in one place. Curve is currently in Beta and is available to the self-employed: entrepreneurs, freelancers, and small business owners in the UK. It can be used anywhere in the world that accepts Mastercard. Curve has been used for over £50m in payments in over 100 countries, ahead of fully launching out of Beta. Over 50,000 people have already signed up to Curve.
During Beta, Curve has launched a number of industry-leading features that make banking simpler and safer for customers on the go. These include the ability to spend like a local and save money on FX without changing your banking provider, Curve Rewards, the first programme with instant earn and instant spend rewards, and ‘Go Back in Time’, a patent-pending feature to easily switch the card you paid with retroactively to two weeks after a transaction. The app will also soon roll-out ‘Curve Connect’, allowing users to integrate their spending with other business and banking services – re-bundling the increasingly fragmented financial sector in one secure smartphone app.
This latest funding round will allow Curve to accelerate growth by building more innovative features and recruiting world-class talent ahead of its full launch. Other existing investors in Curve include: Seedcamp, Taavet Hinrikus (TransferWise), Ed Wray (Betfair), Ricky Knox (Tandem), Michael Kent (Azimo) and the founders of Google Wallet and Money20/20.
The company was recently named one of Europe’s 50 hottest fintech startups and joined Tech City UK’s Upscale 2017, a hand-picked network of the UK’s most promising technology companies.